North Carolina State Bending and Tearing Championships Comp Report - Whirlwind Edition

[Tom Flesher]

This contest could not have come at a worse time for me.

A little background: For those of you who don't know me, I teach economics at a community college. In mid-October, my wife I traveled to Ireland recreationally, so I burned a bunch of personal days on that. I contracted the Coronavirus while in Ireland and had to take some time off work. I'm in grad school taking Sunday classes and burned my one allowable absence this semester on the trip to Ireland. Plus, we had a dog visiting us this weekend - we have a chiweenie named Carrot, and our friends who watch Carrot when we're out of town have two cattle dogs. We got the younger one, Hank, because Katie didn't ask me when I'd be going to North Carolina.... so poor Katie had to handle 60 pounds of puppy while I was gone. All that to say, I managed to fly into Charlotte - apparently flying over Tropical Storm Nicole - on Friday afternoon, and then I was back in the air Saturday at 8 PM. I nearly fell asleep in class Sunday and today, Tuesday, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm caught up on my rest.

[b]Events[/b]: Double overhand bending (double wraps), double underhand bending (double wraps), mid-bar braced bending (singles), long bar braced bending (singles), chain breaking, card tearing. Stock on hand for unbraced was 6-8" long available in 1/2" increments, with round or square stock at 1/4 or 5/16. This created some difficult decisions and some awful big jumps. The hardest mid-bar was listed at 5/8x25 on the entry form, or at least I thought it was, but Gary had 5/8 cut to 22 and 18 (!!!!) on the day of the show. The hardest long bars were 5/8 square at 36. 

[b]The Field[/b]: @James Retarides, Jason Otto, Shawn Kapusta whose gripboard name I can't remember now, @PITTisKING, Anna Seevers, and myself. Several others made cameos as judges (hey Pork Chop, hey Vinny, hey Jesse). I expected to do fairly well; Jason is a better DO bender than me, as is Gary; Shawn was going to take DU and card tearing. No one in the field is as good a braced bender as I am, and I say this in the most arrogant, irritating, and self-aggrandizing way possible. (I'm told this is called 'working heel.') I expected to finish 2nd or 3rd depending on how the events shook out.

Training: I last competed in a strongman contest at the end of September, winning Long Island's Strongest in the masters division. Since then, I'd been focused on deadlift for whole-body strength and overhead to help strengthen my yoke. This, as long as I keep up the shoulder mobility, always makes me feel stronger in DO. Bending specifically? Not a whole lot. I tried to bend once a week to keep the groove greased, but the Ireland trip and the illness caused some trouble. I certed the @Horrido A4 DU and bent some 6" Bastards DO in my last session about a week out. I did almost no braced bending, since the bars available all seemed attainable and I'm both confident on my braced bending and leery about beating myself up too badly. I practiced tearing cards and got up to a 70-card deck, but my elbow hurt for days; I never put together a training platform for chain breaking and just trained deadlift for it.

Arrival: Got into Charlotte around 2 PM Friday. Had Mac's Speed Shop burnt ends and ribs with collard greens, fried okra, and two NC beers (I think they were called The Big O and Northern Aggression). I went back to the hotel to finish up some grading, then Ubered to Olde Mecklenberg where I had a couple of beers (Fat Boy porter, Dunkel, and I think a Vienna lager) and a bratwurst, then off to the Vintage Cigar and Whiskey Bar where I had cask-strength expressions from local distilleries Southern Star and Horse Soldier, plus a non-local cigar (a Perez-Carrillo La Historia). Had I realized Olde Mecklenberg Brewery was in a little brewery district I'd probably have skipped the cigar bar and visited the other couple of beer halls, but there's always next time.

Competition: Late start, so I had breakfast at the hotel after being stymied by the Charlotte Marathon (don't ask) - mushroom omelet, a small side of home fries, and sausage - and then picked up a dozen donuts and a bucket of coffee on the way to the contest. I also stopped at Target to pick up some essentials - I didn't have my preworkout so I picked that up, as well as a couple of water bottles and two boxes of Uncrustables (a fantastic between-events snack, and I always try to bring enough to share). One box was Nutella-flavored, the other PB&strawberryJ. Shawn made a valiant attempt at a Goliath bar, but it wasn't in the cards for him.

