Thomas Baker Affiliate



Profile: Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Westport CT Posts: 313

Re: Long Island Takeover?



Listen, I've been to events that had issues. But I have never seen something like this. I can train just about anywhere...but not here. Everyone in the place truly feared for their safety.



Just a few notes:

The venue was way too small for the 300+ athletes, vendors, spectators and other people who were there. By too small I mean you could not stand anywhere and not be touching someone else, let alone do any sort of physical activity.

The "warmup" area resembled a scene out of a horror movie -- with the recent tragedy in CrossFit, you would think safety would have been priority. Bars were flying around small children, people were getting knocked into and the floor was wet in some areas. Keep in mind the first event was a 5 minute cap for a 1RM clean.

There were not enough plates, clamps, zero chalk and just standard things you look for in a competition. During the 1RM clean, we had to barter between Men's RX to find the right weights, mind you, in the middle of the event.

They were building a rig, boxes and sleds during the first part of the competition. Yes, instead of doing it the night before they had a bunch of people building stuff in the middle of the floor, equipment and stuff everywhere. It's always nice to compete to the sound of power drills.

There was no "main clock" at least from what I saw. The judges had no idea what the time left was, the only visible time was the basketball clock counting backwards, unsynced with anything else.

Some of us found a waiting area upstairs to chill and breathe. Unfortunately, the building was doing construction and painting up there and ushered everyone out.

The judges had no idea for standards, some blatantly didn't care and word was a few of them were drinking wine. There was no control, in one event I could have judged my fellow Coach because no one else was around. I don't blame the judges as they are volunteers and I will say one of the ones I met was genuinely nice, this is a reflection of the organizers.

Instead of listening to feedback and offering solutions, the guy running the show was disrespectful and basically said "deal with it, I don't care".

The athlete meeting started one hour late after leaving a line of people in the 10 degree (and windy) cold for at least 20 minutes. All the heats were messed up. In 6 hours we were there, we did one 5 minute event.

After the first event, no one know what was going on. They tried flipping the second and third event, or running them at the same time, but it didn't work.

After the first event, our group of Coaches decided we would not stay the 2nd day (we had a hotel room booked, had planned this ages ago, paid $100 for each person, etc). After they never got the ball rolling for the 2nd and 3rd events, we decided to go back to our home gym and get the hell out of there.



The guys running the show have deleted all of people's reviews and comments about the event. Today, supposedly no one showed up in the morning to even open the door for competitors. Last I heard, it was shut down by the fire marshall and local Suffolk Country Police.



I have never been more embarrassed to be a part of whatever happened at that venue. This was the worst run event I have ever been too, and not just CrossFit, everything.Listen, I've been to events that had issues. But I have never seen something like this. I can train just about anywhere...but not here. Everyone in the place truly feared for their safety.Just a few notes:After the first event, our group of Coaches decided we would not stay the 2nd day (we had a hotel room booked, had planned this ages ago, paid $100 for each person, etc). After they never got the ball rolling for the 2nd and 3rd events, we decided to go back to our home gym and get the hell out of there.The guys running the show have deleted all of people's reviews and comments about the event. Today, supposedly no one showed up in the morning to even open the door for competitors. Last I heard, it was shut down by the fire marshall and local Suffolk Country Police.I have never been more embarrassed to be a part of whatever happened at that venue.