Category Archives: USAWA Daily News

Art’s Birthday Bash

by John McKean

Group picture from Art's Birthday Bash 2014.

Since it’s impossible to drive to Ambridge from any direction without going through beautiful wooded hills and dense forest lands, our visitors this year were treated to this Fall’s most spectacular leaf colors, on a perfect bluebird sky day! It was almost a shame to have to go indoors to lift weights! HOWEVER, that was immediately corrected as we all left the gym to go OUTDOORS to watch newcomer Steve Freides perform an Inman Mile(!!!) at the high school parking lot across the street!! Of course ,Steve didn’t go a mile (nobody ever has!) but did waddle back & forth with 243# on his back for 114 meters!I teased Steve by saying his efforts cost me 50 bucks-that I’d bet Art he would die if he tried the whole mile!

Back in the gym, Art & I were treated to watch another newcomer to our meets, Stephen Santangelo, perform a terrific Reeves deadlift with 235 pounds! Art & I agreed that neither of us can even reach the plates to perform this dynamic lift!

Denny Habecker, and long time veteran lifter, 82 year old Dick Durante, had a gorgeous drive through the mountains across state to show us their typical strong lifting and always smiling faces!

Of course, in this year’s group of all MASTER competitors, good ole Denmis Mitchell and wife Flossy drove in from Cleveland to charm us with their usual cheerful personalities, and Denny’s well perfected lifting.

Star of the show, birthday boy Art Montini (87) performed 5 world records in fantastic style, and was the usual gracious host to his guests. In an amazing coincidence, the figure on Art’s meet shirt was the comic character Popeye (with Art’ face imposed!) -seems both Art & the famous Popeye were created in the same year!!(and both were sailors!). Art’s only challenge this year was in the donut eating challence where my grandson Draes (just turned 9) may have bested him (we’re never sure as Art gobbles the donuts in hiding!).

It was so great to have always smiling,joke telling Bob Geib and his gal,Susan, attending! Both lifted great and are healthy and happy, soon with a new house to move to. Funny thing,Bob was trying to explain to me where this small town is that he’s been residing at for several years(a mile from his new place), and I had to laugh out loud -it is the vacation town on Lake Erie that our family travels to many time each year and I’ve been going to all my life! I woulda ’bout croaked to run into Bob up there during a morning fishing expedition! Bob brought with him a beautiful plaque that the late,great Howard Prechtel was awarded as a new inductee to the Cleveland Hall of Fame. Howard had passed on his skillful chiropractic maneuvers, which he utilized to tremendous effect on my 35 year old son Rob,who’s had a presistant neck/shoulder pinch (Rob felt so good afterward,that we couldn’t cooerce him into doing any lifts! Thanks,Bob!!).

Even yours truly got into the act- I’d promised Al earlier that if he got the Kennedy lift approved I’d unretire just to do that old “health Lift” ! And figgered ,since I was there, to finally get off my butt and set enough to records to take me over the 300 mark.

As usual, a day well spent with good friends! Onward to training for Art’s 88th!

MEET RESULTS

Art’s Birthday Bash 2014
Oct 12, 2014
Ambridge VFW Barbell Club Ambridge, PA

USAWA officials: Denny Habecker, Art Montini, Dennis Mitchell,  (3 officials used on all record lifts)

SUSAN SEES female age 57 weight 219# div: 55+ F 100K
Deadlift Fulton Ciavattone 160 pounds
Deadlift Fulton bar 170#
Deadlift thumbless 180#
Dumbbell Deadlift right 95#
Dumbbell Deadlift left 95#

DENNIS MITCHELL age 81 weight151# div: 80+ 70K
Thumbless deadlift 170#
One Hand Dumbbell deadlift left 130#
One Hand Dumbbell deadlift right 130#
Seated press behind neck 40#

STEVE FREIDES age 59 weight 152.8# div: 55+ 70K
Steinborn 80 K
Inman Mile 113.79 meters
Hip Lift 1020#
Jefferson 315#
Jefferson Fulton bar 280#
Kennedy lift 405#

