Snake River Valley's Strongest Man

When Jay Hagadorn asked me to appear at the Snake River Valley’s Strongest Man for a demonstration, I knew I could not turn him down. Not only was the event list a fun one, but the cause was even greater. This contest was to honor the memory of the late great Strongman Jesse Marunde and to raise money for the family he left behind. I felt blessed to be one of the four USA Pros who had the opportunity to make an appearance here. The three pros who were competing were me, Marshall White, and Reggie Barton, and since we were not keeping score, this was a day to have fun and honor the memory of Jesse in a way he would appreciate.

1. Max 12” Log: About one month out from this contest, I tore my calf doing truck pulls in training. So I decided to not push press at this meet, and instead worked on a one motion quasi-strict press technique to do my pressing. I opened at an easy 300#, went to 320# for my second, and then did an easy 340# for my 3rd attempt. In a typical contest, I would be out of attempts, but since this was a demo, M-Dub urged me to take one more attempt at 360#. I destroyed this weight and it was a new PR! So using a quasi-strict press technique, I was able to press more overhead with a log than I had ever done with a push press. Reg destroyed 380#, and had a near miss with 425# to try to unofficially break Hatfield’s record.

2. Max 18” Deadlift: With a healthy calf, I was hoping to pull about 1000# on this event. With the calf in the state it was, I was just hoping to pull more than any other pro. M-Dub did not agree with this plan as he pulled an easy 900#, a PR for him I believe. I went and reproduced the 900# with ease, but we both decided to call it there. Okay, so I did not beat Marshall here, but he is a great strongman so I will take a tie.

3. Circus DB: The next event was set to be farmers, but none of us wanted to do it, so we all decided to do the Circus DB that Corey St. Clair brought with him. This beast had a big handle (maybe 2.5”) and weighed 170#. I got 2 reps, and had a 3rd overhead but could not stabilize it. My calf hampered me here, as I could not really get under the DB. I think Reg got 6 or 7 reps…pretty impressive.

4. Max Car Squat: I was the only pro to do this event. Marshall wanted to rest up for his huge Atlas Stone attempt. I wanted to do the car squat as I had never used this apparatus before so I thought it would be good to test it out. With no competition, I just wanted to put on a good show for the spectators. I did a rep with an approximate weight of 800-850# and nailed it easily for the crowd. It was a lot of fun, and also good learning experience for my next contest with a car squat.

5. Max Atlas Stone: After watching Marshall lap the monstrous 535# stone and almost load it, I realized that all I wanted to do was lift the next heaviest stone Jay had at the contest, a 22” 440# stone. After a couple misses trying to lap the stone, I went to put on more tacky and I saw Breck Gault lap the stone. I thought to myself that I have to lap this stone now…I outweigh Breck by 60 pounds and if I did not lap it, I was sure M-Dub would not let me hear the end of it. My last attempt with this stone went well. I lapped it fairly easily, rested a couple seconds on the lap, and then loaded it very easily over the 50” upright. This was the heaviest stone I have ever lifted, as the heaviest we have in out facility is 410#.

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