CrossFit Horsepower Sues City of Hermosa Beach

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“You’ll only get as good at CrossFit as you are willing to be exposed.” — Dawn Fletcher

CrossFit Horsepower Fires Back With a Lawsuit

The story.

CrossFit Horsepower has filed a lawsuit against the city of Hermosa Beach, asking a judge to set aside the city’s earlier decision that Horsepower is a public nuisance, and to compensate the gym’s owners for the lost value of the business, as well as attorney’s fees and litigation costs.

Remind me.

In May, the city of Hermosa Beach held a public hearing about alleged noise complaints revolving around the gym.

The gym didn’t fare so well and in August the city council voted 3-0 to deem Horsepower a public nuisance, saying that neighbors and residents had been “greatly and adversely affected” by music, use of sidewalks for exercise and dropping of weights.

They gave them 90 days to meet their terms.

What were the terms?

Pretty much they dealt CrossFit Horsepower a deathblow: “Music or any audio must not be audible outside the business; no public streets or sidewalks can be used as part of class or routine; they cannot be open on Sundays; windows and doors must be closed at all hours of operation; and the use of free weights must be confined to the east side of the business with additional padding or measures installed to minimize vibrations until permanent soundproofing is installed.”

Horsepower said thanks, but no thanks, and filed their own complaint.

In the complaint, CrossFit Horsepower owners Jed Sanford and Dan Well said the city’s actions have caused “direct and incidental” injuries and damages to their business and that it’s all thanks to one Councilmember that worked to actively coordinate with complaining residents as early as May 2016 to shut down their gym.

Now what?

CrossFit Horsepower was not able to comment but the complaint seeks reasonable attorney fees and damages, asks the City Council to reverse the decisions made about the gym earlier this year. Hermosa Beach officials have vowed to fight the lawsuit.

This isn’t the only time we’ve seen this. Earlier this year in New Zealand, we shared a similar story. One woman continuously complained about CrossFit Functional Fitness Te Awamutu in New Zealand. Ultimately, the city sided with the gym.

GAMES NEWS

Brazilian Crossfit Championship Joins Growing Coalition of Sanctioned Events

What happened?

On Sunday, CrossFit sanctioned events got one step closer to creating a more unified earned exemption structure to govern the CrossFit Games season. 

Wodapalooza announced a partnership with the Brazil CrossFit Championship (BCC) to allow four top top male and female finishers and the top team from Wodapalooza an exemption to bypass qualifiers and go directly to compete in the final event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 17 – 19, 2019.

This announcement brings the coalition of sanctioned events to three, which will almost certainly be joined by the West Coast Classic in 2020.

A new path forward.

“It makes absolute sense from our perspective for sanctioned events to work together,” revealed event organizer Jobst Olschewski. “Even though a lot of the events may be used to work more in isolation in the past, there is a theme that in some way ties them together now and that is the link to the CrossFit Games.”

The BCC qualifiers — January 30 – February 3, 2019 — start on the final day of Wodapalooza making participation from athletes competing in Miami nearly impossible.

With the partnership, it now creates yet another avenue for the sports biggest stars to parlay strong competition performances into more opportunities throughout the season in the event they come up just short of a coveted qualifying spot.

Our take.

This strategic move will help top athletes remain healthier during a longer CrossFit Games season, but it also ensures that fans and spectators will have a chance to see the top athletes compete in other events, a key element to filling seats, selling tickets and enticing fans to tune into the live stream.

“The Brazil CrossFit Championship, taking place in the center of the Latin American CrossFit community, is expected to be a huge spectator event and thus it makes sense to have some of the best athletes in the world compete in Sao Paulo: Having passionate crowds of fans push the best athletes through exciting events,” Olschewski said. “That is what part of the sport should be about.”

In 2020, the number of sanctioned events grows to 18 — an impossible schedule of competitions for professional athletes. The CrossFit Games sandbox is only so big, so it makes sense that in the spirit of CrossFit more events will step up and play nice with one another.