DO, 2 attempts: Jason Otto and I both opened at 5/16x6.5 round and both finished it. I considered dropping to 6" but went to 5/16x6.5 square instead, as did Jason. I wobbled it, I think, but didn't check my notes until after the competition and so I didn't realize it calibrated at over 700 pounds compared to the 520 or so for the 6.5" round. BIG jump. James Retarides is terrible at wrapping bars ("You know," I told him, "it's traditional to put the cordura wraps UNDER the leathers.") Gary was injured and put in a good effort but didn't knock me down much - I tied with Jason for first.

DU, 2 attempts: 1/4" square for both attempts, I think 6.5" and 6" but possibly 7" and 6.5". I made both attempts. Shawn got something round at 5/16 and Jason had something go wrong on his first so he ended up bending 1/4 round. Second place points here. 

Mid-Bar, 2 attempts: I was the only one to do 5/8x26 and finished it quickly. I quickly checked around before the second attempts and no one was going to attempt 5/8x26, so with no incentive to go lower I passed my second. I think my current PR is 5/8x23; the 26 felt great and I might have made 5/8x22, but I wasn't sure how much it would affect the rest of my events. Fairly sure Jason finished second. First place.

Long bar, 2 attempts: I opened at 5/8x36 square, the hardest bar available, and finished it in about 45 seconds. No one got close on this one, and I passed my second attempt. I think Shawn and Jason were both in the mix for chasing me. First place on this event.

Chain Breaking: To simplify scoring, Gary had 4 strengths of chain available and did achievement points instead of strongman scoring - #6 chain was worth 8 points, the next hardest was worth 6, and so on. Athletes stood on a wooden platform with an eye hook screwed in; the chain was carabinered to the eye hook and then to a two-handed cable handle at about knee height. Pull up until the chain breaks. Jason, Shawn, James, Gary and I all did the hardest chain available; tied for first here, obviously. Gary said this was sort of like a 450lb rack pull, which checks out.

Card tearing: I was having trouble keeping track of everyone's scores. I expected Shawn to win this one, but I wasn't sure how close Jason and I were. I knew I could tear 70, so when Jason took 70 cards I took 75 (and Shawn took 90). All three of us made our tears, so on our second attempt, I went to 85 and Jason went to 80. Neither of us made the second tear, so I took second on this one behind Shawn.

Final Placement: 

1. Me

2. Shawn

3. Jason

4. Gary [a healthy Gary would be in the mix for 1st, I think]

5. James

6. Anna

Afterward we went out for dinner at Prosciutto's Pizza, where I ordered neither of those things, and swapped stories about Buffalo with fellow UB Bull Jason. Then, I carried my Golden Bender trophy through the airport, stowed it securely underneath the seat in front of me, and nearly had it stolen at Jamaica station before the person was deterred after realizing it wasn't actually gold. But that's a story for another day.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Tom Flesher

[Tom Flesher]

My incredibly awesome first place trophy:

[Blacksmith513]

42 minutes ago, Tom Flesher said:

My incredibly awesome first place trophy:

Bender from Futurama that is AWESOME. Congrats on taking 1st. 

Bending, brewery's, cigars, donuts, coffee, sausage AND references to cartoons from my childhood..  Thats my life in a nutshell and you guys made a competition out of it.

[jasonotto]

It was great having you down Tom!  Though we didn't have a packed house, the competition was strong (and great fun)!  We have a full docket of comps in the 2023 year so be sure to mark you calendar.  AGP 5 will definitely be in mid-late Sept.  Great bending this weekend.

[Vinnie]

6 hours ago, Tom Flesher said:

before the person was deterred after realizing it wasn't actually gold

... and seeing the owner would not exactly have emboldened him, either ...

[Vinnie]

1 hour ago, jasonotto said:

We have a full docket of comps in the 2023 year

I will be on the lookout.  I don't bend, but I do want to come grip with you guys again.

[Tom Flesher]

12 hours ago, jasonotto said:

It was great having you down Tom!  Though we didn't have a packed house, the competition was strong (and great fun)!  We have a full docket of comps in the 2023 year so be sure to mark you calendar.  AGP 5 will definitely be in mid-late Sept.  Great bending this weekend.

Great to see all of you! I'll definitely be down again.

[Buccos1]

Congratulations!  Solid bends all-around.

[Vinny F]

Awesome write-up Tom!!

A steel bender eating Uncrustables between bends is a thing of beauty..lol.

It was great to meet you and hang out after the event at lunch.

See ya next year !!

 

 

[Tom Flesher]

On 11/17/2022 at 9:42 AM, Buccos1 said:

Congratulations!  Solid bends all-around.

Thanks, Carl! Looking forward to seeing you in Michigan in May.