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Posts Tagged ‘Sprague’

We’re here! (at Venice Beach for American Ninja Warrior 4!)

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

Hey Crew,

So as many as you already know, we have a host of Caver’s and associated folks competing at American Ninja Warrior 4 this year.  Most of us just drove down on Thursday or Wednesday and a few of us even got to visit Tempest Freerunning Academy.  It was actually Roger’s first time there on Thursday March 1st.  The Northern California Region (that’s us) competes on Friday March 2nd, while southern California competes on Saturday March 3rd and the regional Semi-Finals are on Sunday March 4th, which determine who gets to compete on the real deal in Las Vegas.  (Top 90 American’s + 10 Producer’s picks for the show.  )  Here’s a quick list of athletes and their relation to our gym:

Miyoko Schinner:  Cave athlete (CrossFit background and lately took Russ’ gymnastics classes) and Seraphina’s mom! 1st year at ANW.

Michael Schinner: Formidable Cave CrossFitter, attorney, and Seraphina’s Dad!  1st timer.

Anna Tom:  Cave mom of biggest Ninja Warrior fan, Dylan Tom.  Anna is notorious for sneaking into Sasuke-Parkour competitions that she wasn’t invited to.  This time, she actually auditioned legitimately and landed a slot squarely based on her Ninja Skillzzzz.

Jill Sprague:  Former Cave gymnastics coach, and UCLA Bruin (gymnastics hall-of-famer).  2011 Nor-Cal 40’s champ.

Stopped by wet quad-steps in 2011.

Caroline Lee: Jill’s partner in crime, former UCLA Bruin as well, won “Wipe Out”  a couple of years back & returning athlete.

Slipped off the Log grip last year.

Rosanna Sansome:  The Cave’s hyper-talented/athletic nurse & princess gymnast.

Contender to be the first woman to complete the ANW qualifying course.  1st year.

Mira Manickham:  May be the strongest and most favored female contender in ANW period.  (Yes, I’m going out on a limb here and calling it.)  Slipped off wet quad steps in 2011.  Wet quad steps were deadly.

Tom Hutchman:  My personal “project”.  Tom has taken advantage of CrossFit classes, gymnastics privates with myself, Parkour classes as well as “Ninja” classes.  Dec. 2011 inter-gym sasuke-style Cave competition champ.

Josh Horsely:  Former gymnast at Davis Gymnastics in the ’90’s,  one of “Roger’s kids”.

Now an elite climber and serious contender to go to Las Vegas or win the whole damn thing.

Ben Snead:  Elite rock climber and hyper-talented athlete recruited by Josh Horsely.

Andrew Kelly:  One of my climbing buddies at PG SF, showed up to our American Ninja Warrior open casting and landed a slot!

Glenn Black  :  Former Cave Parkour coach extraordinaire, currently an engineer for Sony PlayStation in Foster City.

Plyometrically the most talented traceur I know.  Look for him to go to Las Vegas in the top 30 from the western region.

Andrey Pfening:  Parkour coach at the Cave & Athletic Playground.  Returning athlete, stopped by Warped Wall last year.

Andres De la Rosa:  2010 & 2011 Veteran.  Completed the course both years, but came 4 seconds shy of semi-finals both times.

Looking to change all that in 2012.

Travis Furlanic:  Parkour coach at The Cave and one of the “Japan Veterans”, Travis is the only American to go to Japan for all 3 years in the American Ninja Warrior series.  Fell of the stage 2 log balance and metal spin in 2010 & 2011.  Wickedly talented and one of the favorites to win the whole thing.

I think that’s it!  A few others landed slots, but weren’t able to make the logistics work, but maybe next year.  In the meantime, wish this year’s Ninja’s Luck!

Drey & Roge in front of the "Venice Beach Co-tel"

Drey & Roge in front of the "Venice Beach Co-tel"

Of course, in the meantime we’re all in the middle of the CF Games Open WOD.  Our team is currently in good standing to get into the Affiliate Cup as long as CF headquarters manages to correct Jill’s score for the Open WOD 1.  We’re trying to figure out the logistics down here so that we all get to do the workout and get it in before the Sunday cut-off.  Best of luck to all the athletes back home as well.  Keep up the great work!

-Cheers!

Amadraeus

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Posted in Competition, Events, Ninja Warrior, Parkour, Profiles, Sasuke | 1 Comment »

Standards for the Nor-Cal 40’s

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Here are the standards for the Nor-Cal 40’s that are taking place on Sunday at the Craneway Pavillion.  So far the hardest movement that’s come up in the known workouts are fairly heavy squat snatches.  (125# for men & 85# for women).  Both Jacqui and Jill have been practicing these as well as the other movements in the workouts.  (Unfortunately Noah has an aggravated achilles tendon and will not be able to attend.)  Their first workouts start at 10am for Jill and 10:15am for Jacqui, as they’re in the later heats.  Come by to cheer on our girls and support the regional Bay Area CrossFit community.  You’re sure to meet some really great people from up and down the west coast.  Cost for attendance is $5 and there will be food for sale as well.  If last year was any indication this promises to be a fantastic, well-run event.

