Bash 2002 Report and Photo Archive

IronOnline reports, page 4

I had a great time meeting everyone myself. I was curious how it would be to meet everyone in person and to see if we got along as well in person as on-line. I left with a feeling of being overwhelmed at what a great group of people really make up this list. Sometimes you meet people in life that you would describe to other people as a "good person" but I don't think I have ever felt that for so many people at once ( this includes everyone's friendly wives and well-behaved kids!). Everyone was so absolutely genuine and "real" (a stark contrast to the vibes I got from the bodybuilding expo) and there were a few surprises for me too! It was fun to finally be able to workout in the same gym together, too.

Stella memorializes Bash 02

It's hard for me to pick a highlight but I'm going to have to say it was this sense of knowing that so much of the friendship, caring, and encouragement from this list has been real. One thing that stood out to me was the night when we were hanging out at Gold's.

One of the staff members was trying to find a ride for two 20-something muscle heads back to the airport or strip. She hollered out if any of us could give them a ride. It was kind of an odd moment- about 1/2 of us of us looked over there like "um, no...we're like busy and not going back until later" and just kept enjoying one another's company. I was kind of wondering what they were doing or what happened but I let the thought pass. Much later, as the last two small groups of us left Gold's, Dave ran back in and said "I'm going to see if those guys need a ride." I thought he meant two IOL folks still inside but he came back out with those two kids. To be honest, I don't really think they knew who they were getting a ride from. He asked them their names and then just introduced himself as "Dave." They were like "Cool, dude. Thanks."

Stella Juarez
Guide, Bodybuilding.About.Com

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My biggest impression was what a genuine, nice group of people IOLers are. We come from all over, are all ages, sizes, and have different degrees of interest and dedication to lifting -- but all are really nice.

John and Dorothy Baron, among those I was most looking forward to meeting, are super people. Saying they are very active, healthy and full of knowledge at 67 sounds like I am talking about old people; but 67 is not old if you live a good clean life with consistent exercise like they do. They are an example of being young at 67 which, unfortunately, is rare.

There are lots of people in Las Vegas walking around and I was surprised at seeing just how out-of-shape most of them are. Young people waddling sluggishly, old people making great effort but barely moving and there is a lack of "pep" and energy in the masses. It is sad to see and to know this does not have to be. As John Baron said "it's not rocket science."

Dorothy was great and did a chin up for me (she can get up from half way). She'll get a full one, one of these days. As she says, it does take much longer to build the muscles when you are older. I believe as we age we gain more patience and persistence. Dorothy has been lifting since she married John in her 20s -- so she has the experience to know.

Emma (a darling) and Al Carse from England were fun to listen to though my English is not so good and I needed a bit of translation.

Sam and Corey are in fabulous shape and I would have enjoyed just watching them work out; but when given the choice, I opted to get my own work out done. Thanks Corey for working with me to figure out how to do the SLD correctly. Sam, I hope we can get together sometime for you to check my squatting and chin-up. I'm now in both their cheering sections and hope they make the wins they desire. They are great guys.

Randy Crist generously drove 7 of us in his Camry to Gold's Gym Saturday morning. At the picnic I met his 13-year-old daughter who he is introducing to the weights. She reminded me of when I started and didn't know the names of the exercises. It is so wonderful that he spends the time with his daughter this way. She will always feel good about exercising as it will be associated with her father and his love, caring, and support.

I got my cardio in by walking down to the Treasure Island Hotel and back to the Tropicana. How far was that? I also had a good swim in the hotel pool and some fun with an eight-year-old who enticed me to play with him.

Stella is a star and I was fortunate to have her share a room with me. We have missed her writing on IOL because she has been busy with her web page on about.com (ya all go check it out).

I also saw a preview of her cookbook which is terrific. Anyone and everyone will find it useful -- with delicious, nutritious, easy to prepare recipes. Laree has done a super job of designing the book so that it is clear and easy to read and understand. Eating this way will help you and those you love feel better. The book will make a great gift. I understand that you may soon be able to place orders for the book on the DaveDraper.com web site.

