Hi,
The whole Fitness Atlantic show started in 1999. Today marks 4 Weeks Out.
In 1999 I rented a large theater in downtown New Haven and created Fitness Atlantic.
The show was open to anyone and I also wanted to get more women into the show and offered a women's fitness division and I just named it Fitness Atlantic.
Here is the story I want to share. I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was dropping stuff at the theater and driving over to the host hotel which was about half a mile down the road. I look over to my right and see these two guys walking down the street with gym bags and they have really sloppy brown painted faces. They looked crazy... I knew they had to be competitors in my show but they must have scared a lot of people as they were walking down the street.
Back in 2001 spray tanning for contests didn't exist.
People had to tan themselves and it was really super messy.
Later on that night for the athlete meeting I see the guys again. I pull one of them over to talk to him and it is the first time talking to Sean Larson. I tell him he should take most of the tanning product off his face.
The next day at the show Sean places 11th out of 12 contestants in his class.
A year goes by and in 2002, there was no such thing as Facebook back then so until I mailed out 5,000 show postcards I had to wait for people to actually call my answering machine and ask for a Entry Form to get mailed to them.
I had a thing of sitting down 12 Weeks Out and calling all of the competitors from the year before who had not called for a new Entry Form.
That wasn't easy for me.
Imagine I'm calling the guy that placed 11th out of 12 person and back then if you didn't make Top 5 you didn't get much stage time at Finals.
There was a quick introduction at the beginning of the show then people got cut and only the class top 5 came out. The show was very competitive and a different format than now where people get much more stage time now.
I had Sean Larson's entry form and I call his house number.
He answers...
SL "Hello"
Me - "Can I speak to Sean"
SL "This is Sean"
Me - "Hey, It is Brian Cannone and calling to see if you plan on coming back to the Fitness Atlantic show in April."
SL "Hell Yeah!"
After that I'm not sure what we talked about except the "Hell Yeah!" one of the best answers to get.
Then in 2002 he placed 4th, 2003 it was 3rd, in 2003 I held the first New England Fitness Weekend in Boston and Sean took first in his class. In 2004 I think was the kidney story you can read here.
In 2005 he nailed his show prep and won the overall.
Then in 2008 Sean gets Tiffany into the show and she places 5th, then 3rd in 2009 and 2010 the first year the show is now the first ever USA WBFF show and Tiffany wins the overall.
Since 2001 they have been at the show.
Funny thing is 2011 guess who starts doing Tanning, Hair and Make Up for Fitness Atlantic.
Sean and Tiffany.
Tiffany is the professional hair stylist and make up artist and previous winner.
It is pretty funny that first time I met Sean it was to tell him that a bad tan on your face and it could hurt how you place in a show. On top of that he got crushed in the show and was still the most excited person to come back and do the show again. He was the most positive person from the show I talked to that year.
I had called the top five first asking them to come back and the last person I wanted to call was Sean who was 11 out of 12. He was so excited, "Of course I'm coming back" was the best attitude of anyone I had called.
There is absolutely no question that if you are entering Fitness Atlantic in April that they are the right Hair and Make Up team to use.