Please post some encouraging comments to our two lady athletes or let us know if you plan on swinging by.

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Posted in Competition, CrossFit Regional Events, Events, Nor-Cal 40's, Workouts | 1 Comment »

American Ninja Warrior Tryout Videos & Deadline Extension

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

What’s up all you Sasuke fans?  Did you know that the deadline for the video submissions for the 2011 American Ninja Warrior tryouts has been pushed out until April 29th?  The open tryouts are on May 16th & 17th at Venice Beach if all goes according to schedule.  (They may change up the dates due to weather, etc.  It is a TV show, after all!)  Who wants to have a shot at going to Japan to run the world’s ultimate obstacle course and become America’s first Ninja Warrior?  Or just run America’s coolest obstacle course and have a great time with their friends and probably fall in the murky red waters?  You can even wear a funny outfit if you want.  Here are a few of the new submission videos from the gym:

Here’s mine:

And Roger’s…

  If anyone is interested in getting their submission in before Friday April 29th, please let me know.  We may have someone who is able to help with shooting & choreography.

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Posted in Profiles, Sasuke, Skill work, Training, Tricks | 9 Comments »

Sasuke (TV series) part II:

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

Ok guys, so how do we bring all this stuff closer to home?  The American Ninja Warrior tryouts are August 7th & 8th at Venice Beach, Ca.  Here are the videos that got us guaranteed spots for the run:

Here’s Jill’s, my personal favorite:

What a bad-ass.  Ok, now for Roger’s.  He’s alright.

Tomio was awesome as well:

Roger’s quick and efficient, of course:

And mine.  I’m not moving completely comfortably because I was trying to heal up from little injuries, but I had to get the video done.

Those were actually pretty fun to make. Although we didn’t put that much time or effort into it.  Here are some of the ANW preliminary videos from last year:

Our personal favorite, Shane:

And here’s Ryoga Vee’s:

DAmn, that guy cracks me up!  OMG! LOL!

Here’s Luci Steel’s:

Ok, so here ’s the fastest time at the ANW preliminary tryouts:

Mind you, that the actual Sasuke course has gotten only more gruesome.  See for yourself:

And,… umm.. it’s not just guys anymore.  There’s a Sasuke for women as well!

And lastly, we’ll throw up Ascent’s actual 2009 Sasuke Run.  Here it goes:

Ok, I hope I didn’t waste too much of your time having you watch Sasuke videos.  Any predictions for the ANW tryouts next weekend?  I’ve been trying to strengthen my knees a bit to get ready.  Wish us luck!

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Posted in Profiles, Sasuke, Skill work, Training | 4 Comments »

Liner wins Wipeout.

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Not too many of you know Caroline Lee.  She used to come to the parkour classes a while back.  She’s a very good friend of Jill Sprague who still attends the parkour classes while her kids Will & Matthew take gymnastics or grommit parkour.  (The two girls are x-teammates from the UCLA women’s gymnastics team.)  Jill invited Caroline (aka Liner) over for the parkour classes, but  Liner lives way out in Los Gatos, so she’s only been able to make a handful of them. 

Jailbreak with her college team mate Jill Sprague

Caroline (Jailbreak on Wipeout Season 3 Episode 9) with her college team mate Jill Sprague.

 

Liner practicing her Kongs at the old-school CFM Big Studio. This must have been around April of 2009 when Shane & I were running the parkour program

Liner practicing her Kongs at the old-school CFM Big Studio. This must have been around April of 2009 when Shane & I were running the parkour program

Liner practicing her pop-vaults with while Shane coaches.

Liner practicing her pop-vaults with while Shane coaches.

 One day we were surprised to find out that she had made it over with the specific goal of training for “Wipeout”.  This knarly little game show has the contestants put themselves through a very evil and abusive obstacle course with the ultimate goal of beating everyone else through the course and taking home $50K.  What actually happens to most of them is that they “wipeout” over and over again much to the entertainment of the audience.  It’s a very funny show and I highly recommend it.  

(Our heroine wipes out at about 1:21 in this video)

Jill was rather perplexed because she knew that the show had already been filmed but due to the contract, Liner was obligated to not tell anyone if she had won or not until after the episode aired.  

Liner's Wipeout viewing party AND Birthday Party!

Liner's Wipeout viewing party AND Birthday Party!

Wipeout happens to be one of Russell’s favorite shows, and when Jill invited him to come tag along to Liner’s Wipeout viewing party in Los Altos on July 15th, he was really jazzed to come.   Russell was a bit mezmorized while watching the show.  Liner showed up in her “Jailbreak” outfit with which she scored the audition.  Here’s a picture of Caroline with Russ looking a little star-struck:

 

 

Russell and his new Heroine

Russell and his new Heroine

Here is the complete episode.  Enjoy- It’s hilarious!

http://abc.go.com/watch/wipeout/SH5568487/VD5576450/feed-jill

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Posted in Parkour, Profiles, Skill work | 1 Comment »