ART MONTINI age 87 weight 172# div: 85+ 80K
2″ Vertical Bar lift left 59#
Middle finger deadlift  110#
Ring Finger deadlift     99#
Index finger deadlift   85#
Dumbbell deadlift left 75#

JOHN McKEAN age 68 weight 173.5# div:65+ 80K
Kennedy lift 405#
People’s Deadlift 315#
One arm Dumbbell Ciavattone deadlift right 173#
Fulton bar Ciavattone Deadlift 200#
Strict Curl 55#
Dumbbell Walk 26#
1″ Vertical bar lift right 85#
1″ Vertical bar lift left 85#
1″ Vertical bar lift 2 bars 170#
2 Dumbbell Cheat Curl 70#
right Dumbbell Cheat Curl 35#
Left Dumbbell Cheat Curl 35#
Right arm Fulton Dumbbell deadlift 58#
Left Arm Fulton Bar Deadlift 58#
2 Arm Fulton Dumbbell Deadlift 116#

STEPHEN SANTANGELO  age 62 weight 174# div: 60+ 80K
Reeves Deadlift 235#
One arm Dumbbell deadlift left 170#
One arm Dumbbell Deadlift right 210#
Dumbbell Walk 56#
Kennedy Lift 325#

RICHARD DURANTE  age 82 weight 175# div: 80+ 80K
One arm Deadlift left 95#
One arm Deadlift right 95#
Fulton Bar Deadlift 170#
Strict Curl 55#
Kennedy Lift 225#

DENNY HABECKER age 72 weight 194# div: 70+ 90K
Kennedy Lift 225#
Stiff Leg Deadlift 270 #
Reverse Grip Cheat Curl 119#
Thumbless Grip Deadlift 270#
Dumbbell Press left 50#
Strict Curl 75#

BOB GEIB age 71 weight 219# div: 70+ 100K
Fulton Deadlift Ciavattone 170#
Fulton Deadlift 180#
Thumbless Deadlift 200#
Dumbbell Deadlift right 130#
Dumbbell Deadlift left 130#

Lifter of the Month: Frank Ciavattone

by Al Myers

Frank Ciavattone in action at the 2014 IAWA World Championships.

Congrats goes to Frank Ciavattone for being selected as the Lifter of the Month for the month of September. Frank is definitely deserving of this award after the unbelievable contributions he made to the USAWA during the past month. Frank not only promoted the IAWA World Championships, but competed and won his 20th IAWA World Championships. He also was recognized by the IAWA with the IAWA Presidential Award of Merit, the highest honor given out by the IAWA.

Frank Ciavattone –  the USAWA LIFTER OF THE MONTH FOR SEPTEMBER!

Update on the OTSM Championships

by Al Myers

***NEWS FLASH***

It has recently been decided that this year’s USAWA Old Time Strongman Championships will be held in conjunction with Eric Todd’s “Battle in the Barn.” Eric has promoted several OTSM competitions over the past few years, and his facility will make the perfect venue for our OTSM Championships.

If you haven’t decided to attend ET’s meet yet – NOW IS THE TIME!  Let’s make  a great turnout this year for the USAWA Old Time Strongman Championships!

Postal Championships

by Al Myers

MEET ANNOUNCEMENT
2014 USAWA POSTAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The big finale of our USAWA Postal Meet Series is upon us!

The Postal Championships will be held during the full month of December, with the entry deadline the last day of the month.  USAWA Postal Meet Director Denny Habecker has picked a good selection of lifts to test everyone’s strength in our Championship event.  Also – I want to remind everyone that this meet “counts double” in generating points toward the yearly postal series point totals.  Let’s have another good turnout of participation!

The lifts:

Snatch – From Hang
Deadlift – One Arm, Dumbbell
Pullover and Push

Denny has let me know that SIX lifters have taken part in all three of the previous quarterly postal meets this year.  Denny commented, “I thought some people might be interested to see the cumulative point totals of the people who have done all the postals so far this year. So here they are.”

