2007 Gripmas Carol

[mikebuck]

I had a great time as a spectater and I will be competing next year. The biggest thing I got out of being there today was a truckload of inspiration. I am going out to the garage in the morning and hitting it like a freight train.

Thanks for the hospitality and the time and effort it took to get the event put together. I know it is not an easy thing to do.

Mike

[bencrush]

Big congrats guys!!!

[RKlein]

Congrats Jedd!! Eric way to go man.

[foxyj75]

Chris, I just wanted to thank you again for inviting me, and for putting on a great contest! I hit PRs in just about everything we did tonight. I had a great time, and look forward to seeing you and all the other guys real soon. Thanks!! :D

[Too Tall]

congrats to all

[Booyah!!!]

Congrats Guys!!!

[MalachiMcMullen]

Pfheww, that was fun My dad enjoyed himself alot too and like Chris, Bob and I said beforehand he did end up surprising himself

BTW Chris, that Grippers in chokers idea was pretty neat! It seems that everyone had bigger closes regardless of who trained them or not.

Edited December 9, 2007 by MalachiMcMullen

[David Horne]

Well done to ALL who stepped on the platform, and showed their mettle!

David

[Alawadhi]

Congrats to all and especially to the master of steel Eric

[egg_uk]

congrats to everyone, looking forward to reading peoples write ups

[EricMilfeld]

I have no idea what I'm doing up at this ungodly hour of the day (I think that's the sun rising), so I'll keep it brief for now. Well, Chris Rice not only has the coolest home gym I've ever seen, he puts on one very organized and well thought out grip contest. The man is a precious asset to gripdom.

I've been having a really enjoyable trip here in Ohio, meeting friendly folks and enjoying the picturesque countryside and nice and cold weather.

All of the guys I finally got the opportunity to meet really reminded me of why grip is so great. Supportive. Helpful. Modest. Honest. Friendly. Gripmas may have been big and "official", but the "group of guys meeting in a garage to see who can do what for the fun of it" element was certainly still present.

I was very pleased to set some personal bests, which was, and always is, my main goal. My grippers were probably close to a PR, but it's hard to say since I've never tried a calibrated gripper previous to Gripmas. I think I closed a #3.5 or the next heavier gripper in the lineup. With the Euro Pinch I came within 5 pounds of what I've been doing out in my garage. I managed 210. On the IM axle I did more than I've ever even cleared the floor on with my 1 7/8" bar at home. I did 363, and just missed 374 as it flew out of my hands just above the knees. The medley was a blast. What didn't Chris have in it!!! I could have done a little better with a wiser strategy here, but I was glad to get 17 of the 21 implements up. I forgot to do the three 25# standard plates on a pipe. Oh well.

Reverse bending isn't my best bending style, but I did get a PR on the FBBC 1/4" square stock with a 6" piece. The plate pinch is what really helped me to place so much higher than my wildest expectations. I won this event, but by only a second! Josh did a minute and 28 seconds. My strategy was to anticipate and embrace a minute or two of sheer forearm and finger hell, and that's exactly what you get with this event. I think it's a great change of pace for any grip contest. My other strategy was to not train it! The idea was that it would have probably wiped out the rest of my training, but who knows.

Well, I was truly overwhelmed by some of the lifting I witnessed. Jedd's pinch and reverse grip. Dave's axle. Josh's bionic gripper power. Eaton's ability to do just about anything with training just about nothing. Anson is just plain scary strong! And many more guys really impressed me. This contest could have easily gone about ten different ways. One more loaded implement here and five seconds more on those 100 pound plates there, and the results would have been upside down.

Gotta run for now.

[MalachiMcMullen]

I hope to get a write up up soon. Me and my dad did not have our camera So if anyone accidently took pictures of us thinking something might be lifted would it be possible to have those e-mailed to me? Thanks guys and thanks again Chris!!! It was a pleasure meeting people and seeing some increasingly familiar faces :rock

[Rick Walker]

Who would have ever thought that that "kid" who pinched the 50-pound York blob and lifted it out of my trunk and carried it across the Olive Garden parking lot (which was the first time he ever touched it!) 4 or 5 years ago would have ever been one of the best grip athletes in the world???

