2012 August - Bay Area Grip Challenge - Daniel Reinard

[daniel reinard]

Write up.

Overall was a good event. Competitors and spectators seemed to have fun. I was hoping to have 20 competitors and ended up with 11. Several people had to cancel for various reasons. A few were the big guys so Brett and myself, both around 195-200, competed in the 205+ HW class. I really wanted to ensure all trophies and prizes were given away. We actually pulled Brian out of the spectator crowd, someone grabbed Connor off a climbing wall and told him he should enter, and Jenna was climbing with her husband which is a coworker of mine. I'm glad these people joined us. And a big surprise was Connor, more on him later.

The last man standing format went well. It seemed to fit the new to grip crowd we have out here. I think it sped up the gripper event a little and for the axle it was slightly faster, but still too long. I'd like to speed up the axle event even more. The issue seems to be people are so new to grip period and then add the element of a deadlift. Now people are very unsure of the event and therefore take alot of warmups or don't want to pass on turns so end up taking too many turns.

I liked replacing the 2HP with an all pinch medley. I forget how many items there were, I think 35 or so. Setting up a medley takes too much time but once it's done, 3 minute turns enables us to blow through very quickly. I also had light weights for the women so there was a little extra time to add weight after they had a chance to go through them.

The misc medley was fun. For the women they had easier weights along with a half deck of cards tear and a 3/16" crs nail bend for the easy bend, instead of the guys having the 60d as the easy bend. The women also had a smaller phonebook. Someone tore the half deck of cards, and a man tore the whole deck of cards. Some women bent the easy nail and some men bent the 60d. I think most people had just enough time to make a run thought the medley, maybe not trying every item but skipping the ones they knew they couldn't do. I found myself being rushed to try every item I knew I had a shot at, especially the misc medley. That's fine though. the 3 minutes kept people moving along quickly without frying grips so much the other events would be a bust.

The women were all neck to neck through the whole contest. Going into the last event they were only spread by 17 points out of 300. Each of of them were very strong for their size. Sam was the tallest and more avid climber so her 1st place probably came from that. Jenna and Emily are around 5'2" in height. Considering their size and them lifting more than their BWs on the axle I'd say that was impressive. They all seemed to have fun, and it was their first grip contest as well.

I want to give Connor Everton a little spotlight here. First off, someone saw him in the bouldering pit and they knew he'd probably do pretty well. He resembles a younger Alex Honnold. He's 16, a freshman in H.S. and weighs 130 according to his dad, 140 according to himself. You can see by his numbers he did quite well. The gripper was low but I think it was due to him having such a hard time trying to set a gripper. Some people pick it up quick, some it takes practice. If you notice for his axle he did 283 to full lockout and down signal. That is OVER 2x BW. Keep in mind he's 16 and he has never done a deadlift in his life. His form wasn't that bad at all. He was hands down the most impressive person there. I was really happy to see him beat out 2 other LWs to get a 3rd place trophy with a prize.

We had some other impressive competitors as well, new people too. Mike was strong and had alot of energy. Brett is familiar with grip and was his first contest. His strength and experience showed. I think he ended up with a big axle PR and a big gripper PR too. He definitely had contest adrenaline going. Kevin also had contest adrenaline going too. He nailed his goal gripper. Actually, he forgot his goal gripper at home so had to do the next sized one that was 2# more. After that he had the tiniest miss on a 150# gripper. Yeah, that's near 20# over his previous best. I see him certing the MM0 soon.

For myself I had low expectations. I damaged tendons in the middle fingers, ring fingers, palms, wrists and forearms, ALL in both hands and arms. Yeah I jacked myself good, and this was 2 weeks ago. A week before the event I could still hardly do basic stuff around work and the house. I had some pains but overall I felt ok. I wasn't surprised to see my strength down a little in grippers and axle but I was surprised to see my medleys go so well, especially the pinch medley. I nailed blobzilla, a fatman, 2x45 on wide plates. In the misc medley the 327 1" vbar, 50# RichAZ cannonball lift, 220 one hand slick barbell lift.

The timeliness of the event was ok, especially considering the new people and getting started late due to drumming up a couple extra bodies. I had the car packed and was on the road by 11pm. I think we need to shave off some time on the axle so we could be running the comp at a more ideal pace. Kevin Collen really stepped up with scoring, help judging, organization, planning, just plain everything. He really was a major help. And he donated a prize too! I want to thank him and all the sponsors, even RichAZ for some of the equipment and rating of grippers. We couldn't have had such a nice event for everyone.

Photos and video will surface soon. We had a photographer, actually 2 of them with full flash setups and everything. I'm sure there will be hundreds of photos, no joke.

Edited August 18, 2012 by daniel reinard