For those who want to know the travel eating plan; I brought my morning cereal and bought milk at a mini-mart which I kept in the hotel ice bucket. I brought jerky, nuts, and raisins. I bought one pre-packaged salad. It worked but the first thing I did when I got home was make a "Juicy Lucy." Happily I did not gain any weight from all the nuts.

The Expo was somewhat of a disappointment -- I was expecting lots of training equipment, books and such related to exercise and health. It was interesting though, a freak show, with good people-watching opportunities. Why a female would want to take steroids and be proud of "the look" is beyond me -- but it was entertaining. The Expo was very noisy and seemed to be mostly about promoting supplements, pills, and protein bars.

The picnic was perfect; people, food, weather, and a great seminar. Frank and Dave are good together. Dave with generosity posed for pictures with everyone who wanted one. It isn't the place. It's the people of IOL who make it worth going to BASH.

Thank you, Dave and Laree.

Vicki Masterson

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Reflections on Bash '02

It's hard to believe that it a week has already passed since my extended Bash weekend began. Because I had the chance to go to LV on Wednesday the 16th and didn't have to go charging right back into the work-a-day world after Sunday's brunch, I was really able to absorb and reflect on all of the good things of Bash '02.

One of the more salient points I realized driving home yesterday is that the entire weekend was one continuous highlight! By this time last week I had already worked out at Gold's with Bill L and Henrik, and gone to the Ms Olympia and Fitness Olympia pre-judging with Henrik. After the pre-judging, Henrik and Dolores (Mrs Bill2) and I had an late lunch/early dinner at the Tropicana's buffet. Outside of Dave and Laree, Henrik is the first IOLer that Dolores met. Fortunately, Henrik was on his best behavior <G>!

Dave, Henrik, Frank

Friday morning Henrik and I met at the Expo. While waiting for Henrik, came across Vicki Masterson. Ever the innovative one, Vicki got in her pull-up workout at the LifeFitness booth. While the pace was still slow I had a chance to chit-chat with Frank Zane and Bill Pearl. Both classy guys. Bill even pretended he remembered meeting me a couple of times 27 years ago!!

The Expo is really a trade show and I've got some familiarity with those so just began "walking the show" looking for things of interest not paying too much specific attention to the people.

There were two sides to the Expo's space -- a 'high rent' side which had the higher profile companies such as Muscle Tech, Champion Nutrition, and the like. Muscle Tech had the largest space. I'd estimate that they had the equivalent of 8 spaces and I'm guessing that cost them in the range of $40k to $80k. This side was very noisy with a high decible sound system going all the time. Also the most packed with people -- visitors and trade show workers alike. Tough to move around, difficult to hear any conversation.

It was easy to tell which companies have experience with these types of events. They hired people who knew their jobs. The boorish behavior noted by many IOLers came from those people who were hired for their personas and had no clue how to operate in a trade show environment. Of the 'names' who 'get it' I need to commend Bill Kazmaier and Tatiana Anderson. (Bill still looks like he could give the WSM competitors all they could handle contest-wise.)

The other side was much quieter and less hectic. Most of these booths were manned by the companies' owners or regular employees like Frank Zane and the Power Hook inventor. George Hemlick had his Steve Reeves booth right across from Frank's space. He had just received a newly compiled Reeves biography video the day before, literally just in time for the show. I picked up a copy for Dolores and I'll review it over the weekend for everyone.

Henrik gets seen with Steve Reeves

On either side, there were people there 'to see and be seen'. Many of the visitors were just as fascinating to watch as the big name people.

I couldn't quite put my finger on what was so special about Friday night at Gold's until Dave mentioned it in his report: no awkwardness. I knew Len Romano from last year's Bash, but the rest of us were meeting face to face for the first time. Those of us who were going to fool around on the bench just dove right in. No egos, just mutual encouragement and sharing of pointers and tips.

Rockin, Len, Stingo, Bill2, Ed

The Great Equalizer was the slippery bench! A couple of us almost wound up on the floor. If Bill Luttrell's back had permitted he would have had a significant 'home bench' advantage <G>.

We got a rotation going with me, Stingo, Kevin Smith, RKK, Hans, Len, Ed U, and eventually, Art. (Seems like I'm overlooking someone, darn it.) Len brought his new powerhooks and we fooled around with those as well.

