Waking up to a hangover never is fun, but at least this time it was for a good reason. It has been clear and sunny everyday until today and it’s overcast. Luckily that’s actually good for shooting so I had four shoots that I fit in. First up was Slovakian Aurelia Grazjnova who took second in the heavyweights and was a very pleasant woman, although I couldn’t really talk to her, but had to go through her translator. Next up was Kiwi Joanna Stewart. I have to say that everyone I met from New Zealand was so pleasant and everyone I’ve ever met from there is so nice. At 43, Joanna still looks amazing and said she’ll most likely be back for the 2005 edition. Finally Monica Hoeyer, Pia Johnsen’s friend was the final photoshoot. She had injured her foot at an earlier shoot and was hobbled by that, but was a trooper to shoot still.

After dinner at the hotel, I went by the Caprici Verd and ran into John again (who incidentally was reading Haruki Murakami’s Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World) and we were chatting when Joanne and Mark Stewart from New Zealand walked by and invited us to dinner and we accepted. Several hours and enjoyable conversation later, we headed back to the hotel to crash out.

The Finals began with a parade of athletes that was really neat. Seeing the delegates and an athlete representative with their flag was inspiring, especially for those smaller countries and ones that are further away from Spain. Once the welcome ceremonies finished, it was time for the competition and it was another long day and like many other shows in the sport, it wasn’t without a bit of controversy in the final results. Of course this being bodybuilding and fitness/figure, that is pretty much par for the course.

When the finals ended, it left a few hours before people would be getting ready for the banquet and party. It’s a nice touch to have an official party that is for everyone since in many of the shows in the states I’ve been to, the parties are separate entities and not part of the official festivities for the competition. The athletes looked amazing and would have been the perfect advertisement for why everyone should appreciate them. While people mingled for the first half and enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, everyone drank and relaxed until the disco portion opened up and I have to say that the Czech Republic ladies definitely were having fun on the dance floor including Eva Supkova who was getting down! Johanna Dajeager pulled me out on the dance floor and we grooved for a bit. By the end of the night, everyone was sweating and ready to get on the buses back to the hotels to crash out…

Little did I know as I sat down to breakfast with John Plummer of Weider Europe that Saturday would be so long. They call pre-judging semi-finals at the Worlds, and with ten different classes of athletes, there was a lot on deck. Things started out with fitness two-pieces and then the routines. Afterwards were the female bodybuilders and then mens fitness followed by body fitness (figure). The day was grueling as the arena did not have air circulation and since smoking is allowed indoors and virtually all the fans and athletes smoke, the air was moist and stuffy inside.

That didn’t deter the athletes though as the show was quite impressive if not for the length of it all.

Since prejuding ran from 09:30 until past 19:30 the sun was down and there was no opportunity to shoot with athletes. However, because the elimination rounds were concluded, many of the athletes were starting to enjoy themselves. The lobby of the Caprici Verd was full of delegates, judges, journalists and competitors, and everyone was drinking, smoking or socializing, which was nice. The language barrier is still there although most of the Western Europeans could speak English which was the common language. Everything shut down around 01:00 and it drew close a long day, but the finals were still ahead.

10:30 a.m. – Today I checked into my official room at the Maritim next door to the host hotel, Caprici Verd. It’s one of the overflow hotels, and I saw that the Dutch contingent will also be at my hotel as well as India (I think, although I can’t quite understand what the Catalan word was).

Picked up the media kit and am all set. Today will consist of scouting more locations around here to shoot as well as lining whatever up that I can.

After a slow afternoon where all the teams were checking in, the weigh-ins were upon us and it was the first time that everyone came together. It was more than impressive seeing athletes from Iceland, Norway, Lithuania, Poland, South Africa, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, just to name a few. There were nine classes for the women and a total of almost 200 athletes total.

After the height check and weigh ins most of the athletes retired for the evening to prepare for the show. This being Europe, one thing you saw a lot of was smoking and everyone was reluctant to let me photograph them while they were enjoying a smoke. Also chatted a bit with John from Flex Europe and Johanna Dejager from Canada who was enjoying some wine and cheese which was her form of contest prep. Johanna looked amazing at weigh-ins and will be competing in the middleweight class, which looks very, very deep.

I also chatted with Jo Stewart from New Zealand and set up a shoot. The New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans all were incredibly nice and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone from any of those coutries who wasn’t pleasant.

Continue reading Day 2 – Women’s Worlds →

Arrived in Barcelona after a long transatlantic flight that included a transamerican leg. After hopping off the plane we take the train to Barcelona and hop in a cab down the coast to our hotel in Santa Susanna after a few directional misadventures since we don’t have the exact address, and our cabbie has never been there.

Settle in and eat a nice lunch which consisted mostly of paella for myself and then kick it at the hotel and chat with delegates from the Czech Republic and Russia as well as Pia Marlen from Norway and her friend Monica. Pia is competing this weekend and Monica is there for support and will be competing next week in the nationals in Norway.

One thing they have here is that when you check into a hotel, your room key also controls the power in your room so you have to insert your key in the wall or else you won’t have power – same goes for using the bathrooms, etc. Clever for the hotel to control electricity costs and access, but it sucks if you want to charge stuff in your room while you are out. Meals are included with room rates which I can’t decide if that’s good or not yet. Of course here there are barely any other options on where to eat, so I’ll say it’s a good thing so far…

Sunset on the Mediterranean coast is warm and the temperature is perfect, a nice warmup to an exciting weekend.