2019 - Michigan Bending and Breaking Championsips

[Buccos1]

Sat (5/4)

Michigan Bending and Breaking Championships
5/4/2019

Double Overhand (IMPs)
1/4 x 7" square - good 
Bastard (5/16 x 7" CRS) - good 

Reverse  (DHWG wraps)
1/4 x 6" Grade 5 - good 

Double Underhand (IMPs)
Bastard (5/16 x 7" CRS) - bent to 33 degrees 
passed on 2nd attempt

Braced - Spike
12" spike - good

Braced - long bar
3/4 x 40" HRS - good

Medley (4 events)
8" wrench - good
DC1 horseshoe - good
3/8 x 14" HRS snap - good
unbraced oval nail snap - 3 total
total medley points: 13

Overall - 2nd Place

I had planned to attend this competition since Don made the announcement last year.  The months leading up to the competition had been very difficult and almost affected my participation, or at least made it closer to 50-50 instead of 99.9 - .01, which it had been originally.  But, things improved enough that I booked a hotel and made final plans in the weeks leading up to 5/4.  

Overall, a great competition, with a lot of guys bending/competing.  This was also a very unique competition as it tested most styles of bending and turned out to be an absolute marathon and test of will and pain tolerance.  

Event 1 - Double overhand 
My first attempt was a 1/4 x 7" square which was a relatively easy bend.  As always with square, your fingers take somewhat of a beating, but nothing unusual.  Attempt #2 was a Bastard from FBBC.  It was an easy bend and was in the 10-second range (don't have the actual numbers).

Event 2 - Reverse
This has always been my weakest style, mainly due to not having spent much time on it and partly due to frustration of it never having felt "right."  But, in preparation for this competition, I dedicated a lot of time to reverse-style.  I recently bent my first grade 5 bolt reverse in single IMPs recently, which was a major hurdle to overcome mentally with this style.  In training with DHWG wraps, my best bend to date with a grade 5 had been about 20 degrees.  When I selected the Grade 5 today, it was with a goal of getting a decent kink, while not necessarily thinking a full bend was a possibility.  But, as the stars aligned, I got an excellent first hit into the bar, and it moved like I wasn't expecting.  I hit it two more times and took it down to about 40 degrees.  One more quick hit ensured that I got my first official Grade 5 reverse bend in single DHWG wraps.  Always nice to set a PR in a comp too.

Event 3 - Double underhand
I knew if I had any chance of beating Don today, I would have to make some big attempts, and maybe take a few chances.  I decided to attempt a Bastard with my first double underhand attempt.  My previous best DU with a Red in single IMPs was in the 25 degree range, I believe; I had never made an attempt at DU with a bastard, in single IMPs.  After my usual warm-up, I made my first attempt at the Bastard and got excellent movement.  I took another two hits and got the bar, ultimately to about 32 degrees.  I was going to make a last hit but my thumb and palm were still reeling from the reverse attempt shortly before this.  I ended up passing on my second attempt, as did Don.  The 32 degree Bastard bend put me at #1 for double-underhand.  I was happy with this, as I had planned to make a second attempt at the Bastard, with the goal of being a partial bend with DHWG wraps a few months back.

Event 4 - Spike
Easy, easy bend.  I had no idea where to go with this.  I have bent a lot of 10" spikes in training, but have gotten several mutants over time, which have consistently stopped me around 20-30 degrees.  Thinking about the possibility of the same, I went with the 12".  It turned out to be a sub-10 second bend (by a lot) and was regrettably easy.  But, the bend had to be completed to count, so I didn't want to chance it, especially being the one event I didn't really train for.  

Event 5 - Long Bar
This turned out to be a brutal bend!  My best 3/4" bend was back in 2011.  At that time, I was in the 35-36" range at 3/4".  In the training leading up to this event, I had bent a few bars at 3/4" diameter at lengths of 41.5, 42, 44 and 48".  The shortest two were tough, but didn't really stop me at any stage.  There were several of  us bending at the same time: Don, Tom, Anton and myself (all attempting 3/4 x 40" stock).  Immediately, I knew I was in trouble as I couldn't get a good grip on the wraps, when I was trying to kink the bar.  My hand slipped a few times, and then I ended up dropping the bar before trying to re-set a couple of times.  All-in-all, this wasted about 2 minutes.  So, 2 minutes in (5 min. time limit), the bar was bent about 10 degrees and my hands were tired, sore and hurting.  After several attempts, nothing much was happening.  

I stopped briefly and saw how Don (finished), Anton and Tom were doing with their bars.  Don killed his and Tom was almost at the leg crush.  I think Anton was having similar troubles as I.  At this point, I regained some of my composure and power and made another attempt to get the bar moving.  I got a good grip on the far handle/wrap and was able to move a leg about 30-40 degrees, at which point I kept transitioning to a lower-bar position while sweeping.  When I got stuck on the sweep, I made a few chest crush hits and got the bar to about 45-50 degrees.  Around this time, I heard people calling out the time we had left, which was quickly approaching zero.  I had the bar into leg crush position when someone began counting down at 10 seconds.  I put everything I had left into those hits and officially completed the bend at about 1 second left.  I have bent a ton of long bar/HRS in the past 10 years and this was probably the toughest, given the circumstances.  It also took a long time for me to recover after this event.

Medley (4 choices)
I went with the DC1 horseshoe first and took it down relatively quick (3 points).  Next up was the wrench.  I picked the 8" wrench, of which I've bent several in training.  Today, though, I could only get about a 10 degree kink after several attempts.  I ended up rewrapping it twice as the wraps kept slipping and time was wasting.  Finally, after several minutes and attempts, I got more movement over my leg, and then took it down to crush it.  At his point, I finished it with a strong leg crush.  Next up was braced snapping, which I selected the 3/8 x 14" bar.  In training, I have bent several similar bars, most of which have taken about 8 minutes.  I'm not sure about today's time, but it was faster then the training bends.  (4 points).  Finally, I began making attempts at the unbraced oval nail snaps.  This too, was better than I did in training, including time.  I snapped 3 nails until time was nearly up.  (3 points )  Total: 13 points (out of 16)

Final thoughts:
This trip almost didn't happen for me.  As discussed above, there were challenges in the months leading up to the event.  Both of my kids were sick a few days before too, and almost forced me to change plans.  But all of that ended up working out (mostly) and let me get up the night before and get semi-settled.  I was very happy to have another chance to compete against other people in a dedicated bending comp.  This one was incredible in the scope of events that were contested.  A true test of overall bending ability!  If someone had a weakness, it would have been exploited.  I ended up taking 2nd place at last years comp in Massachusetts; Don took first.  Once again, I took 2nd place and Don got the top spot.  I did not make the trip to take 2nd and had my sights set on first place the entire time, but knew it would be very difficult.  In the end, I did better than I had planned on several events and am happy with 2nd place.  I hope that there is another in the future and I get at least one more chance to compete, as these things help continue to fuel the fire into its second decade. 

Finally, there were some very cool trophies put together by Don and his father-in-law and sculptures by Josh Henze!  Don put on a great contest and had some great food and drink ready for everyone afterwards.  It was really great to get a chance to see some familiar faces again, meet some new people and hang out with a bunch of like-minded people who share some element of the passion of bending.

[Tom Flesher]

Great company, Carl, and excellent writeup!

[Buccos1]

14 hours ago, Tom Flesher said:

Great company, Carl, and excellent writeup!

It was great to get a chance to hang out with all of you guys!