Interesting side note: this particular gym has some VERY LARGE people training there and a few were present Friday night. But they were drawn to what our little group was doing because of the camaraderie exhibited.

When we had pretty much exhausted ourselves, we looked into the lobby area and saw a host of IOLers gathered, including Dave and Laree. Guy and Dan Miller had worked out earlier and had showered by then and were hanging out with all (Guy) or part (Dan) of their families. RKK's wife Jean was there, too, as well as Sam, Stella, and a slug of other folks who I can't visualize at the moment. Didn't break up 'til close to 11 pm.

The next morning RKK and I met downstairs at 7:45 am and went over to Gold's. Already present were 7 IOLers that arrived in Randy's car. Now here's one thing I don't believe: they told me that there were three people in the front of Randy's car. Anyone who has ever seen Randy would have a tough time with that claim as he is so wide he must take up 2/3 of the front all by himself. Randy is A VERY BIG GUY.

Later in the morning, Corey Pavitt asked me to watch his squat and dead lift form. After watching his lift performance the only comments I could make were, "Perfect on the squat" and "More perfect on the dead lift." In particular, the DL could have been filmed for an exercise video, it was that good.

Corey Pavitt deadlifts, BK looks on

As several of us were preparing to head back to the hotel, Ms Olympia competitor Nancy Lewis was the subject of a photo shoot at the gym, so we were delayed a tad by that. As a natural physique competitor himself, Corey was fascinated by the level of development Nancy exhibits.

A quick dash back to the hotel as we were running a tad late for a shower and charging over to Paradise Park for the seminar and barbecue. Dynamite in every aspect. Frank and Dave worked well together and answered every query clearly and insightfully.

After sating myself on dynamite barbecue and salmon, I personally got distracted by a box that Laree brought: filled with bodybuilding mags from the early 60's, 50's, 40's, and 30's!!! I spent so much time with these that I didn't mingle and meet some of the folks I had wanted to be sure to meet.

Al and Emma Carse and Andy and Sheila Webb, enjoying the US sunshine

Thanks to Vicki I did get to chat with "Irish" Al Carse and his beautiful wife, Emma, while in the serving line. Al is definitely an 'overachiever' <G>. Continuing with the British Isles contingent, Dolores and I spent a fun time talking with Andy Webb and his wife, Sheila. They live in Southwest England and Dolores just traveled thru there last month.

Sunday morning's brunch was a fun affair and kudos to Len Romano stepping up and working with Excalibur management to arrange for us all to sit together. I got to meet and chat with another sterling IOLer, Gerry de Luca. Brunch broke up at an all-too-soon 2pm and folks began making their departures for home.

The next day as Dolores and I went sight-seeing, she said, "Now I understand why you spend time on the IOL discussion group."

So, when are we getting together again?

Bill2

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A thoughtful hello to everyone,

Though I have over 1000 emails I wanted to drop a line and give a quick update of the Bash 2 experience. As last year there are so many people and so little time it was hard to meet up with everyone. It was great to finally meet Sam Tsang, Art , Rockin Ken, Stella and Kevin Smith though I barely had the time to say much more than hello. I really would have liked to talk with each of you further. I also feel bad that I didn't have an opportunity to talk with Rich who is also from Pittsburgh who I briefly bumped into at the bbq.

The Smiths and The Christensens

My best memories though are of hanging out at Gold's on Friday night with Bill L. (great guy, who I'm glad I finally got to meet), Bill K., Henrik, Len, Stingo (another person I was really glad to meet) and the others I got to say "hey" to like Sam, Stella, Corey, Rockin Ken and of course getting a big hug from Laree and Dave on their arrival.

The picnic was a blast.........meeting Frank and Christine, laughing and joking with the other IOLers and especially hanging out after with Bill L., Bill K., Stingo, Henrik, Laree and Dave.

Special thanks to Corey for the smoked salmon...what a great guy he is.

So many little things that made it special............I'll try and get to a part 2 to relate them. My apologies if I missed someone’s name here that I talked with. Everyone was just super.

As always I consider it an honor and privlige to be invited by Dave and Laree to the bbq's, two of the classiest and best friends I have.

Guy

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