Barry Bryan – 1622.62 points
Eric Todd – 1621.58 points
Denny Habecker – 1603.83 points
Ruth Jackson – 1426.12 points
Lance Foster – 1164.63 points
Crystal Diggs – 669.51 points

POSTAL CHAMPIONSHIPS ENTRY FORM (PDF) – 2014 USAWA Postal Championships Entry Form

Are you feeling Slunk?

by Thom Van Vleck

Slunk [sluhngk]

Adjective

1.  Being in a temporary state where one’s mental and physical abilities are impaired by a lack of sleep achieving a similar state to being drunk.

Every year there are new words added to the dictionary. This past year words like “Crap Shoot” and “Demonizing” were added among several HUNDRED others.  While the unabridged dictionary just keeps adding new words the concise versions have to trim words to keep balanced.  Recent words removed included “Video Jockey” and “Cassette Player”.  Some words once commonly used are rarely used and there are words that have been commonly used that are still not in the dictionary at all.  They all have something in common and that is someone, somewhere, had to make up a word to describe a feeling or situation.  That word either caught on or disappeared from our lexicon.

For years my Mom has made up words when her vocabulary has been lacking.  This has been amusing to me and my brother.  One of her words is “Befaffeldated” that means she was very confused and surprised.  I assume she meant befuddled and exasperated then kind of slammed these words together.  She has also used a word I’ve learned is being considered for the Oxford dictionary but didn’t quite make the cut…..yet.  That word is  “Slickery” and means that there are slippery conditions outside.   Again, I think she slammed “Slick” and “Slippery” together and I thought for a long time it was just another one her made up words.  Maybe she invented that word and now it has spread across the English speaking world and my achieve “real” word status by being included in the dictionary like other great made up words such as “Humongous” or “Ginormous”.  (Yes….ginormous is a word….it passed spell check so it must be a real word).

So, what does this have to do with “Slunk”.  Recently I traveled to Scotland to participate in the Masters World Championships of Highland Games.  Chad Ullom and Jackson Weightlifting Club members Bill Leffler and Jim Spalding were along.  If you’ve ever traveled internationally you may have experienced jet lag.  You also end up with these epically long travel times.  Chad told me that when he and Al Myers traveled to the IAWA World’s a couple years back they spent 40 hours on the road!  They got back Sunday night and Chad had to go to work Monday morning.  He said he was so exhausted that he couldn’t function….or was he “Slunk”?  So sleepy he felt drunk!

On my  recent trip to Scotland I had trouble sleeping on the overnight flight and ended up having marginal sleep for many hours and I jokingly said to Chad that I was “Slunk”.  We were all so tired we wondered if we should even be driving and kept taking turns as we caught naps.  I got to thinking and there have been many times I have been “Slunk”.  When I was in the Marines I was on a schedule where I would work two day shifts the first two days, then two 11-7 shifts the next two days, followed by two afternoon shifts the following two days.  I would then get 80 hours off and repeat.  I often stayed up between the two day intervals and became very sleep deprived.  I once fell into such a deep sleep afterwards that they almost called an ambulance when I wouldn’t wake up!

So, I’m going to try and go viral with this new term to describe that state of being so sleepy that you feel drunk….or Slunk!  It’s real, and we need a word to describe it so why not this word.  Sure, I’m in it for some personal glory, too.  I won’t lie.  If this word makes it I’ll probably cut the page out of a dictionary and hang it on my office wall and then gloat to all my friends saying, “I made that up”.

Do you still need to be sold on it?  Well, think of all the great ways it can be modified to describe things that we currently just can’t describe with one word.  So, if you are so sleepy you feel drunk you are simply “Slunk”.  If someone does this often, then you could call them a “Slunkard”.  If you plan on doing it then you can say you are going to be “Slunking” or maybe you are going to get “slanked”.  If you did it the day before you can say you were “slunked” yesterday.  I haven’t figure out “Slinking”…..maybe it’s the time leading up to getting “Slunked”. I haven’t worked out all these details yet….I’m an idea man not a detail guy.

Okay, so you have a new word!  The revolution begins.  Make me a superstar in the world of Etymology!  Start using “Slunk” every chance you get and, please remember….don’t slink and drive!  Now, if you excuse me….it’s my nap time.  I don’t want to end up a “Slunkard”.

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