Congrats to Steve Denison for putting on a great meet!

The venue was very nice. The main platform was right out in the crowd at the end of the Cal Fit Expo displays. Great sound system, great judges, great crowd and everything.

Seemed to be some no shows. Scott Smith was hurt and pulled out and the 165 Russian no-showed.

Terrific lifting by many of the guys there. Everyone solid!

Scott Layman at 148, did over 10X bodyweight and absolutely ripped with no bodyfat. Phenomenol that a guy with as small as calves as he has, can squat 600 and 4X bodyweight.

At 198, met Ryan Celli and his wife. Great couple and good people. Thanks to John Casciato for his help and friendship. Just fun to be around-all three of you. Thanks for walking me to the drug store after pizza to get my super glue to repair my torn hand.

Anyways, Ryan squatted 700, benched an American Record of 562? and pulled something sick. Incredible strength in this guy. This guy benches 525 raw and he's only at 193 bodyweight. Just sick!

It was an absolute honor to lift with Marc Caplan. Marc and I have known each other for a few years now and makes his home in Portland. What an absolute pleasure it was to see him still competing in his 50's, and hitting huge numbers to win the 181's. Marc owns his own training facility, Dogg LB. Gym and co-owns Danielle's Sauces (which are great, by the way). Thanks for all your help and guidance my friend. And same goes to Larry Hook, who pulled my straps up and off when needed, and handed off to me in the bench, despite having a dislocated shoulder just a while back. The man is tough as nails. Again, thank you!

The funniest outfit had to go to Alan Best. Apparently this guy has only been training 2 years and comes in wearing pink sweats. I"m telling you, it takes a man to wear pink sweats around in a fit Expo. WoW. The dude squatted 865 and totalled over 2200. Unbelievable, considering his physique looks like he's never hit a weight in his life. If he puts it all together, watch out for this dude.

Thad Coleman was strong as hell too. Easily I can see him squatting a G with double ply gear. Took 900 for a ride and has tremendous overall body strength.

Scott Cartwright was a late entry and bombed, but was still incredibly powerful in the squat. He had trouble setting up on all three attempts in the squat, but absolutely destroyed the weight all three times only to be called on depth. I think his last attempt was at 914. I agreed with the judges on the depth call, but I WILL say, it was very, very close.

Danny Flonta, one of the IronGladiators team members, competed at 308, drug free and only 19. He hit a 700 squat, 562 bench and pulled close to 700 I think. He's another one to watch as he puts all his lifts together and matures.

Charles Bailey won best lifter in 220 and up and earned it. He dunked 903?, benched around 6 bills and pulled over 700 at 275. He was most likely the best built guy in the show. Freaky strong. What I like about Charles, is that he's put his test of strength out on the line, whether it's single ply or double, and he's very, very tough to beat. I have video of him benching, one attempt it takes him 10 seconds to touch in his shirt and the other is almost 12 seconds. That has got to be killing him today after the show!

I certainly didn't talk about everyone, but those just stood out. I thought the judging was very good. I thought the venue was good. The warmup room left a lot to be desired, with about 8 feet from the curtain to the wall, but we were in a fit expo and I know they have space limitations, so we all dealt with it and it worked out fine.

Thanks to Lisa Wheeler and Chuck LaMantia for announcing. Lisa, it was embarrasing to go over the video and hear the things you said about me. Thank you for the many kind words!!

I will also say this-the spotting crew, in my opinion, was first rate. I'm not aware of any misloads or mishaps. They were on top of everything and worked very hard. Great job gentleman.

Thanks to the judges who volunteered and gave up their time. Your dedication to the sport is admired and appreciated.

As for myself, I dunked 804. It was my major goal in the meet. Wasn't easy, I'll give it that much. I benched a single ply pr, 523 with a little more room to go. Pulled 749 rather easy, but as usual, felt my hand tear on that attempt (2nd). I called for 804 on a third, my other main goal, and was going to pass it. But there's something about powerlifting....when you're about to go, you hear your name called in the hole, and you see the crowd and there had to be over 500 hundred watching at this time, and I decided to give it a shot. I got it just under my knees before my left hand gave out. Superglue and neosporin are my two friends...