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2017 July - SJ4 - Shawn K


KapMan

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Was totally pumped for this contest after reading about past ones. Was glad I was able to go. Once I found out, I immediatly set out to see if anyone I knew wanted to try it out. What better way to try it out than when you have some of the most battle harden peeps going?

Only one had the fortitude to make the trip to battle in the arena. My buddy Clint answered that call. As of this writing he has no regrets, and niether do I. He has had very little grip training, but his base strength is pretty good. It didnt take me much to convinence him. He has throughly enjoyed the gear I've brought down to his place. Which is about an hour away from mine. I'm not a very articulate speaker so teaching is hard. Its easier to show. His lack of gear especially grippers would make it difficult to get proper training in. But we made due. 

We departed my hood around 8 am and we were humming along until friggin Richmond...We got slowed down to 35 mph for about 45 minutes then it sped up a little until we got out of the city and the. It was bumper to bumper until the Delaware Memorial bridge. With stops for food and gas, it took 10 or so hours to get to our hotel in Mt Laurel at 7:45pm. 

 

Our hotel blew ass. But it was cheap, like me and thats all we needed. However... I got to sleep on a Sealy "stone slab" the bed was a queen sized granite counter top and the pillows were filled with air and cotton. My dome piece sunk into it like rock in water. The AC had one temp, which was slightly cool and a fan speed that could be compared to how fast it takes diamonds to develop. Clint and I slept like utter garbage. The next morning we figured we grab some contenintal breakfast. How about a cup of waffle batter, apple juice and crap cereal. If you wanted decent grub it would cost 3-5 bucks to get it! 

Clint is a growing boy so he had some waffle and I had some warm disappointment with a side of (bad word filter) my life. Around 7:45 we left. Took about 22 minutes to get to the venue, however i stop to grab a bite and some caffeine. The temp outside was warming up and the humidity was wet blanket%, perfect for gripping.

The venue was a medium sized conference /baquent room. Large crowd was already in there with folk in and out. As soon you walked in a warm up area was set up and already had weights on it. To the left was Nate and the scale. Greeted some guys signed the do night sue nate form, weighed in at a very slim 305 pounds and clint had to be weighed in on a truck scale.

Chairs were set up and in the center was the score table and grippers with 2 tvs on each side of the room. Beyond that were 3 platforms, pins, crusher/flask, and cross bars with kilo plates. Red Nail cert was first and then 2 CTD challenges. All 3 were murdered. 

 

Soon after Grippers started. The rules werent clarified at the start, so i noticed of the noobs were confused. But aside from that it was going quick. There were 3 judges and that help facilitate swift rounds. 

The problems occured when it was time to flask and crusher. The shere size of the group really killed the speed here. Coupled with the score keeper getting over whelmed and judges that also had to compete it took awhile. Plus working kilos was (bad word filter)ing up alot of folk. The room was also stupidily hot as well. Poor chez looked like he took a shower in his cloths. I do not think the room was best suited for this size of a crowd. It was a tight fit. After wards the break down was quick and the room was cleaned up like a boss. 

We moved to the next phase which was the grub, medley, bending and (bad word filter)ery.

lemme tell you Nates wife element did a fantastic job with the food. At this time thought i was crawling into extreme pain. I fought hard to hold back tears. So i was hot, sweaty, and miserable. But the food was on point. It was a nice break. We moved to the dungeon for the rest of festivities. This place is was amazing. The man has a passion for grip. I couldnt help but smile. So much grip stuff from a wide assortment of grippers and blobs to bending steel and implements. Little bit of everything was here. The Venice beach of grip. He had all sorts of cool stuff on the walls, photos of those featured in the grip profiles, to a Horne Shrine. 

Sitting down there was Chris Haircules Rider a super nice guy and incredibly strong. His protege Chris Wonder Schoeck was competing for the first time. For those of you who signed up and didnt make it you missed out on a treat.  2 world class performing strongman man at SJ4 i was like a 90s girl at a backstreet boys concert. Shit was unreal, kinda like how hard the hard side of the medley was. Wtf nate. This was like the Salem Witch trials but for your hands. I lifted maybe 1 thing and that was my sweat rag after dropping it by the blobs. 

