Tearin' 'Em Up

I have been enjoying tearing all sorts of phone books from around the world, and thought I'd share a few of them here. This video opens up with me doing a "Grip-n-Rip" style tear ,Ala Dennis Rogers, LEFT handed. As one of my favorite movie quotes mentions, "no, I'm not left handed". LOL! After that is a series of right handed "G-n-R" tears with books from around the States and the world. Notice the clean, straight tear line in the book - a sign of legitimacy in tearing phone books.

From A Filming Session

Here are a few of the feats I performed for a recent filming session in North Carolina with "Pound for pound the worlds strongest man" Dennis Rogers and Aaron "Mighty Mac" McKenzie.

The bolt on the left is 3/8" thick by 7-1/2" long and I bent this in a manner known as unbraced. Basically what this means is that the piece is bent only by the hands - no bracing on the legs or other objects.

The bolt on the right is 3/8" thick by 11" long and this time I performed what is known as braced bending where I pushed the bolt down over my thigh and then supported my wrists with my legs to do the final crush on the now "S" bolt with my hands.

In the center is a pair, yes a PAIR of #2 horseshoes. I duct taped them together and bent them with my hands while the shoes were braced against my leg. Once the two shoes were taped together they measured 5/8" wide by 5/8" thick. That was a fun bend for sure.

When the video footage of these bends is made available I'll post an update for where they can be seen.

Chris Rider, Dennis Rogers, and The Mighty Mac

Being a performing strongman I get to travel all over demonstrating my feats. This past weekend I went to North Carolina for a show with my mentor Dennis Rogers. While there we met up fellow strongman Aaron "Mighty Mac" McKenzie. After the show was over we went back to Mac's house to do some strength feat filming, I'll post a few of the things I did there in the next update.

I did want to mention for those who aren't familiar with Mac one of the many things he did. I had found some really nasty decks of Bicycle brand playing cards - actually they were the hardest "Bike's" I've ever come across. Well, I handed a deck to Mighty Mac and told him what they were and in no time at all he handed them back not only torn in half but torn into quarters. Dennis had named him the world's best card tearer last year and I fully agree! Great job my friend!

CHI USA Grand Opening

Thursday I was in Houston Texas performing with my mentor Dennis Rogers for the grand opening event at CHI USA. In this photo Dennis and I are standing with Farouk Shami, Founder and Executive Chairman of Farouk Systems, Inc.

It was great performing for the thousands in attendance at this special event. Thank you Dennis, John, and Farouk!

A.O.B.S. 2009

This past weekend the Association of Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen held it's 26Th reunion in Newark, New Jersey. This weekend had marked my third reunion, however this one was more special to me. After successfully attempting my first oldetime strength feat at the request of a friend in October of 2006, then seriously pursuing the training of the oldetime strongmen beginning in March of 2007, I'm still a bit of the "new guy" in this strength circle. Even with my relative newness into this arena, I was given a great honor - Performing on the main stage of the A.O.B.S. reunion! In the picture you can see the 12" heavy duty adjustable wrench I bent during my dinner performance for the 250 + in attendance, many being legends of the Iron game.

As is customary for the performing strongmen at this event, we get together in the lobby of the hotel after the formal festivities are over and we really let loose out there. In the picture is also a #3 polished steel horseshoe that I bent across the throat of Mike "The Machine" Bruce, and a 24 oz. framing hammer I bent into an "S" shape by hand.

I am very fortunate to have shared the same stage as some of the greatest strongmen of all time! For all the performers at this years event, you all did an outstanding job of showing the attendees what being a performing strongman is all about!

This just further shows that if you believe in yourself and apply all you have to your talents, anything is possible! As my friend Aaron "Mighty Mac" McKenzie likes to quote - "keep moving forward".

Special thanks to Artie Drechsler, The Legend - Slim "The Hammerman" Farman, and my mentor Dennis Rogers "pound for pound the world's strongest man" for giving me the opportunity to share in this tradition and to be a part of the legacy that is the A.O.B.S.!

Plate Confetti

After the blog entry made by Grandmaster Strongman Dennis Rogers, I was approached about doing another multiple tear license plate for a private collection. This is the end result. It is a Pa plate that I tore into 52 pieces. The smallest tears were completed by pinching with only the index fingers and thumbs, then by using a motion similar to the way I tear cards.

Training With The Grand Master

I just returned from training with Grand Master Strongman Dennis Rogers in Houston Texas. It was a very productive visit to say the least. Dennis set up a small training seminar for some of his students which I was fortunate to be a part of. Many great things were covered and accomplished by all those who were in attendance. Speaking of accomplishments, notice the 1/4" x 3/4" #3 steel horseshoe on the table in the picture? I bent that particular shoe across the throat of my friend Mike "The Machine" Bruce, that's right - across his THROAT.

You will also notice the very large horseshoe I am holding while sitting beside my mentor Dennis Rogers. It is a Diamond Special #5 steel horseshoe that I bent into an "S" shape the previous evening. This is an extremely difficult feat to perform and have been told that only one other man in the world is credited with accomplishing this bend in the style I performed it.

Thoughts From The Grand Master

This is a link to a blog entry by Grand Master Strongman
Dennis Rogers in reference to some of my feats.

http://dennisrogers.net/blog.php?id=158

For those of you who don't know, Dennis is the #1 professional strongman in the world, multiple world record holder, has been named "pound for pound the worlds strongest man for the feats he performs", and he is my mentor.

Rolling A Frying Pan

In the mid 1990's, Grand Master Strongman Dennis Rogers introduced the feat of rolling up a frying pan. Now I mean REAL frying pans, not bargain store junk - and I mean ROLLING.

To accomplish this, it not only requires very strong wrists to initiate the roll, it also takes a powerful grip to hold on to the slick non-stick surface.

Notice how tightly the 10" name brand pan pictured is rolled. This is one of the many feats I have learned from the Grand Master himself.