Coffee Break Conversations

So you’re sick of the Starbucks drive-thru every morning…

We believe it. Here are 19 easy no cook breakfasts that even the most talentless home chef can master on their own. Save some time, save some money, earn some bragging points at work. “Oh this cute little smashed blackberry and goat cheese toast? Oh I just whipped this up this morning, no big deal.” You’re welcome.

Things To…

WATCH: Road to Wodapalooza with Invictus

Meet the 2019 Wodapalooza Team for Invictus Boston. Join Tola Morakinyo, Breezy Hamilton, Ashleigh Wosney, and Craig Kenney as they train with coaches Lindy Barber and Josh Plosker for the 2019 season.

PUT ME IN, COACH.

HEAR: Ben Bergeron’s Favorites

Ben and Patrick of the Chasing Excellence Podcast sit down to chat about a few of Ben’s favorite books, podcasts, films, and people. A great introduction to how Ben processes information and incorporates into his day as a coach.

ROUND EM UP BEN.

EAT: Cranberry Shortbread 

Wondering what to do with all that leftover cranberry sauce? Try this super-simple shortbread that gets a little extra festive thanks to a tart cranberry-grapefruit compote sothered on top for a little extra zing. 

SPIRITED AND DELICIOUS. 

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• PRO-TIP: SHOULDERS IN THE MUSCLE-UP —  CrossFit Training demonstrates how warming-up with crab walks can help with shoulder range of motion in the muscle-up. 
• NEW CROSSFIT GYMS — Navy veteran Matt Bahen has opened S3E Performance Fitness in Henrico, VA while veterans Sophia Lind and Aaron Yost opened All American CrossFit Southglenn in Centennial, CO. 
• LITTLE JAKE FUNDRAISER — Nine-year-old Jake Rodriguez, whose father attends Granite City CrossFit, was diagnosed with Lymphoma in November, just six years after losing his mother to Leukemia. Granite City CrossFit hosted a fundraiser to help Jake and his family with a fundraiser to help with expenses. There are still items available to be raffled.

CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES (a highlight reel around social media of CrossFit pros and average joes)

CrossFit hosted an Italian affiliate gathering in Rome • Happy tenth anniversary RedShed CrossFit • Congratulations to Tyler Armstrong on the birth of his son Kip Lee Armstrong • Win the chance to do a partner workout with Jessica Griffith • Jacob Heppner front squats 320 pounds for five • Nathan Clifton gets a clean and jerk PR at 276 pounds for three.

…and take advantage of the kids being home this holiday season and put them to work cleaning the gym, lollipops and all.

EXCLUSIVE: Overnight — Stephanie Chung, 35th at the 2018 CrossFit Games, will be heading to Italy to film the three workouts of Day 1 of the CrossFit Italian Showdown. If you don’t recall, the Showdown features a mass elimination round on Day 1 based on athletes’ performane over three scored workouts. Chung will be in Italy December 8 to teach a course at CrossFit Varese. The filming will likely take place in the days after that.

— Reading between the lines: With the Italian Showdown not taking place until April 26, that means they’ve already programmed the first day of competition. 

Strength in Depth Kicked Off Yesterday — If you hadn’t heard much about this sanctioned event and their qualifier, it’s because we literally just found out the details a few days before Thanksgiving. Thankfully our Sr. Games Analyst Tommy Marquez has more on that, but here’s the quick and dirty:

— The Deets: Similar to Wodapalooza, the top 30 individual and teams athletes will advance to the elite division, while 31-70 will be invited to the RX division. However, everyone does the same qualifier.

— Invites Too Though: Along with the qualifying athletes, there are an additional 20 invitational spots (10 men/10 women) that will be granted to a combination of past CrossFit Games and Regionals level athletes at their discretion. 

— The WODs: Athletes have a full 10 days to complete and submit their scores, giving them plenty of time to test and retest until their heart’s content. The deadline to submit scores is Wednesday, December 5th at 12:00 PM PT/ 8:00 PM GMT.