I didnt do the medley. The hard side was too hard and the light side was too easy and I would of felt like a idiot for doing it. Instead I got to chat with Chris Rider and watch him teach Maria how to shred phonebooks. Which im terrible at, like for some reason I just cant. But i blasted two decks of bikes in seconds. Chris also helped several of the guys to include Allen make a mess shredding them. Watching Maria attack the phonebook reminded me of a kitten attacking a plush toy. It was adorable. After maybe 25 minutes and personal coaching from chris she finally got it. Chris has a way of explaining things that makes sense. One of his talking points was demostrated when he put a license plate in a thick phonebook and tore it.  At the same time the light and heavy medleys were going on.

after that awards and prizes were handed out. The hand made awards by josh were amazing. Bending contest was held. That was fun as hell. There needs to be more bending contests. Anton and delmar melted steel and the other guys whooped my ass too. we got a special performance from chris rider in which he bent a penny. A. Friggin. Penny. 

All in all it was a great day. I hit all my goals in the contest. Got some cool gear. Hope this happens again. Thank you nate, Mo and all the red shirts and donators. 

 

*disclaimer* my writing sucks and so does my memory. Im sure i missed things.

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In all fairness to your cheap hotel, your dome piece is a rock. 😀

It was great meeting you in person.

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11 hours ago, KapMan said:

The room was also stupidily hot as well. Poor chez looked like he took a shower in his cloths.

it was great meeting you. I'm sorry to everyone who had to deal with my disgusting perspiration. I def slimed a few people and pieces of furniture. I really don't handle heat and humidity well. It was effecting me all day, but I tried my best to block it out and be social.   

Edited by Chez
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3 hours ago, JHenze646 said:

In all fairness to your cheap hotel, your dome piece is a rock. 😀

It was great meeting you in person.

I tried to formulate a clever rebuttal.

i got nothing..

28 minutes ago, Chez said:

it was great meeting you. I'm sorry to everyone who had to deal with my disgusting perspiration. I def slimed a few people and pieces of furniture. I really don't handle heat and humidity well. It was effecting me all day, but I tried my best to block it out and be social.   

By the time i got to Nate's house i was drenched as well. But you had me beat by a liter or two ;)

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It was great seeing you again Shawn. Your hard work is definitely starting to show. You killed it man!

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Shawn, you have made remarkable improvement, keep up the great work!

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That was one of the best and funniest trip reports ever.  Maureen and I sat here laughing through out it.  

Thanks for taking the time to write it.  I'm glad you enjoyed your time.  That's what really makes it a success for me.

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3 hours ago, acromegaman said:

It was great seeing you again Shawn. Your hard work is definitely starting to show. You killed it man!

Thank you! It was great seeing you too. 

52 minutes ago, odin said:

Shawn, you have made remarkable improvement, keep up the great work!

Thank you sir, it was very cool seeing you again. Way to come in after a couple of weeks of pango pango ebola to score a win. You are a machine.

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26 minutes ago, anwnate said:

That was one of the best and funniest trip reports ever.  Maureen and I sat here laughing through out it.  

Thanks for taking the time to write it.  I'm glad you enjoyed your time.  That's what really makes it a success for me.

 

😂

You guys provided a stellar enviorment thank you again for everything.

 

 

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Kapusta! You have gotten so strong. I was just looking at the numbers and DAMN you have come so far since the first squeeze. WOOT WOOT. Also, I felt more like a really fierce mountain lion of sorts but ya know, phonebooks.

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12 minutes ago, MCrushetta said:

Kapusta! You have gotten so strong. I was just looking at the numbers and DAMN you have come so far since the first squeeze. WOOT WOOT. Also, I felt more like a really fierce mountain lion of sorts but ya know, phonebooks.

Means alot. You and gil are good teachers. Thank you for everything you've done for me.

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