This weekend I went to the Europa Games and Fitness Expo. Retro Crossfit (my new home box) had a team and an individual competing at the Europa Throwdown aka The Raid Games.
I know it may seem weird to go out of our way to watch our friends workout... the same people we work out with everyday. But that kind of community is what I personally think makes the "crossfit koolaid" so addictive.
I have only been going to retro for a little over a month but I already feel at home there. We come together everyday to workout and although our daily lives might be very different, during that time we sweat, suffer, smile, and get stronger together.
Crossfit has evolved a lot over the years and with it the competitions and gyms have too. Competitions come in all shapes and sizes from local competitions hosted by a local box where the first place prize includes a swag bag full of supplement samples and a tshirt, to The Crossfit Games where first place takes home 250K and becomes a crossfit celebrity. This Europa crazyness was somewhere in the middle of all that.
The huge difference between this competition and others is that this one was smack dab in the middle of the most meathead filled fitness expo I have ever heard of. This expo had all types of sport going on. Cheerleading, body building, judo, zumba, even arm wrestling! Which led to the best people watching experience I have had in a damn long time.
Body builder types believe in a serious lack of clothing and a lot of spray tanning.
Don't get it twisted crossfitters love ripping their shirts off during a wod and wearing tiny little shorts, but generally when not working out we wear a normal amount of clothing or at least pretty damn close. The bodybuilder guys either wear no shirt or shirts that are so cut up they look like little pieces of cloth draped over their puffed up muscles. And the ladies... you just never know. But I saw a lot of bedazzled bikinis and I also saw a shit ton of those high heel sneaker things.
When I was 21 I might have talked a lot of shit right here... but at this point in my life I am not hating. Those ladies may wear some outfits I think are super stupid but they are fuckin ripped! And honestly knowing how much work they have to put into looking that way I say rock it however you want to! Get it girl!
The body builders were definitely fun to watch... but I also loved the arm wrestlers... apparently this arm wrestling thing gets very serious! It is hard for me to consider it a sport because they wear jeans while they do it... but later in the day we saw a dude get wheeled out on a stretcher because he broke his arm in one of the matches!!! So I get it they make sacrifices for sure.
There were a shit ton of vendors at the event too. One of which gave us an opportunity to lift a little weight...
Even though this event had a lot to offer the best part was of course watching the Retro athletes do their thing. You get to see people you know push themselves to the max and it is awesome! You find yourself cheering for people you don't even know because although you don't know them you know the struggle they are facing when they just can't get a rep and you want to help them push through.
These are a few of the photos of the guys getting after it.
And this is probably my favorites from the weekend. Team Retro Crossfit after their final wod. Super messed up!
They did great competing in the RX male team division and Frank did awesome going for it in the RX Male Masters division. They were all super jacked up after two days full of working out. I look forward to them all groaning and moaning at the gym today about how much pain they are in... I know thats kind of sick.
The competetors definitely deserved some celebration for their performance. So we did what any "great" crossfitters do... went out and ate some bomb ass food and had some drinks!!
We went to Brick House Tavern for dinner and although I am usually all about the food, this night I clearly had a one track mind. Somehow despite the many plates of awesome food I wound up with these photos...
The night continued to get weird when we went to Senior Frogs... where I got hit on by a guy who I thought might be homeless... I got clarification that he indeed has a home but rode to the bar with the top down on his jeep which is why he looked disheveled... whatever the case it was time to get out of there... but not before getting this awesome photo
We skipped down to Howl at the Moon. Where we drank too many bucket sized drinks and sang along to way too many songs.
I wish I could talk in more detail about the debauchery but to protect the reputation of some of the crazies I will leave out some details... I will say that toward the end of the evening the guys decided a shot of fireball was a good idea for a night cap (Ashley doesn't drink fireball... take a guess how that came about). Just at the mention of fireball Conners demeanor changed. By the time the shots arrived Conner was gone and despite our efforts to find him we ended up taking a cab home without him... #whereisconner ?
After a pretty wild cab ride back to the hotel we all stumbled out and guess what we found... Conner, what happened in between howl and the hotel is still and probably always will be a mystery. Of course none of us went to bed we rallied and found ourselves getting into plenty of trouble... again only some of which I will talk about here. Let me tell you about crossfitters and drinking... it never fails that when a bunch of crossfitters get together and drink someone will eventually decide to do something to show their athletic skill. A buzz just makes you want to show how badass you are at burpees, and its all fun and games until you crack a tooth (you know who you are). Well I think this night in particular the guys were inspired by the arm wrestlers from the expo.
I am pretty sure there was a best two out of three situation between Matt and Conner. I honestly can not tell you who won but I can tell you Matt did a lot of winner posing. In the photo on the bottom right Matt is doing an air thruster!
The Europa experience was a great ass time for sure.
Over the years I have attended multiple crossfit gyms and met a lot of crossfit people and I always love the way we all support each other and show our love at these events. Even for none crossfitters competitions have an energy that is infectious. And of course the after competition crazyness is always a blast.
Me and Ash are thinking about getting a team together for The Central Florida Throwdown so stay tuned!
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