Al Thompson
07-25-2005, 03:13 PM
Last week, amatuer strongman and Iron Sport member Doug Kirby tells me he needs to practice tire flipping for a contest he is doing in Maryland August 6.
The tire we have at Iron Sport (where I am overnight manager) is like 927 pounds and not condusive to beginners who want to get a lot of flips in and work on their technique.
The tire at the show is 680 pounds so we need to get him to a tire more like the show's.
And since it took me a week to get the Iron Sport tire back to the gym from the Lagoon after the Pacifico Ford Liberty Strongman Classic this was not going to be an easy task.
The problem is because of his job he has a crazy schedule.
Doug, a former college defenisve lineman and pretty jacked at 6-4, 305 pounds, has been doing event stuff at the gym recently at times like midnight and 1 a.m.
So we decide to go over to a warehouse nearby on Sunday that some of the other strongmen at the gym found that has dozens of really big tires stacked up all over the place...juicy stuff if you are into this kind of thing.
Doug wasn't sure what time he'd be into the Philly airport just that it would be sometime between 12-noon and 5:30 p.m.
No problem.
Knowing we'd need help to move these monsters around to line up for Big Doug to flip, I enlist the help of Big Ox - my Friday night training partner - and his 12-year old son Alex. They live near the gym so it was no big deal for them to be on call for the Big Workout.
When you are 6-3, 335 pounds and your last name is Oxner, you are basically baptized with that nickname.
Doug's flight does not get in till after 5 p.m. so it is 6 p.m by the time Doug gets to the gym, changes and we round up the troops to head over to the warehouse.
The front gate is long gone so it is an easy tresspass, and besides most of the time the guards come out and watch whenever our guys are there so we are as cool as a pair of Walt Gogola sunglasses.
Once there we find the joint deserted. But lots and lots of tires...too many tires...all stacked up and filled with water...this sucks.
One thing is for sure...when you do this...wear clothes you can throw out after the workout...trust me...
After carefully surveying the inventory, Doug sees one he wants...it is the top tire on a stack of five!
I am able to climb up an ajoining stack of tires while Doug and Ox get as high up as they can on the other side...we tell Alex to sit this part out and wait by the cars (Like we really knew what we were doing)....we start to rock the giant stack of tires back and forth...together they must weigh over 3500 pounds at least.
On top of that, the tire is new so the rubber is really tacky, making it even harder to move...he has to have THIS tire.
But we get it rocking pretty good when someone starts a countdown...I guess so we can give it one big shove...three...two...one!!!
The massive stack of rubber comes crashing down...giant tires rolling everywhere....Ox stops one from ramming his new SUV...Doug runs down another...this is awsome ....I am still on top of the ajoining stack watching all this and immediately thinking back to the night when I was 16 years old and my buddies and I wanted to see if a soda machine would float in a pool...they don't.
Anyway, we roll the other tires back to places where they would look like that is where they were to begin with...I guess.
The contest calls for 12 flips in 90 seconds. Doug starts to flip, gets two and then stops.
"It's too big," Doug says with his Virginia twang. He figures it must be 850 pounds...whatever. I am not going to even try one flip of any tire. My back is still killing me from squatting friday night. At 52 years of age I got 405 pounds for 6 reps at the end of the workout (so I guess this now qualifies as a training journal).
We troll around the lot for a smaller one. By now we all look like Al Jolson doing "Mammy."
This one is too big, that one is too small...finally we find one we all agree must be between 600 and 700 pounds.
Just then a Hispanic guy with the name "Eutropio" on his shirt pulls up in a giant white tire repair truck and tells us we set off the alarm in one of the buildings.
No way we are leaving after all this.
Doug gets down on all fours and gets ready to flip.
Almost on cue Prospect Park's one cop car rolls up. The officer gets out his car, takes one look at our fllthy asses, checks the door to the warehouse and gets back in the car...I walk up to the driver's side of the patrol car and the officer looks at me as if to say..."Don't you dare touch anything!!!"
"We're from..." I start to say.
"I know," he interrupts glaring up at me.
The officer jots a few things down and is gone.
Using what is left of Doug's watch, I time his 12 flips in 44 seconds....not bad for his first real session...he ends up doing about three rounds and all came in at around the same time.
It also must be noted that Ox flipped the tire 8 times in a row while Doug was taking a break...not bad for - like me - not having a clue. Alex flipped a 300 pound tire once to make sure he was as dirty as his Dad and his buddies ... peer pressure already.
We were now done.