WOD #1

15 Min AMRAP

15 Calorie Row

15 Toes-to-bar

15 Power snatches (94/66 pounds)

WOD #2A

In 5 Mins complete:

1 rep max clean

WOD #2 B

For time with a 7 minute cap:

21 Pull-ups

15 thrusters (138/94 pounds)

15 chest-to-bar pull-ups

15 thrusters

9 bar muscle-ups

15 thrusters

WOD #3

9 min AMRAP:

20 Single arm dumbbell hang clean and jerks (50/33 pounds)

50 double-unders

50-ft handstand walk

50 double-unders

Mat Fraser on Soaking In the Moments on the Games Floor — Mat Fraser joined Will Edmonds on CNN Sports to share his CrossFit Games experience. “The whole week goes by in a blur. This is four days that can drastically shift the rest of my life. I don’t take in the stadium, I don’t take in the crowd, I don’t see any of that stuff.

— “[Matt] O’Keefe was telling me, once you’re 40, you’ll want to have a handful of memories that will be with you for the rest of your life. You’re making those memories now, soak this in.

— “I had enough points that I could have finished dead last and still won. So, I hit the minimum work requirement and was like, okay, this is the moment to take it in. And looking around, was like oh my god there are so many people here. This is what the year of hard work was for. This is it.”

— P.S. Rogue just released this video of Mat Fraser that is 100% guaranteed to pump you up.

“Haley Adams Joins Mayhem Independence,” by Tommy Marquez, Morning Chalk Up

While you were busy wondering “what’s Rich doing,” for the upcoming season, the crew from CrossFit Mayhem just added another championship pedigree to their stable of athletes for 2019.

Earlier this week Haley Adams, winner of the Teenage Girls 16-17 division at the 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games, announced via instagram her decision to join the CrossFit Mayhem Independence team for the 2019 season.

“When I visited about a month ago the idea came up and the thought of it sounded really amazing to me,” said Adams. “So when I came to visit last week to try it out I knew it was what I wanted to do.”

If her name maybe doesn’t ring a bell, Adams finished an impressive 11th place as a 17-year-old at the 2018 Atlantic Regional before destroying the teenage field at the CrossFit Games. Adams won 9 of the 11 events at the Games, and never finished lower than 2nd in any event en route to a gold medal. It was one of the most dominant performances ever across all divisions in CrossFit Games history.

One of Haley’s coaches, Aerobic Capacity subject matter expert Chris Hinshaw revealed that it was a Games-worthy performance that put the youngster on Mayhems radar. “During her visit she voluntarily did the marathon row at the barn alongside her coach at the Games Heidi Mclean, and Masters Champion Ron Ortiz,” said Hinshaw. “She finished in 3:15:33 and thought it seemed like the fun thing to do.”

11/30 – 12/16: Naughty or Nice Toy Drive (Online)

11/30 – 12/2: Rogue Winter Classic (Cleveland, OH)

12/1: Rock It CrossFitMas Classic (Fort Worth, TX) 

12/1: Barbells For Bootstraps (Beverly, MA)

12/1: Bro Down Throw Down for Cancer Awareness (Bridgeport, PA)

12/1: Push/Pull for Pancreatic Cancer at CrossFit Pawling (Pawling, NY)

12/1: Winter Throwdown 2018 (New York, NY)

12/1: Reindeer Games 2018 (Medford, OR)

12/1: Heroes Challenge (Dallas, TX)

12/1: Vekter Games (Columbia, MD)

12/1: New England Co-Ed Classic (Bedford, NH)

12/8: Fittest Alive in the 845 (Poughkeepsie, NY)

12/8: The 2018 Reindeer Games Finale (Del Mar, CA)

12/8 – 12/9: WOD Godz (Shreveport, LA) 

12/8: Rampage Christmas Throwdown (Murfreesboro, TN)

12/8: A Very Krampus Kilofest (Hickory, NC)

12/8: CrossFIt Raeford 3rd annual WOD for Dogs (Raeford, NC)

12/8: Reindeer Games at CrossFit 321 (Topsham, ME)

12/12 – 12/15: Dubai CrossFit Championship (Dubai, UAE)

12/15: Masters Mania (OKlahoma City, OK)

12/22: The Flanders Throwdown (Zedelgem, Belgium)