Oh yeah...I did.

Awesome job Jedd! What did you end up pinching?

[climber511]

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pUx...iXmw2Bc_VA8u1YA

I'll have a more in depth write up later after my body quits telling me how mad it is at me for yesterday. There has to be something on me not isn't sore but I can't find it yet. I really want to thank everyone for coming and pitching right in helping out during the contest - I couldn't have done it without you all. But special thanks to Sean Dockery for judging and keeping things running smoothly - Anegla Ardrey for score keeping all day long without any warning - and to my son Josh for the Excel spreed sheet he made and used to provide instant event and contest placement. With a click, he gave running totals and placements for the competition - I still think that stuff is magic - but it really did help a lot.

[FrankyBoy]

Congrats to Jedd for the win and to Eric for taking a very impressive 2nd place in such a strong field.

I knew that Jedd can win any contest but I wasn't aware that Eric is such a good all-arounder.

Well done Eric.

You seemed well prepared for the comp.

[Florian Kellersmann]

Big congrats, esp. to Jedd, Eric and Josh!

[climber511]

Gripmas 2007

Whew! It’s over, all I have to do now is clean up the mess. I went out to the garage this morning and just came back inside – it can wait until tomorrow – looks like a train wreck happened out there. It was a lot of work but it was worth every bit of time and effort to put on my first real contest. I had quite a few ideas I wanted to work with for it – things I really liked about other meets, ideas from discussions on the Gripboard, ideas of my own that I just really wanted to try, etc. Overall, I was pleased with the way it turned out. I’m very interested in what everyone thought of the calibrated grippers in chokers event – we had a pretty nice selection to choose from with small jumps in between. Thanks to John Eaton, Doc, and Josh Dale for letting me use their grippers for the contest. Thanks to Jedd for allowing the use of his official Euro Pinch setup also. I loved the Medley – it was really a mini contest in itself and I felt I got the difficulty just the way I wanted, only two people were able to complete it – and we all know how hard it would be to stop Jedd or Dave with anything - the "Humbler" lived up to it's name as I hoped it would. At the end of 5 events I was in third place ahead of Josh and Eric but the 100# plate hold did me in – Josh and Eric smoked this one – holding on until I was getting tired of watching them. I was a little conservative on the Axle – I did the 363# as a fifth attempt that didn’t count. I was real happy getting my first Bastard bar reverse style. I had a good comp for me – others just had better ones is all.

I can’t say enough about Eric – he had a great comp. Great guy with no weaknesses and some extremely nice lifts. I think now he may get some of the recognition he has deserved as a competitor. Heck I never expected to beat Jedd, Dave, or Josh anyway. But I came closer than I ever have so that was good. I think I’m still getting stronger as time goes on – and I like that!

As usual the after comp stuff was the real fun with tons of good stuff happening. TTWC, Weaver Stick, Blobs, Sledges, cards, Nick did a ½” x 1” x 4’ flat bar into a U. You name the feat of strength and someone did it. Eaton and Eric both did 20# sledge levers – lots of good stuff going on. Fun times!!!

Edited December 9, 2007 by climber511

[Booyah!!!]

Awesome strength Guys!!!! One heck of a tournament

[MalachiMcMullen]

Those calibrated grippers in chokers were pretty neat Chris, and it was really nice to have all the small jumps available. I think it resulted in bigger closes for everyone. Eric really did come in and blow everyone away with how strong he was, I had no idea he was so good as so many different events!!! Brad Ardrey had an incredible showing also!!! He probably left the most hated competitor because he had never really trained grip before.

