By CAROLINE STRAINIG
A LOCAL self-defence instructor says he has been inundated with inquiries from worried women since a woman was assaulted at Lighthouse and another in the Port Macquarie CBD.
“That’s two sexual assaults in three months – people are beginning to realise that Port Macquarie is not as safe as they thought,” instructor Craig Burman said.
“Normally I get inquiries from referals, but this time I had 10 inquiries as soon as I put the ad up for the next self-defence workshop on social media.”
The workshop in question will be held this evening, with another on Saturday afternoon, although the Saturday session is really designed as an R-rated follow-up to the session tonight.
“That Saturday workshop will be restricted to women over 17 years because it will include some graphic language and scenarios young girls could find disturbing,” Mr Burman said.
A “Master of Street Combat” who has trained with both American Special Forces and Australian SAS instructors, Mr Burman said it was every woman’s right to feel safe and he believed the training he offered increased the chances of surviving an attack.
“This is not a martial art – it’s a combative system, which I believe gives someone the best chance of surviving,” he said.
My philosophy isn’t to fight as the person attacking you is usually bigger and stronger, but to hit, run and survive.”
He particularly urged mothers with teenage daughters to attend.
“This is the age – 16, 17 and 18 – when girls start going out and are at their most vulnerable,” Mr Burman said.
Tonight’s workshop will be held upstairs at Dynamic Fitness, 25 Central Road, Port Macquarie from 6pm-7.30. The cost is $20 per person. Saturday’s will be at the same venue at 1.30pm. Mr Burman has also been approached to do self-defence classes at two other institutions in coming weeks but details were still being finalised at the time of going to press.
For more information email Craig@StreetSelfDefence.com.au or call him on 0413 527 181.
The first assault happened in the Port Macquarie CBD in May in the early hours of a Sunday morning when a woman was walking home from a nightclub. She was indecently assaulted by three men, with one of them also sexually assaulting her. The second was on Wednesday 25 June at about 10.30pm on Ocean Drive at Lighthouse when a woman was grabbed from behind, dragged into bushland and sexually assaulted.
