Dudes are just otherworldly big. My favorite story I tell about it was with Rob Oberst. He was at my third comp as a judge, and my wife was standing next to him. HOWEVER, she didn’t realize she was standing next to him: she thought it was a WALL. She wasn’t paying attention, and just knew there was a big physical object near her. So when Rob walked away from where she was, she freaked out, because she thought the “wall” next to her was collapsing, haha.
Rob actually took the camera from my wife on the final event so she could cheer me on and not focus on the video camera. Which also meant I could hear Rob’s cues for me in the final event of the video. Just an all around great dude.
It was an awful showing for me, and actually almost had me quit the sport, haha. This was the first and last time I ever used stone sleeves, because they totally failed on me and I lost all my tacky. But Rob recognized the issue right away and gave me some cues.
It’s also funny, because you can totally recognize the height difference in video perspective if you look at the earlier parts of the video.
Strongman competitors, especially Oberst, just seem to have so much more fun and a much better sense of humour than other strength sports. Honestly looks like such a great thing to have been a part of for the last few decades.
It’s definitely different. I grew up powerlifting under NASA, which is SUPER family friendly. We weren’t allowed to use ammonia in front of the crowd: had to do it behind a curtain. No swearing allowed, respect at all times, etc etc. I can dig it. But then I show up to my first comp and it’s women with shaved heads and sleeves and booty shorts and dudes swapping tips on steroid cycles and it’s a whole new world, haha.
That said, my wife is probably an even bigger fan of the community than I am, and it’s because of my injury. When I blew out my knee, the space between when I fell to the floor and when 5-6 dudes picked me up, put me in a chair, got me ice, and asked me AND my wife how I’m doing was incredibly short. Amazing camaraderie. And thank god they got off these knee sleeves, since I woulda got compartment syndrome otherwise, haha.
It’s about the only thing that keeps me going. I really like BEING at competitions once I’m there. People are there for fun, there’s very few attitudes, and the ones that are there don’t last long. Because you’re actually competing AGAINST people, it means you really CAN’T walk around with an ego, unless you actually ARE the best. Powerlifting makes it now that you can show up to a meet full of people and still be Billy Badass because you aren’t actually competing against anyone at the meet: it’s all a spreadsheet somewhere. But you get humbled quick in a strongman comp.
Yeah, he’s doing awesome stuff right now on his own. I actually bought a NEVERsate banner to hang in my gym. Should be getting in on the 10th. And I still smile whenever I see him using the axle I bought his gym. He’s already put it through more than I’ve put mine through, haha.
Substantially far. Right now, I’m in the middle of the country (almost dead center) while he is on the coast. But I can sometimes find myself there, and I intend to get over there when I do. Work had me in the same state as him before, but without any means of transport, and with an aggressive schedule it wasn’t viable.
Guessing you are still a little closer than me. I think I’m about 16,000km away. Maybe one day I can work a family holiday that happens to go near enough for a visit.
I’ve tried the whole “doesn’t Maryland look nice this time of year”. Kinda falls down when you can’t name a single place in or near Maryland and aren’t even too clear where on the map it is. I assume its East Coast somewhere between the snowy bits and the swampy/croccy bits?
One of my long standing goals has always been to walk the 100 mile wilderness, mostly because I can’t free up 9 months solid to do the whole Appalachian Trail. I believe that’s not too many millions of miles away?
Edit: Google tells me its 658 miles, so maybe not that close.
I just picked up a hitchhiker and his dog making their way from the Appalachian trail down to South Padre Island. His name was Cloud and the dog’s name was Rain… or maybe it was the other way around.
