On Friday August 17th, a dozen competitors headed to Diablo Rock Gym to participate in the Bay Area Grip Challenge. Ripping entire decks of cards, bending nails, grippers, and dead lifts were some of the challenges for the contenders.
The comp, which was the brainchild of grip fanatic Daniel Reinard, featured a number of different events, a class for women and two different weight classes for men. The eclectic crowd of grippers came from climbing and weight lifting back grounds, a few of the contenders were pulled off the climbing walls and out of the spectator crowd to join in on the event.
There was significant excitement in the women’s class. Entering the last event, Samantha Domingo, Emily Grisby, and Jenna Weyburne fought for first place with their scores being a mere 17 point spread out of 300 points. Domingo’s height and avid climbing helped secure first place with an impressive feat on the axle and in a number of other categories.
One of the stronger contenders, Connor Everton came to the event from out of the bouldering pit. The 16 year old high-school freshman, made an impressive first effort at the grip comp. Everton weighs 130 pounds according to his dad. Everton himself claims he is a solid 140. He pushed his muscle around and lifted 283 pounds on the axle to full lockout and down. This is more than twice his bodyweight.
Daniel Reinhard won the heavy weight category despite having tendon damage in a number of fingers, in his palms, wrists and forearms. A notable contribution was made by Kevin Colleen, who put it in significant effort helping with the judging, planning, and organization of the comp.
The winners all received trophies. A good time was had be all of the participants and the spectators. Stay tuned for the next grip comp at Diablo Rock Gym.
Women
1) Samantha Domingo
2) Emily Grigsby
3) Jenna Weyburne
Men’s LW
1) Jake Chaknova
2) Mike Rodgers
3) Connor Everton
4) Hans Florine
5) Brian
Men’s HW
1) Daniel Reinard
2) Bretty Aved
3) Kevin Collen
