Who’s California’s Strongest Man? Contestants find out in Huntington Beach
About 50 competitors lifted or pulled hundreds of pounds in a show of strength at the California’s Strongest Man Contest in Huntington Beach last weekend.
Promoter Scott Brengel of Costa Mesa said about 2,000 spectators turned out for the annual competition, held near the beach across from the Huntington Beach Hilton on Saturday.
The competitors came from across the country, and one entrant was from Australia, he said.
The five competitions included the lifting of the Atlas stone. In this event, competitors choose a 250-, 330-, 365- or 400-pound Atlas stone to pick up from the ground and put over a 48-inch-high bar as many times as possible in 60 seconds. The person who puts the heaviest stone over the most times wins.
The Seated Arm Over Arm Medley involves sitting on a giant tractor tire and pulling a 2-inch-thick nautical rope attached to a 400-pound sled with a 300-pound keg on top of it, and then carrying the keg 50 feet and pushing the sled back across the finish line.
“People are in it for the love of the sport and are passionate about strength in all forms, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, Scottish Highland games, track and field, bodybuilding and, of course, strongman,” said Brengel, who owns the East Coast/West Coast Strength Speed Conditioning gym in Costa Mesa.
He added: “The sport of strongman is the ultimate test of human strength, mental toughness and pure willpower and determination. The men and women that rise to the highest level in this sport are real-life superheroes capable of performing feats of strength that would normally take as many as five average men to complete.”
