iF3 in My Backyard! Part 1

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Me & The iF3

I first found out about the International Functional Fitness Federation (iF3) in 2017 when they launched their organization dedicated to bringing the sport of Functional Fitness to the Olympic level, and held their first World Championships. There was a fundraiser and I pitched in. I didn't win the fan-wheel bike, but I was happy to help spread the word, and a seed was planted. In 2018, I decided to approach them about making a documentary. My friend James Fitzgerald at OPEX Fitness connected me to Gretchen Kittelberger, founder of the iF3, and we started talking. In 2019, the USA team brought me to Malmo, Sweden as their videographer and my documentary work for the iF3 began. I turned the footage from that trip into Reach For The Rings, my feature documentary about the mission of the sport of Functional Fitness to reach the Olympic Games. Of course, anyone paying attention to the timeline here will recognize that shortly after filming that event--and during the entire post-production process--the whole wide world would be shut down due to COVID.

What Ever Happened to Abbotsford?

That year--2020, the first COVID lockdown year--iF3 Worlds was supposed to come to Abbotsford, Canada, which is just up the road from me on the US/Canada border. I'd planned to be there filming another iF3 documentary. The best part was that I'd even be able to drive home at night and sleep in my own bed! But, alas, it wasn't in the cards. They canceled that event due to government restrictions on travel and gatherings. In fact, the iF3 canceled all events that year and went completely online. That didn't stop me though, I kept editing Reach For The Rings, and started writing notes on how I'd handle the portrayal of 2020's pandemic and lockdowns in the sequel film. The story of these online competitions became the first part of Reach For The Rings 2, my now in-progress follow up documentary.

To Film or Not to Film?

Live events returned in 2021, but not in Australia & Portugal as planned. COVID was still a problem, and these places were not allowing big events with athletes flying in from all over the world. So, instead of heading to Australia to film, I flew to Norrkoping, Sweden for iF3 Worlds 2021. This became the middle section of Reach For The Rings 2. And then, a few weeks later, instead of heading to Portugal to film, I flew to Cairo, Egypt for iF3 Masters 2021. This became the final section of Reach For The Rings 2. But I didn't stop there.

Before finishing the sequel, I went to another iF3 World Championships in 2022 and filmed Reach For The Rings 3! That film is a completely different concept than the first two (I want to change the storytelling style with every film). It's a road-trip movie where my son and I drive down to Mexico and I teach him about the sport of Functional Fitness through doing workouts together and studying the competitive events. (I blogged about it on this very page.)

So, with all that unedited footage sitting around begging me to make something out of it, I knew I couldn't film another event this year. What I really need to do now is find some sponsors or investors to help get these films finished. That's why I spent most of September editing a few preview clips that could show people what I'm working on with Reach For The Rings 2. I loaded those onto my laptop and planned to spend the entire iF3 Masters & Juniors 2023 weekend walking the floor of the event and sharing my work with people.

Family Trip

Luckily for me, this time around, the iF3 Masters & Juniors World Championships was coming to Richmond, BC, a suburb of Vancouver that's just over an hour up the road from me. This is probably the only time an iF3 event will be so close to home, and it was the perfect opportunity to bring my whole family with me! We booked an AirBnB and, on Friday afternoon, packed everyone into the 4 Runner and drove on up to Canada.

This would by my 5th iF3 competition, but only Javan (my eldest son) had ever accompanied me to one of them. My wife Chelly wanted to go to a couple of them, but we couldn't work it out with our schedules and responsibilities. It was also fortunate that Bibi (my mother in law) had been asking for a Canada trip before the onset of winter, and she was overjoyed when I told her we'd be able to bring her and little Nathan along with us too.

Welcome to Little India

We arrived late on Friday night and had a hard time finding our BnB. Google Maps took us to a gorgeous house in Little India, but it turns out we were actually supposed to be in the "laneway" house behind it. This is something I'd never seen before. It's like having two completely different neighborhoods on the same block. On the higher street were all the nice houses. Then, back in the alleyway, were all the purely functional little houses (servants quarters?) without the big yards, ornate fences, porches, and all that. These were just basic little houses facing the alleyway. Like a lower class neighborhood backing on an upper class neighborhood. Very British, I guess.

