Derek Poundstone, Mikhail Koklyaev, Travis Ortmeyer, Vidas Blekaitis, Phil Pfister, Brian Siders, Andrus Murumets, Ervin Katona, Oleksandr Pekanov, and Dave Ostlund were all competing this year (the winners are in that order).
The Europeans (other than Koklyaev who is a freak of nature and an absolutely awesome athlete and normal guy) placed pretty poorly mainly because of the 529 Manhood Stone that only Poundstone, Pfister and Ortmeyer were able to load. Ortmeyer came SOO close to a second but didn’t manage it- three way tie on that event. Apparently the Europeans were using a different kind of tacky that wasn’t well suited to this stone. No good pictures of it unfortunately.
Great pics Theta! I totally forgot about ‘The Terminator and Conan’ outside the Expo hall lol.
Here’s another pic of the Yoke- need I mention that it’s slightly scary having one of the world’s strongest men start chugging towards you with 1116 pounds on his back?
This guy’s name was David Hatch. I’d never heard of him before but he was a great guy- very open to questions and actually putting some originality into the pictures he was taking with people.
After the Yoke event the interviewer came over and started asking Koklyaev some questions. He was out of breath and having a little trouble with his English, so he just grabbed the mike out of the guys hands and just started beatboxing!
I swear to god I can’t make this shit up.
It was one of the funniest things that I’ve ever seen and he got a standing ovation from pretty much the whole Expo center. Caught me by surprise and now I wish that I’d gotten a video of it, doesn’t look like it’s up on Youtube yet.
[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
He was out of breath and having a little trouble with his English, so he just grabbed the mike out of the guys hands and just started beatboxing!
[/quote]
Classic!
I have never been and would really like to take my Dad one year. Won’t be next year b/c it looks like I’ll be in the snadbox but when I get back I’m going for sure.
[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
Lou Ferrigno had his own booth with a bunch of assistants in Hulk t-shirts.[/quote]
Only $25 a shirt … or $40 if you want it signed!
I thought it was funny that right next to Lou was where Ronnie Coleman was meeting and greeting people for free. Not sure if he was giving out free autographs but I guarantee you it was for far less than Lou.
The weekend was definitely awesome though. I’ll try to add some pics when I get some time.
