Sandy sent a link to a youtube video from our very first ever free workout. Oh the memories. He commented on how far we’ve come regarding holding folks to movement standards and in our defense I have to respond…it was a free workout. A try us and this CrossFit stuff out. We did end up getting 2 folks who were willing to drive from downtown Houston out to our house in Spring for Elements but that was the end of that event’s effectiveness.
For me, that video was more of a snapshot of where CrossFit in Houston was in 2006. At that time, there was only us in the entire Houston area as an affiliate. When we had gone out for our first level 1 cert. in San Diego, CA in July of ’06 we fully intended on utilizing crossfit training as a conditioning program for our martial arts. We knew of Coach Glassman and had seen Nicole Carrol in a video or two, but really had no idea of who most of those folks were. Looking back on the weekend there are lots of names that had their hand in the running of the cert or were there attending for the first time like we were. Jeff Martin of BrandX Martial Arts/CFBrandX/CFKids (this is pre-CFKids) was there as an instructor. Tony Budding of CFHQ staff and the man behind the media of CrossFit was there gently prodding us into an affiliation. Nicole Carrol, of course, was there steering Coach and keeping him on track as well as being the demo person. Dr. Mike and Lisa Ray, owners of CFFlagstaff, Rob Miller, big time free climber, and Eddie and Lisa Lugo, owners of CF San Diego were all there on the instructing end. Coach Burgener stopped in (we had no idea who he was). Freddie Camacho of CrossFit One World , Kelley and Steve Rakow of CrossFit Ocean City, and Skip Miller of Front Range CrossFit were all there on their first level 1 like us. There are several other gym owners there that I can’t place with their faces at this moment. It’s been a little while. When you’re looking at the list of affiliates on cf.com’s front page you see the group in the order of affiliation over on the right side under upcoming certs. Check out where we are on that list. In relation to the length of the list, we’re close to the top.
If you know who you’re looking at, you will see Carlos and Lisa Ibarra in that video. They are the owners of CFHouston. Most of the people that day were their clients pre-crossfit. We’ve all grown as trainers since then.
David Cogswell with Houston’s Kettlebell Club was there doing a free demo after our workout. He, his wife Miriam and a handful of clients participated. They did well. It was a beginning for us.
Two other attendees came for the kettlebell demo, having never heard of CrossFit, and ended up being the first folks who went through our Elements program. If you follow the CFEndurance forum or cf.com’s forum you might have seen the name Shawn McDonald. He works with athletes in and around Houston and was one of those two adventurous souls. I ran into him again last year at the Endurance Cert at GSX in June and he judged at our Oktoberfest Obliteration event in October. He also was kind enough to hold the recent William paintball fundraiser.
It was our first shot at holding an event and I have to say we didn’t sleep much the night before and quite literally made ourselves sick with nerves before starting it. It’s one of those things that you look back on after and say that wasn’t so bad but at the time you wonder how you’ll get through it. Good stuff overall.
Thanks for finding it, Sandy!