Welcome to another issue of your favourite bodybuilding magazine Hardcore Aussie Muscle. I trust you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are now at the start of a new decade and this will coincide with some new and exciting times for local bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding in Australia has really come to life over the last few years and things are only going to get bigger and better in the future. There are a number of reasons why the sport has undergone a revival and why the future for Australian bodybuilding is looking so bright. In this issue we feature some fantastic coverage of the 2009 Country Classic Invitational.

2009 COUNTRY CLASSIC INVITATIONAL

This unique show is heading for its fifth year in 2010 and the very first CCI in 2006 certainly paved the way for more entertaining styled shows. As you can see from our report, the Country Classic Invitational is about as much as you can have with your pants on! The good news is that many other shows are following the lead and are putting more emphasis on entertainment and prizes. This is great news for Aussie competitors who can now showcase their physiques and collect prizes or cash at local bodybuilding shows which are more often than not better run than most overseas shows. Mark Ryan recently ran his very first Ultimate Bodybuilding Championship in Queensland offering a total of $10,000 prize money which attracted some of the finest bodybuilders in Australia. This year is looking even better with Northern Territory promoter ‘Harry’…oops, I mean Phil Primmer, going even one step further and offering a $20,000 prize pool for this year’s IFBB Elite Invitational! This show is open to anyone in Australia who is of Elite standard and will be held on Saturday the 2nd of October up in the Top end of Australia. Having been to Phil’s show last year I can tell you now that it will be a show that you won’t want to miss, either as a competitor or spectator. To top it off the winner of the Elite class gets a Pro card…yep, you heard it right folks, an IFBB Pro card is up for grabs along with around $10,000 cash for the winner! Make sure you check out our new-look Contest Calendar for all the dates on every show in Australia for the next twelve months.

INTRODUCING TIM MARTIN

It’s with great fanfare and excitement that we welcome a new contributor to HCAM, someone whom most of you should already know. INBA superstar Tim Martin has signed on to HCAM as our resident natural contributor and advisor. Tim has won every amateur natural bodybuilding title both here and overseas and is now a PNBA Pro. He will be available to answer any questions you may have on succeeding as a natural athlete and will contribute a wealth of knowledge to this publication. We have had numerous requests for more articles on natural bodybuilding so we are absolutely thrilled to have one of Australia’s very best natural athletes onboard.

REGULAR FEATURES

This should certainly balance things out and compliment our non-natural page A Walk On The Darkside featuring Gary Lewer. Who knows, we may even try and organise a training-shoot with Tim and Gary just to satisfy my warped sense of humour! It’s always difficult coming up with a name for a regular column but we thought that 100% Naturally Built suited Tim perfectly, unlike his mate’s who thought A Walk On The Gayside would be far more suitable! Welcome to HCAM Tim, expect to cop plenty of ribbing from all of us here, although I’m sure you will be dishing-out as good as you get.

HARDCORE INTERVIEW

We have a great mixture of competitor profiles in this issue with the 2009 CCI Open Men’s champion Mark Anderson featuring on the cover and as our Hardcore Interview. Mark is a lovely bloke with a brutal physique and he is looking to get a Pro card in the near future. He certainly has enough raw-hard muscle so as not to look out of place in a Pro line-up. We would like to wish him all the best and hope to see him on the Aussie Pro stage some time soon.

PROFILE

Our profiled athlete is a first-time competitor by the name of Josh Watkin and just wait until you see his photos! Josh has a fabulous physique and is not a bad looking rooster to boot. Dallas Olsen took these wonderful photos which show that young Josh has a massive future in the sport. Make sure you check him out, I’m sure you will be impressed.

WINNING PHYSIQUE

Danny McQuinn is our Winning Physique for this month and no one epitomises the word ‘hardcore’ more than Danny does. He’s your typical hard-working honest bodybuilder who we all love and admire. Danny was in tip-top condition for our shoot and not even Gary Phillips low-res photos could hide his rock-hard condition!

DANGEROUS CURVES

Dangerous Curves is back and we check out the curves on up-and-coming Figure competitor Hayley Bertram. Always a popular entrant in any Figure class that she enters, Hayley easily dispels the myth that women who lift weights will end up looking like blokes. Hayley’s steaming hot photos were taken by our artistic photographer Rob Czempinski…and to think he gets paid to do this for a living!

CONTEST REPORTS

Contest wise we cover the NABBA Southern Hemisphere held on the Gold Coast. Having heard so many good things about Mark Ryan and the shows that he runs I thought it best that I go up and have a look for myself. Let me tell you all right now I couldn’t have been any more impressed! From the registration held the day before the show, the show itself and going out for dinner afterwards in the heart of the Gold Coast with some of Australia’s most elite bodybuilders, it was non-stop action from go-to-whoa. The rumours about Mark’s promoting abilities cannot be over-stated, he is easily one of Australia’s best bodybuilding promoters and despite the fact that he had in excess of over one hundred competitors he just wanders around like it’s a Sunday picnic. Nothing is too much trouble for him despite his hectic workload and he is well organised with a fantastic support crew who are obviously well-drilled in what they are expected to do. This was one of smoothest run comps that I have ever been to, not to mention the wonderful standard of competitors with a WFF World champion coming out of this show! Competitors from all over Australia and New Zealand competed and it seemed like every bodybuilder on the planet was at the Gold Coast which created a wonderful atmosphere.

SPECIAL FEATURES

One person who wasn’t at the Southerns was nomad bodybuilder and part-time HCAM contributor Leigh ‘Mr Canada’ Carmichael. Last time we caught up with young Leigh he was partying with Big Ronnie Coleman at the Olympia after-party and stealing protein bars from a strange woman’s apartment at 5.00am in the morning, not to mention that he was living with a transvestite! Well that was his Canadian/US adventure, he is now working in London for the Hilton Hotel if you don’t mind. Gone are the days of him chasing transvestites, he has now found himself a new girlfriend - a real girl, not a bloke in a frock. Leigh is doing it hard over in the UK, working for the Hilton Hotel and getting three free meals a day, meeting Dorian Yates and training at his legendary Temple gym, as well as jet-setting off to places like Paris and Rome. You can read about all his adventures in our special feature Leigh “Mr Canada” Carmichael On Tour. No doubt you will get a laugh out of Leigh’s light-hearted look at bodybuilding in Europe.

I hope you enjoy this latest issue of HCAM and I look forward to catching up with all of you at one of the many shows this year. With almost fifty bodybuilding comps on the Australian bodybuilding calendar there is sure to be one that you can attend. Support our federations and promoters and help do your bit to make this sport strong.

Until next time, train hard and keep smiling.

Craig Lucas.
Editor.