On July 30th 2011 I had the fantastic experience of competing in the NANBFWashington State Championships (http://www.unitedfitness.org/results.html), an IFPA pro qualifying show! This was my second contest ever, my firstbeing an NPA show here in Virginia, and what an event! The Washington StateChampionships took place at the famous Moore Theater in downtown Seattle,just two blocks from the waterfront and Pike's Place market. The crowd washuge and loud, the competitors were huge and ripped, and the judges brutallyworked us with their repeated calls for 30-second-plus poses!
My first competition was a great experience, but it did little to prepare mefor the rigors of posing for NANBF judges! We had to hold quarter turns andmandatory poses for at least 30 seconds, and often much longer than that! Ontop of that, every pose was repeated at least twice, and both sides of thechest and triceps were required. In all it was a marathon posing session,and several competitors were gasping by the end of it, their tans runningoff from sweat!
When I did my first contest locally there was an even distribution ofin-shape and out-of-shape competitors, so it was fairly easy to tell fromthe get go who would be battling for the overall title by the end of thenight. When I got to the NANBF show I saw that was clearly not the case. Themajority of the competitors were huge and ripped, and since the classes weredivided by height rather than weight I saw early on that I would becompeting against some big guys in my middle height class! As it turned out,the overall winner of the entire show - who was massive and happened toalready be a Pro in another organization - was competing in my class! Thecompetition was definitely high-caliber, so I was thrilled to make the topthree of seven and felt I had done well in representing veganbodybuilding.
The audience was another awesome surprise at this show - I've heard quietercrowds at rock concerts! Even when watching the Olympia - bodybuilding'sbiggest contest - the audience never seems to get too loud or rowdy, but atthis show they went crazy for every competitor and were screaming for theirfavorites during posesdowns and awards! This was completely new to myexperience of bodybuilding and I can honestly say when I walked on stage todo my posing routine and the crowd went wild it made the event for me! Whata blast!
On top of all the excitement of the show, I had the honor to competealongside fellow vegan bodybuilder Ed Bauer. Ed and I were in differentclasses, but we spent all our time together back stage giving each otherfeedback on posing and just general support. Ed is a great bodybuilder and astandup guy, so I couldn't have asked for a better companion while we tannedand pumped up for the battle onstage. There was a great representation forvegan bodybuilding at the show because in addition to Ed and I and ourpartners Marcella Torres and Jade Vanacore, Giacomo Marchese, Dani Taylor,Sara Russert and Jennifer Godfrey all traveled to the show to lend theirsupport! It was a fantastic showing by the vegan bodybuilding community andafter spending time with this group I was thoroughly impressed with everyoneand now consider them all good friends.
The NANBF Washington State Championships would have been an amazing show inand of itself, but with the added camaraderie from the vegan bodybuildingcommunity and the support all along the way from Robert Cheeke and VeganBodybuilding and Fitness it really become something special that I willremember for the rest of my life. Few bodybuilders get to work with such anincredible support network and fewer still get to represent organizationsthey are truly passionate about, let alone at their second contest ever! Itwas an amazing event and I was honored to be there with such a great team offriends representing the vegan movement.
Derek Tresize
BS Biology
ACE Certified Personal Trainer
Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition
Contact: [email protected]
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