He was a small 9-year-old and was told to come back a year later when he fronted at the dojo for the first time. He was told the same thing on returning but was invited to train only after explaining he had already waited a year.
Steve, now 48 has trained several times under immediate-past Okinawan Goju Ryu World Master and 10th dan black belt Higgoana Morio. Their first meeting was in New Zealand in the mid-1980s when Higgoana Sensei was visiting Kiwi dojos.
"When I was about 12 Higgoana Sensei came from Okinawa and toured New Zealand. That's when I first met him. I was a brown belt and once I met him, that was me. I knew I was in it for life," Steve said.
About Christmas last year the family travelled half a world away for almost a month of training in Okinawa with Higgoana Sensei and Ernie Molyneux Sensei, chief instructor of England.
The couple had decided to take the journey to the birthplace of Goju Ryu Karate before Luke finished his last year at Wairarapa College, where his sister is also a student.
Steve said they were most surprised at the heat while training in the 8m by 6m world honbu dojo during an Okinawan winter.
However, what he most remembers was the privilege of training alongside his family with the best in the world and the generosity and humility of the Okinawan people.
"It was like a dream. Higgoana Sensei always says I am very lucky because I don't have to leave my family to go training, and I've seen a lot who sacrifice their missus and kids for karate, and leave them at home. Eventually for some there is nobody at home for them when they return."
Steve said respect is at the philosophical heart of Goju Ryu and the core of the physical discipline is a soft in-breath and hard out-breath.
Perfecting the discipline takes a lifetime and expertise pivots not on your grading but on "just turning up and training hard" and eventually "passing on what you learn with the right intention - get it as good as you can, ready to pass it to the next one".
"It's a challenge against yourself not against an opponent and the hardest part, I reckon, is getting to training. It's hard, you know, when you have to leave a warm fire at home and go and stand there with bare feet in a cold hall. That's the hard part.
"Some amazing people have fallen away. Often it's the ones with the most talent who can't really stick with it. People who physically pick it up easy, get bored I think. It's no real challenge.
"Some do but it's the people who struggle, who really have to dedicate themselves to getting better, they're the ones who seem to hang in there," he said.
"The thing is to keep it going and you find you never regret it when you go and you're always happy you went, even if you do come home with sore bones or a fat lip or something. It's all good."
The Rileys train and teach karate up to four times a week and attend frequent weekend training camps and seminars throughout each year. Steve and Sharron are happy to talk endlessly about the improvements, achievements and challenges of each session, they say, while realising they sometimes "drive the kids a bit crazy, It can become an obsession".
Steve had taken about seven years away from the dojo when his children were born despite protests from Sharron that he should keep training. He believes the break was vital as he orders his life as "family, work, then karate".
But he nevertheless treasures the dedication and involvement of his family with Goju Ryu Karate, he said.
"It's pretty rare. In Okinawa, because we were a family, we were treated like royalty. They're such humble people and they really looked after us." Steve said. "It's such a peaceful place with no crime. It's so peaceful you wonder why they practise karate, there's no need for it."
Today there are about 30 children and 15 adults of every grade training in Masterton and about 80 members training at Goju Ryu Karate dojos in Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough.
Adult training classes are held at the Masterton dojo across from Wairarapa Hospital in Te Ore Ore Road on Monday and Wednesday nights, starting at 6.30pm. Children's sessions are held at the dojo on Tuesdays, starting at 5.30pm.
Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate-Do Wairarapa are holding a tournament at the Masterton dojo on August 14.
