ATTENDING HASSLE FREE MEET AT EVO STANTA CLARA
For those weightlifting fans and followers in the USA who might not be familiar with our weights and craft, let me tell you a story. Back in the 2015 fall, while Houston hosted the World Championships, I had the opportunity to cross paths with Kevin Doherty and his big hustle, selling weightlifting gear at weightlifting venues. Which by the way, is this his big thin?
Anyways, I remember we arrived with our family into the venue really early that Thursday. We had the chance to see one of the weightlifting groups B-C compete.
While walking into the convention center, I was looking for my friend Matt Bruce, and was hoping to find couple singlets and boots to stay fresh onto what was popular at that moment. Suddelny, I saw a guy selling all types of weightlifting gear out of a table. I came up closer to him and introduced myself. I asked him for couple sizes on signlets and paid for them. Just right before paying, this guy asked me what was my name and where I was from. I told him right away my name and mentioned my company and what we do. Instantly, Kevin introduced himself and told me about his coaching program in the Bay area and how they had won a 140g BULLDOG training classic set at a Myles Ahead competition the weekend before worlds. We exchanged phone numbers and I told him to put our equipment to work, looking forward to hearing his feedback at the 2016 Arnold in Columbus, OH.
After the Arnold, we arranged a small visit during summer to his gym at the Abraham Lincoln High School to see what kind of environment he was using our weights at. Since then, we have created and collaborated with kevin and his whole team-family- i delivering durable training bumper plates for weightlifting in NorCal.
Attending Santa Clara Evo sport convention was really nice, as it was a 1 day show, with around 120 lifters dropping weights for almost 8 hours. I helped out setting up equipment on Friday night (not all of our weights and rubber mats arrived) for the Hassle Free crew to execute the meet. Saturday was showtime and everything was packed up after 5:00 PM.
It was awesome to have 10 training platforms with almost 205kg in weights, a technique barbell and one men’s-one women’s barbell. Laying up all the equipment and making sure every lifter and coach who showed up would have the best possible training scenario to perform and check in the numbers they needed for nationals, was really the point. And that’s what we value. We do care about how programs and coaches approach these competitions, how their athletes feel with having weigh ins on time, enough equipment to warm up, and a similar set up of what they will face at WSO championships and Nationals. We love to impact weightlifting grassroots.
Finally, the event went well. I was able to see Ben, Nini, Kara, Karine, Eric and so many more crew members of the Hassle Free family. We decided to partner up with Hassle Free team because while they focus on coaching and judging, we can provide kilo bumpers that are calibrated and designed for training. Our equipment allows not only Kevin and his club to count with accurate weights but sustainable equipment that last and protects its business.
Andres Castillo
BWE LLC