The Atomic Athletic Olde Time Strongman Picnic was held again this past weekend in Bowling Green, Ohio. Owner Roger Lapointe holds these picnics along the same lines as the original York Barbell picnic that were held in the 1930s and 40s by founder Bob Hoffman.
Today, as in the past, strength athletes and performers gather to demonstrate their strength and mobility while entertaining the crowd. This year saw a tremendous line-up:
Eric McGill and Nick Rosendaul demonstrated some strongman events with a 28,000 lbs. truck pull and some stone lifting (stones from 160 to 300 lbs. were used).
Todd Baden and Fred Lowe gave separate olympic weightlifting demonstrations. Todd’s concentrated on the youth lifter with his 9 year old son doing picture perfect snatches in front of the crowd. While Fred concentrated on the master’s lifter.
Persian Indian clubs were demonstrated and on hand for many to try. As well as Circus Vera who performed many sideshow entertainment bits of walking on glass, climbing a staircase of swords, eating fire and an electric chair. Sean Dockery was on hand scrolling a 20 ft. bar of steel into a work of art using his hands. Other steel bending was done by Nick and Stew Rosendaul as they twisted horseshoes and destroyed nails.
Another highlight was watching Logan Christopher pull a 8,000lbs. fire truck with his HAIR. Crazy stuff.
I had the pleasure of going head to head with Logan, also one of the best kettlebell jugglers around, in a game of PIG as we tried to one-up each other. I then continued to juggle and throw weight around for the crowd in the form of a 50lbs. stone padlock, 45lbs. weightplate, kettlebells and my 55kg barbell juggling routine.
To top it all off, I was able to lift the creator, Roger Lapointe, overhead with one arm. A great finish to a great day.
