Naera Johnson has had an awesome 2006 in which she took out
the NABBA Nationals Overall Women's Physique Title. The year got
even better when she ventured to Germany for the NABBA Universe in
December, and in a class of 6 world class athletes, Naera took
second place! here's the story of her adventure. Rhonda's
International Adventures to the IFBB Women's Worlds are also
remembered.
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Hi everybody, I had a wonderful experience travelling and
competing in the NABBA Universe Championships 2006 in Cauxhaven
Germany. The New Zealand Team was 8 Strong.
Myself, Tarren McCall (my travel buddy and room mate), Lisa
Pavelka, Max Stott, Roy Baxter, Steve Quinn, Gary Nairn, Warren Ah
Fook. We were joined by Jim Pitt NABBA NZ President and Shelley
Boyes (Judge).
I was lucky enough to have sponsorship from the following
organisations to which I give my thanks as it would not have been
possible to take the trip without them;
LA Muscle, Te Korkiri, Maori Woman's Welfare League (West Branch).
Lion Foundation, NZ Low Price Wholesale Meats (Manurewa), Te
Runanga o Nga Puhi, NABBA NZ.
Special thanks to Timika Raurerewa and Jamie Cameron.
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Naera Johnson.
See Naera bigger by clicking on pic |
Click on pics to
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The Journey
Tarren McCall and myself travelled together from NZ via San
Francisco, Frankfurt and then Bremen, with a very fast trip down
the Auto Bhan to Cauxhaven a small seaside fishing village, which
is a popular holiday location during the summer months. I took all
my food for the 26 hour flight cooked and vacuum sealed (thanks to
Dave at NZ low priced meats). i took it as carry on luggage frozen
and asked cabin crew to placed in their chillers and was served
when other passengers and their normal meals. Not knowing what the
food situation would be like, I also packed 5 litres of distilled
water and cooked sealed kumera in my luggage for when I
arrived.
Tarren, myself and all my food made
it through the strict screening at each airport, which was
fantastic. We shared a small room that had no cooking facilities,
Tarren brought her small George Forman grill and we purchased a jug
from the local grocery store. So all our food was prepared on the
little George Foreman, which was magic.
The language was a challenge, but we managed to get by. Arriving
Wed afternoon giving us 2 full days prior to the contest to
overcome fluid retention from the flight and get ourselves in the
best possible condition. On our first early morning powerwalk, we
managed to get ourselves completely lost in the streets of
Cauxhaven at 6am in the morning. Well it was pretty scary, but we
managed to get ourselves back to the hotel and decided not to stray
too far away next time. It was the beginning of their winter there
so hat, gloves and coat were essential, but it was not as cold as I
thought it might be.
NZ Team
Tarren McCall and Lisa Pavelka |
The Contest Day saw 160 competitors from all around the world. It
was really well run and the language barrier didn't seem to affect
us that much as long as you kept track of what classes were
on.
There was a strong Fitness Shape class which is not that popular in
NZ. We shared a dressing room with a Belgium competitor Nadia
Rogaleva who placed 6th in the Fitness Shape.
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Women Physique Naera Johnson 2nd
Masters Men O/50 Maxwell Stott 4th
Senior Figure Tarren McCall 3rd
Figure Short Lisa Pavelka 5th
Physique Men Warren Ah Fook 7th
There were 6 competitors in my class from
Slovenia, Netherlands, Spain, Greece and Italy. I was the smallest
of the six so I fought a tough battle for my placing and I was very
happy to have won 2nd place.
Whats happening for 2007, Well.. Maybe Greece!!!!!!
Cheers,
Naera Johnson
Rhonda's Excellent
Adventures!
It has been almost 3 months since our Wonder Woman, Rhonda Bryers,
competed at the IFBB Women's Bodyfitness Champs in Spain but we're
still interested in hearing what happened! so now that she's landed
and back into normal life Rhonda's finally given us an insight into
her excellent adventure which has seen her fly around the world at
lightning speed and experienced some pretty cool things..
Tell us more
Rhonda!!
Chris and I left
NZ on 13 September - 10 days prior to the competition.
The reason for this was that we flew on buddy fares with a friend
of ours who works with Air NZ. In hindsight, I should have not left
this early but as we were getting cheap fares through the buddy
system we didn't have much choice. We had to fly Auckland / LA /
London / Spain and to break the trip up we stopped two days in both
LA and London - again, in hindsight, I would not recommend
this! |
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LA
When we finally landed in LA
I couldn't wait to get off the plane. My calve muscles were feeling
quite tight from the long flight and by the time we reached our
hotel the feeling of tightness had moved right up to my stomach!
Thoughts went through my head that I might be suffering from some
type of internal blood clot and I got a bit worried but after
awhile I put it down to being dehydrated and jumped into bed after
throwing back a neurofen.
Our room had its own kitchen
which was great for being able to prepare my food for the day. I
managed to stink out the kitchen on the first day with Salmon -
oopps Yip, it was quite bad - not a lot of ventilation. Oh yeah, I
had to endure the torturous time in an LA supermarket - foreign ice
cream, cookies..............etc.
The hotel restaurant was
excellent! To my surprise they made eggwhite omelettes - I mean
they were actually on the menu!!! and fantastic
salads.
