I’m finally getting around to writing this, a few weeks after the fact.  But, the Portland Highland Games 2010 was a success and a ton of fun.  Three of our crew competed: Myself, Chris, and Roy.  Chris and I were in the C class (Remember, a C gets a degree) and Roy was in the Novice class.

We spent a fair amount of time practicing the weight for distance and the open stone prior to going in this year.  Roy built a make-shift weight for distance out of pipes and plates.  And it served us well.  Though we did break one of them!  And he had to make a second one.

While I know my own spin technique leaves much to be desired, I did get quite a lot of complements from the more experienced competitors.  So, it turns out that practice does help … who knew?

We’re all quite new at this sport.  We assumed (wrongly) when we first started that our Olympic lifting would carry over far.  Wrong.  While we are often among the strongest guys at our level, our technique is so far behind that we can’t utilize our strength and power correctly.  We get killed by guys far less athletic than us.

This is actually good news.  Just like the Olympic lifts, once we learn the technique and get better and better at that, our power will transfer and the weights will start going a lot farther.

Here are some vids.  (The pic above is me with the 56 pound weight for distance.  Let me tell you now, 56 pounds spins you more than you spin it – see my wipe-out below.)

28 Pound Weight for Distance

56 Pound Weight for Distance

Hard, this is very hard!

Open Stone

Caber … Well, Not so much!

And here are a few pics of Roy (sadly, I ain’t got no vids):

There’s a new federation in town hoping to bridge the gap between Highland Games competitions and Strongman competitions called the North American Highlander Association.  Very cool.

Here’s how their contests work in the words of the organizations co-founder, D.J. Satterfield:

NAHA competitions consist of half strongman and half highland games events. This is a prerequisite for all competitions. Contests have either a total of 4, 6 or 8 events. The strongman events will consist of what everyone is accustomed to, ie: log press, farmers, stones, yoke, loading, truck pull, etc. and some other unique events.

The highland games portion must consist of any of the std. 9 highland game events, ie: light weight for distance, heavy weight for distance, light hammer throw, heavy hammer throw, open stone put, Braemar stone put, sheaf toss, weight over bar and caber.

There are a number of divisions including:

• Men’s lightweight, under 200#
• Men’s Middleweight, under 250#
• Men’s Heavyweight, over 250#
• Masters
• Women’s lightweight, under 160#
• Women’s heavyweight, over 160#

If you’re looking for another type of strength test for yourself, this sounds like a good one.   A mix of strength and skill.

Oh, and though it isn’t required, a Kilt is recommended.  I love any excuse to wear my Kilt!

There’s a contest happening up just north of Seattle I’m considering entering at the end of August.  We’ll see.  I’ll keep you posted.

And if you’ve entered one of these contests already, share your experience with us in the comments section.