I can't say it was disappointing, we were there for the location and not for the scenery, after all. We were only planning to be in the room to sleep, take showers, and maybe eat a meal or two. Dinner that night, of course, had to be Indian. That's just a fact of life whenever we're in Vancouver. Indian is one of our favorite cuisines, but we don't really have that kind of food in the area we live, so it's something we always seek out when we travel to the bigger cities. The funny thing is that we didn't even know we were in Little India (that's something I learned on Google after we got home from the trip), but when I did a Maps search for "Indian food near me open now" I was pleased to find a TON of options. We ate that night at a Dosa place specializing in South Indian food. It was our first of 4 Indian meals of the weekend...

One of the first things I did when I got to the room was jump onto the Roku box and search for my own film, Reach For The Rings. That's just something I like to do when I'm at a new place. Where will the film show up and how can people watch it? I found it of course, and I made a little post on social media inviting others to give it a watch over the weekend.

Day 1 - Saturday

We got up decently early on Saturday morning and headed to the competition at Richmond Olympic Oval. Now, normally I'd be on my own at this thing, lugging a camera around, and rushing to get all the shots and interviews I'd need for the day. But, in this case we had other priorities: Mom, Grandma, and two little boys with hungry bellies. We stopped for Hong Kong style breakfast at a place across the street from the venue. It was something we'd never experience before, and it was different. Some of it was excellent (the congee, the ribeye!), but other parts were not impressive (sad "hash browns").

When we got to the Olympic Oval, I ran into an old acquaintance, Jacob Walker, one of the cameramen from Reach For The Rings. We'd met in Sweden in 2019. He was actually a native of Scotland and had taken the short jump across the water to Malmo that year to film some highlight reels for the iF3. He was gracious enough to share his footage for the documentary I was making, and in the end I used quite a lot of it. He actually moved to Vancouver while I was editing that film, and he'd helped me out in the edit by screening some rough cuts and providing solid advice. It was encouraging that he be the first person we run into the event, and it was nice to catch up with him.

There was a Juniors test happening on the track outside when we got there, and the sun was out. It was warm and felt like summer. Chelly, Nathan, and Bibi saw their first iF3 test, watching the Juniors females do burpees and shuttle sprints on the astroturf. The boys immediately found a basketball court and places to ride their scooters around. Of course, it couldn't be so simple as watching the event we'd come to see. These boys have their own ideas.

There was another event happening simultaneously inside the stadium. Walking around, I ran into a lot of the folks that I'd met at previous iF3 events, especially the organizers and the media team. I showed my new video clips to a few people and started to get some great positive feedback and good connections (business cards) right off the bat. It's incredible to me how many people have seen Reach For The Rings and really appreciate it. I heard a lot of praise that day.

We went home in the afternoon for lunch (leftover Indian food--that's Indian meal #2 for those who are counting) and then everyone conked out for naptime. I fully intended to leave them sleeping and head to the event on my own, but there was a couch there and I was tired (hadn't slept much over the past couple weeks of frantic video editing). Pretty soon I was snoring too. When I picked my head up from the pillow and a growing puddle of drool, I realized it was almost time for the Opening Ceremony (the flag parade, my favorite part). I pulled myself together and jumped into the car. Nathan was the only one awake and he wanted to come with me, so the two of us headed over to check out the show.

We got to the venue right in time to behold the spectacle of over 300 athletes from two dozen countries, decked out in their national uniforms, waving flags above their heads. This part to me is always quite moving. It represents a bonding moment for all those people from Mexico, Sweden, South Korea, or wherever, who have traveled so far with a group of mostly-strangers from various parts of their own country. Now they're here together in a foreign land, sharing their common nationhood and competing for the honor of their place and people. At the same time, they are thrown together with all these others from all over the world in a moment of international cooperation and brotherhood. It creates a kind of pan-human bond between nations, all united in the spirit of sport, and I love it.

Ironically, right in the middle of this, my wife called and asked me to get her an Uber so she could come down and join us. Turns out she'd needed about 15 minutes more nap than me before she was awake and ready to return to the event. We watched the Juniors females again, this time in their Strength test, putting heavy barbells above their heads. She was very impressed. Watching these 13, 14, 15 year-old girls lift bars heavier than themselves over their heads again and again inspired her to do more with her own fitness when she got home. And that, my friends, is what this is all about.

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