From Orlando to Stratford – The 2009 Season Begins

As I write this, it’s only been a couple of days since I got back from an amateur competition in Stratford, Ontario – the OPA Stratford Championships, probably the largest local-level event in Canada. The week before, I was at a professional-level competition in Orlando, Florida, the IFBB Europa Show of Champions. The Stratford contest was won by an under-21 newcomer named Billy Pope, the Orlando show by 31-year-old veteran Troy Alves.

The competitive level of each competition is obviously different, but at the core the shows were quite similar. They both employ the same judging format, the competitors do the same poses, and at the end of it all one guy goes home as the winner. This is the way bodybuilding competitions are run, regardless of whether you’re a pro or an amateur, and I couldn’t help but notice that despite the difference in caliber of competitors at each of the competitions, the excitement level is pretty much the same.

The other thing about these shows is that they basically kicked off the 2009 season for me. Sure, there was the Arnold Sports Festival over a month ago, which I attended and already wrote about. But the Arnold is a different kind of beast. It’s held early in the year and it boasts a multitude of sports. It’s more than just a bodybuilding show. On the other hand, these back-to-back contests in April signaled the real start of the succession of amateur and professional contests that will go on from now until the end of the year.

Now that the 2009 season has begun, I’m thinking how best to cover them and how I can do things differently than I have in the past. Of course, I’ll still be writing about bodybuilding and displaying photos on this site, as well as showcasing my photos through new projects we’re developing. I’m also making my work available to other media outlets so it will appear in different places. I supply regular features to Inside Fitness, which is now published bi-monthly and includes a lot of Canadian-based bodybuilding content. MuscleMag picked up my Arnold Classic pictures for a big spread in their next issue and will reportedly use some of my Orlando and Stratford shots too. It feels good when you find your work being published in other places and having broader appeal.

Darrem Charles approaches the stage at the 2009 IFBB Europa Show of Champions.

I’m also considering how I’m going to expand things here at SeriousAboutMuscle.com. This site has found a good following and it’s a great place to write about the things that interest me most, and it’s the place that I can have the competitors whom I admire write training articles and question-and-answer pieces that our readers can learn from. As a result of this, I want SeriousAboutMuscle.com to be more. But this expansion is something you’ll hear about another time.

The Orlando and Stratford shows have kicked off the 2009 season for me and I’m already hard at work. Look for the next article from Stéphane Bussière on May 15 and more from me next month. Until then . . .

...Doug Schneider, Publisher
das@seriousaboutmuscle.com

Doug Schneider is the publisher and chief photographer for SeriousAboutMuscle.com, BodyBuildingLive.com, and SeriousAboutFitness.com.