Editorial by Juan Carlos Lopez

Another editorial another issue of Hardfitness. People do read this section more than I thought. Last editorial was actually criticized by someone in particular, the problem is that the individual critiqued the editorial's content. You can feel free to email me at jc@hardfitness.com with comments, suggestions and criticisms. But remember that an editorial is only an opinion. Definition below:

ed·i·to·ri·al ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-tôr-l, -tr-)
n.

1. An article in a publication expressing the opinion of its editors or publishers.

If I mention in my editorial I don't like competitor's A physique that's just my opinion. People can disagree with me but it's pointless to argue. Just as I won't argue with anyone's opinion. A discussion is welcome but a pointless criticism will be ignored.

Andrea Dumon our sponsored athlete took third in her class. She just needed to be a bit harder on stage and she would have looked even better. We are still looking for more athletes out there for sponsorships so drop me a line if interested.

The mailing list is also up now so those of you who want to know when each issue is available online you get that in your mailbox. We've had a good number of people that signed up and hopefully we will have more and more.

The other point I wanted to touch was customs at Winnipeg which held me for 2 hours for no reason in particular. They just didn't like me and my camera equipment. A competitor from Canada coming from the USA was kept for 7 hours and you can imagine when you are dieting how stressful that can be. Having food in a cooler, protan and protein powder to the average person in customs will look strange. The problem is that they have no real reason but to take money away from tourists and bother Canadian citizens. Most airports are pretty easy with competitors from what I have heard in the USA. But it's a shame that in Canada they bother a competitor so much just for standing out. Seriously people at the Winnipeg airport should stop harassing people and taking money away from them. One guy had been convicted from a felony in the USA and the rule for Canada is that Canada won't allow people with a record unless they have a prior permit. This guy had no permit but the permit was offered to him by a female Canadian official. She mentioned it wasn't the right way of proceeding with things but by filling a form and paying $200 up front he could come into Canada. Oh Canada, first time here and such a bad experience... I hope Nationals are never again in Winnipeg.

Antonia Grady won the cover model search one big point she made was to show sexy and muscular images which of course displayed a competitors beauty. Being in contest shape it's rather easy to showcase a good physique but the hard thing is to bring the outfits and poses that will display sex appeal in photos. Other competitors that did really good were Tracey MacDonald who did a 12am shoot and another shoot on Saturday. Jamie Senuk was very impressive as well with her unique short hair look. Jeni Briscoe, Tammy Strome, Trina Gillis and Jill St. Laurent stood out as well. Allison Black surprised me with her posing she seems to be a seasoned model. Congratulations to all the competitors who participated we hope to do more cover model searches in the future specially for a large show in the USA such as Jr. Nationals or USA's in Vegas.

The Emerald Cup was a very busy weekend, the number of competitors was large. I think they could even break it into different sections. It's brutal for photographers to stay there and shoot all these competitors and then try to find sometime to eat and also time to go to the restroom. There was great quality at the show and it's good to see young competitors doing their first competitions and then in a few years you'll probably see them on a pro stage.

Hopefully next shows things will be much smaller than the Emerald Cup. I know Jr. Nationals will be murder but it's worth it given the quality of competitors you get to see. Good luck to all competitors entering that show. Prepare some food in advance.

Regarding the Emag it's going well, more and more people are now aware of it. This is really the only online magazine dedicated to competing we hope to have some surprises for new upcoming issues. This issue #4, there is much more video footage as I believe it is very informative. Check out the judges perspective on a physique, it is informational. We did get Nina Luchka who has a Pro like physique to model in the video. She has such a great physique you can't really critique much.. The interviews are as always interesting in getting to know competitors and what their opinions are.

JC

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