The next morning I was up and
straight to the hotel gym for a workout. Not a too bad a gym for a
hotel - a few cardio machines and dumbbells so I felt I got a
fairly good workout.
That night we ventured out to
Sunset Strip calling into the Viper Room - Nat Cole was playing (I
think we got in somehow by mistake) and the Rainbow Bar (a famous
rockers bar) where I met Lukas from Supernova! I didn't know he had
won the competition at that time until I text Kylie to tell her
about my ventures and she told me.
LONDON
By the time
we reached London we hadn't slept in 24hours. I was past the point
of being able to go to sleep so got the yellow pages and found a
gym in the area. As it turned out it took me 40 minutes to walk
there which was great! Extra cardio!!
I found
eating in London really hard. There was no fridge in our room and
the hotel wouldn't cook me anything special. I have to admit that
my diet slipped up in London. I started wishing that I had brought
protein powder with me. I could have survived on that for a couple
of days. I did the best I could with eating but I felt that I
should have been better prepared. Actually I don't know why I
didn't buy some protein powder from the gym - that's what decarbing
does to you though - leaves the mind a bit
vacant!!
SPAIN
Finally!
Barcelona is a great city! We rented an apartment in the centre of
Barcelona for three days before heading up the coast to Santa
Susana. Again I found a gym on day one but trying to talk to the
staff proved difficult - explaining that I just wanted to train as
a casual and not join up! Chris and I couldn't stop laughing when
they spoke to us in Spanish. They probably thought we were nutters!
I started wishing that I had studied Spanish! The gym was good but
it was stinking hot and I found it hard to do cardio in that
heat!
On the second night in
Barcelona my Mum, her partner and my sister arrived. They got to
the apartment at around 11.30pm and we stayed up for a few hours to
catch up on our adventures through LA and London. I was really
happy that they were there to support
me!
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SANTA SUSANA
Neralee and I
met up in Santa Susana. I got a bit tense when we went to register
to find that they didn't have our names down and hadn't booked any
accommodation for us. Chris had to sort out the problem and we
ended up having the best hotel right on the
beach!
Neralee and I were both excited to be
there and we got on like a house on fire! I'm not sure if it was a
good thing or a bad thing that we roomed together because we stayed
up until 3am talking, giggling,
posing...........
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Registration
All I want to
say to any future girls who go to the Worlds - Make sure you look
fab at registration! The place is full of photographers and not to
mention the judges!!!
D
Day
I was
surprised to find out that we didn't have to be at the venue until
4pm!
Neralee and I
with supporters in tow waited patiently waited at the bus stop to
be collected and driven to the venue. Well, the bus arrived and
people pushed in line to get onto the bus - athletes and
supporters. As it turned out, even though we were at the front of
the que initially, we didn't get a seat on the bus. We were told
that another bus would be there shortly to collect the rest of us.
After half an hour of waiting we started to get worried. Neralee
was first up and the start time was fast approaching. Chris was
sent off to find a cab as we started to get more anxious. The bus
finally arrived a few minutes later and we were on our
way.
The venue had no warm up
weights - no mirrors nothing! I was thankful that Maree Stubbington
had lent me her dynaband. I noticed that rules are not
followed at these events. Although not allowed, people were out the
back filming us. Girls were wearing huge earrings (no jewellery
allowed in round 1) Some bikinis were very
brief!
It was
incredibly hot inside the venue and I was sweating something
terrible warming up. Chris was fanning me down with a towel that we
thought was Neralees but was another competitors!!oopps. The lady
who it belonged to was a Brazilian.
Now I have to tell this
story........
As you do.........I was
comparing myself to this lady feeling quite confident about my
condition. She looked very smooth and I wondered how she had made
it to the Worlds. Well, when I was on stage I had to take a double
look because I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. This
woman had changed in a matter of minutes right before me! I was
dumbfounded about this transformation. Her upper body had become
quite muscle and her legs were rippled!!! How in the heck someone
can change like that - I have no idea - This lady came 3rd. I'm
thinking about writing to her and asking about her training etc. I
think we are friends because we stole her towel but made up for it
by giving her some tan as hers got stolen! P.S - I wont be sharing
her secrets!!
Round 1 of
judging seemed to take forever! 36 girls in my class and Neralee
had 41. After about 10 minutes the sweat started. It was dripping.
By the time I got off stage my hair was wet. I had dehydrated and
even spent time in the sauna which I don't normally do. I have
never sweated like this before on stage - it was
awful!!
Overall I
felt right up there with the other girls in my class although I
could have been leaner and more 'out there / flirty'. I want to
stress to you that Body Fitness is:
V SHAPE / BIG MUSCLE AND
LEAN!!! NOT SOFT!!!
SUMMARY
Although Neralee and I did
not make the top 15 we were proud to have achieved our goals by
competing at a World event. I had 36 competitors in my class and
Neralee had a massive 41. We have been proud to say that we got
16th which we have had many giggles about as most people don't know
that 15th is the last placing!! I'm laughing
again.......
My advice to any future
competitors:
1. Body Fitness is being
judged on: V Shape - Big Muscle -
Leanness
2. Get
Noticed by moving a lot and being flirtatious
3. Take lots of workout
gear
4. Always look immaculate
(even at 7am at breakfast if you don't want to feel like a
scruff)
5. Don't
holiday beforehand - its too hard and breaks the workout
pattern
