Tag Archives: Black Swamp Picnic

Awesome Strongman Picnic

by Roger LaPointe

Jeff "Chain Breaker" Bankens performed various strongman feats through out the day of the Atomic Athletic Great Black Swamp Olde Time Strongman Picnic. Here he is tearing license plates one after another!!!

Performing strongmen, barbeque, broken records and good friends, what more can you ask from a Saturday afternoon? We had it all.  Summing up one of the Atomic Athletic Great Black Swamp Olde Time Strongman Picnics is nearly impossible, but just like the event, I will try to pull it off.

The USAWA Heavy Lifts Championships were going on throughout the day, with records being broken left and right. In case you don’t know the lift order, it went like this: Neck Lift, Hand & Thigh Lift and the Hip Lift finished it off. However, sandwiched in there were a couple of invitational record breaker lifts: the One Hand Barbell Snatch and the 2 Hand Clean & Press, just for a little variety.

We also had some informal Open Competitions. We started off with a little kids Farmers Walk, where they used a pair of 10 Pound Kettlebells. You would be hard pressed to find a lifting event higher on the cuteness scale. All of the kids did a great job and showed great sportsmanship. We also had a Farmers Walk with 190 pound competition units and a Repetition Deadlift with a 309 Pound Barbell. Of course, the Atlatl demo had to be paused so we could use the field. Everyone loved the spear throwing with the primitive tools. I do try to get something in there that is a little off the wall, even for this group.

Punctuating all of this we had Jeff “Chain Breaker” Bankens, all the way from Louisiana, doing bits and pieces of his act that he does on the road, including a classic water bottle routine. This is the first time I had seen that done live.  In the Atomic Athletic Training Center we had Sensei Mike Sherman, of American Kenpo, giving a competition kettlebell seminar and mini-competition. While people were there, they bought T-shirts, posters and equipment… all to the smell of free popcorn and cotton candy, a favorite of the kids.

A great time was had by all. I would like to give a special thanks to everyone who helped out, especially Dennis Habecker and Al Myers, who each managed and brought equipment for the Heavy Lifts Championships, as well as Jeff Rybek, who managed loading the weights. There were many other people who helped out as well, but in addition to special expertise, these moved some real weight in the sun. Loaders, administrators and referees rarely get much credit. Just to give you an idea, the heaviest lift was a 2075 Hip Lift…

Make sure to keep checking out the Atomic Athletic web site, USAWA Facebook page and the Atomic Athletic Facebook page for more updates.

Live strong, Roger LaPointe

2000 Pounds of 100’s

by Roger LaPointe

Advertisement poster for the 2012 Atomic Athletic Great Black Swamp Oldetime Strongman Picnic.

When was the last time you saw 2,000 Pounds of plates that were all 100 Pounders?

The 2012 Heavy Lifts Championships at the Atomic Athletic Great Black Swamp Olde Time Strongman Picnic will have that many. I fully expect that someone will do a lift of OVER 1,500 pounds on Saturday, the 12th of May.

Make sure to check out the Atomic Athletic web page for photos of some of these monster lifts and the one of a kind Poster!

We will also have multiple chain lift bars, an assortment of heavy lifting harnesses and hand & thigh bars, not to mention all the smaller plates. Hopefully, we will even have need for the little Record Maker Plates. Those babies go down to the 1/4 Kg size. After all, a 1/2 Kg record is still a record.

The 3 lifts are: The Hip Lift, The Neck Lift and the Hand & Thigh Lift!

We now do our own classic Chain Lift bar design and a USAWA Regulation Bar. They are slightly different, but the same price.

Definitely don’t miss out on the Picnic! Remember, the Picnic and Heavy Lifts Championships are at the Old School on South Main in beautiful Bowling Green, OH. The action will be taking place on the sports fields with lifting platforms on the basketball court.

Live strong, Roger LaPointe

WEBMASTERS COMMENT: The entry deadline of May 9th is fast approaching for the 2012 USAWA Heavy Lifts Championships. It’s not to late to get entered!!

Black Swamp Meet

by Al Myers

MEET ANNOUNCEMENT

ATOMIC ATHLETIC GREAT BLACK SWAMP OLDE TIME STRONGMAN PICNIC AND ALL-ROUND MEET

Roger LaPointe, of Atomic Athletic, is hosting an All-Round Weightlifting Meet on May 14th.  Roger is not new to the USAWA as a meet director, as he has hosted a couple of competitions in the past – but it has been a few years.  I am REALLY GLAD to see him get back into the USAWA fold by promoting this meet!  Roger owns a very unique equipment company, Atomic Athletic,  that caters to lifters wanting to buy unique equipment that we as All-Rounders would appreciate.  He also sells about anything else that a lifter would need.  Take a little time and check out his website for his business.

This meet will feature two popular all-round lifts – the One Hand Deadlift and the Clean and Push Press.  This day will be more than just a meet.  Roger has planned a picnic and other Strongman Shows to compliment the meet.  It sounds like a great day of fun!!

Great Black Swamp Olde-Time Strongman Picnic Promotional Poster.

For an entry form, click here –  Black Swamp Meet Entry Form