I nearly got that 16 after the contest if anyone remembers, got Anson's atlas stone off the ground, clean and jerked whatever sandbag Doc was trying to do one handed, levered that 29lb double hammer a few times, bent a Size 2 for Certification and tried that two hands anyhow with the anvil and kettlebell like Nick did but that anvil was just too unsteady in my hand. I think Jedd was able to get one end of the Inch I made off the ground too.

If anyone's interested in what 2 more FBBC Special editions cal'd at, my Hard made it to 177.9 so it's right there at 3.5 and my Super took 222.66 so what would that be? 4.2ish? Josh's RB365 pulled 202 if I remember right.

[ox3782]

Great Job Everyone I am sorry I could'nt make it this year wish I could have been there.Great job everone again!!!

Brendan

[JS27]

I had a great time at Gripmas. It was an amazing contest. It was great to meet everyone. A big thanks to Chris Rice for the time and effort he put into this contest. Sean Dockery and Angela did a wonderful job with the judging and scorekeeping. She also makes some excellent cookies. Great food after the contest also.

I hit a new PR in every event and exceeded every goal I had for myself. I had to do grippers left handed due to an injured right hand. The 100lb plate holds shook up the standing quite a bit. I think Brad could be a monster in this sport. Very strong! Jedd is even bigger in person. The guy is huge! Eric is a guy to watch out for. Very well rounded. He also has some nice earings (I hope the design isnt patented. I may make some for myself). Josh Dale.s gripper strength is out of this world. Dave doesn't seem to have a weak point. Pound for pound Bob Sundin had to be the strongest guy there. Alot of stuff done afterwards. I personally enjoyed John Eaton crushing a bottle cap between the knuckles of his ring and pinky fingers. He also curled a blob by the face. Zach's horseshoe was very quick. Great longbar bending by Nick.

[crobb1320]

Great job and congrats guy's,I wish I could have been there,Sounds like it was really cool.

[stew2]

Well eventhough it was awfull orginized it was still a great time. Thanks to Chris and Theresa for putting up with us and having a great contest. It was great meeting some of the guys I haven't got to meet yet finally. Far as performances all were great wasn't real happy with mine and was really p'ed when I ripped my thumb up but I guess this will give me a little incentive to return to working out agian actually alot of incentive. I don't plan on placing that far down agian I never even knew my placing till I looked a little while ago geeese . Guess theres no place but up from here. Well it was still a good time though and fun and unusual events which I expected no less from Chris we could do these type of events in all the contests as far as my concern but that and a dollar might get you a bottle of water so Thanks agian Chris, Theresa, Josh,and Doc for keeping us all in line and everyone else for pitching in and helping make it a fun gettogether.

p.s. the food wasn't to shabby either I had thirds

[nickr104]

It was a great contest and one of my best by far!! Thanks to Chris, Josh, Theresa ANgela for peging John right away and Doc. I could of done 190 on the pinch for sure but I wanted 200. got it about 3 inches up Oh well. Did well on the dead lift too. Did 330 on my 4th then 341 on my5ht that didn't count and got 352 up about 5 inches on my 6th. Little pr for me. Should of got the scale weights in the medly but my hands were smoked. so I gor 18 things. the plate hold suprised the heck out of me. I got 1:25 for a nice 3rd place here for my best event. The 1" X 1/2" X 4' bar bend was big for me. I have wanted to try this for some time and it went well. Thnak you Chris for the steel!! I was reall happy over all. 8th place was my best finish ever at a comp. Food was awesome and people were great!! It was nice to finaly meet Scott , Mike and Eric. Great guys!! Thanks once more to Chris and Theresa for putting up with us.

If someone could post the group Pic that would be great!!

Edited December 10, 2007 by nickr104

[vikingsrule92]

Sounds like it was a great comp guys and everyone ahd a great time and did very well. I can't wait to see pics and hopefully someone will post a pic of the medley. I'm curious about this MASSIVE 25 (or whatever it was) part medley and what was in it (including "the humbler")