A group of men - from ages 12 to 52 - got together for a common goal. These men came...saw.... and ..... got tired.
:BP:
The tire we have at Iron Sport (where I am overnight manager) is like 927 pounds and not condusive to beginners who want to get a lot of flips in and work on their technique.
The tire at the show is 680 pounds so we need to get him to a tire more like the show's.
And since it took me a week to get the Iron Sport tire back to the gym from the Lagoon after the Pacifico Ford Liberty Strongman Classic this was not going to be an easy task.
The problem is because of his job he has a crazy schedule.
Doug, a former college defenisve lineman and pretty jacked at 6-4, 305 pounds, has been doing event stuff at the gym recently at times like midnight and 1 a.m.
So we decide to go over to a warehouse nearby on Sunday that some of the other strongmen at the gym found that has dozens of really big tires stacked up all over the place...juicy stuff if you are into this kind of thing.
Doug wasn't sure what time he'd be into the Philly airport just that it would be sometime between 12-noon and 5:30 p.m.
No problem.
Knowing we'd need help to move these monsters around to line up for Big Doug to flip, I enlist the help of Big Ox - my Friday night training partner - and his 12-year old son Alex. They live near the gym so it was no big deal for them to be on call for the Big Workout.
When you are 6-3, 335 pounds and your last name is Oxner, you are basically baptized with that nickname.
Doug's flight does not get in till after 5 p.m. so it is 6 p.m by the time Doug gets to the gym, changes and we round up the troops to head over to the warehouse.
The front gate is long gone so it is an easy tresspass, and besides most of the time the guards come out and watch whenever our guys are there so we are as cool as a pair of Walt Gogola sunglasses.
Once there we find the joint deserted. But lots and lots of tires...too many tires...all stacked up and filled with water...this sucks.
One thing is for sure...when you do this...wear clothes you can throw out after the workout...trust me...
After carefully surveying the inventory, Doug sees one he wants...it is the top tire on a stack of five!
I am able to climb up an ajoining stack of tires while Doug and Ox get as high up as they can on the other side...we tell Alex to sit this part out and wait by the cars (Like we really knew what we were doing)....we start to rock the giant stack of tires back and forth...together they must weigh over 3500 pounds at least.
On top of that, the tire is new so the rubber is really tacky, making it even harder to move...he has to have THIS tire.
But we get it rocking pretty good when someone starts a countdown...I guess so we can give it one big shove...three...two...one!!!
The massive stack of rubber comes crashing down...giant tires rolling everywhere....Ox stops one from ramming his new SUV...Doug runs down another...this is awsome ....I am still on top of the ajoining stack watching all this and immediately thinking back to the night when I was 16 years old and my buddies and I wanted to see if a soda machine would float in a pool...they don't.
Anyway, we roll the other tires back to places where they would look like that is where they were to begin with...I guess.
The contest calls for 12 flips in 90 seconds. Doug starts to flip, gets two and then stops.
"It's too big," Doug says with his Virginia twang. He figures it must be 850 pounds...whatever. I am not going to even try one flip of any tire. My back is still killing me from squatting friday night. At 52 years of age I got 405 pounds for 6 reps at the end of the workout (so I guess this now qualifies as a training journal).
We troll around the lot for a smaller one. By now we all look like Al Jolson doing "Mammy."
This one is too big, that one is too small...finally we find one we all agree must be between 600 and 700 pounds.
Just then a Hispanic guy with the name "Eutropio" on his shirt pulls up in a giant white tire repair truck and tells us we set off the alarm in one of the buildings.
No way we are leaving after all this.
Doug gets down on all fours and gets ready to flip.
Almost on cue Prospect Park's one cop car rolls up. The officer gets out his car, takes one look at our fllthy asses, checks the door to the warehouse and gets back in the car...I walk up to the driver's side of the patrol car and the officer looks at me as if to say..."Don't you dare touch anything!!!"
"We're from..." I start to say.
"I know," he interrupts glaring up at me.
The officer jots a few things down and is gone.
Using what is left of Doug's watch, I time his 12 flips in 44 seconds....not bad for his first real session...he ends up doing about three rounds and all came in at around the same time.
It also must be noted that Ox flipped the tire 8 times in a row while Doug was taking a break...not bad for - like me - not having a clue. Alex flipped a 300 pound tire once to make sure he was as dirty as his Dad and his buddies ... peer pressure already.
We were now done.
A group of men - from ages 12 to 52 - got together for a common goal. These men came...saw.... and ..... got tired.
:BP: