Virtualmeet.net

Kris: Thanks m8, you know I almost do anything to push powerlifting out of the basements and up to the skies:). I hope u will find bugs and faults, I mean it would be terrible if I´d made the perfect site... ;D

Matt: Kris loves swedish so he can take the swedish lessons with u:). Thanks for the comments, the gym is really an old school hardcore gym, it´s lovely :). I have this crazy idea, that some years from now when Virtualmeet is a big and great factor in the powerlifting community. I would love to arrange an international Virtualmeet.net gathering in Sweden... ;D. I mean we got to dream, hehe...

That would be awesome, Olle.    I would love to come over and visit Sweden and lift with strong folks, this dream of your's would give me a great reason.  Maybe I could learn a thing or too in the process.

I do agree, it would be nice if we could have a virtualmeet federation that's in the same scope of things as all the other powerlifting federations.  That would probably be a very difficult task in itself to accomplish.  Being able to be officially ranked would probably lead a lot more lifters our way.  I like competing just for the fun of lifting with all you folks from all over the globe, but the fact remains most people compete to get in the record books, so.....

Again Olle, great job with everything that you're doing and keep that dream a work in progress in becoming a reality.

You said it first and since I live just around the corner... Would the weekend of July 11-12th 2009 work for you? Perhaps we could even add in a seminar of some kind and naturally a virtualmeet event. That's a GREAT idea!! I could even give you (and Matt?) a few lessons in Moomin Swedish then.

...or would you prefer to leave it on the dream stage for now? The way I see it, something like this would have to be scheduled at least a year in advance to give those interested enough time to work it into their schedules and to scrape together the air fare. It may seem radical to set a date at this early a stage, but if it's there it will happen.

I see it working equally well as a ten people train-talk-hang out get-together as a hundred people seminar-meet event. Either way it would be great, hence my proposal to set a date in the comfortable future and to boldly do it. We only live once as far as I'm concerned.

I propose setting a date, but leaving the location open for now. I could take it upon me to see to it that the get-together will happen, which could mean either hosting it here in Finland or having someone else (perhaps you) take it to their home ground. The hosting details could be looked into in summer-autumn 2008 with the number of actual participants determined in early 2009. I'd be excited to travel to any part of the globe for this as long as I know about it early enough.


Now, THAT far I'm not willing to go with any date setting. ;)

Right now I see it as our niche to be a complement to the traditional federation meets and being unofficial comes logically with that package. Having official meets with remote judging is probably not feasible with the current technology (it may be in the 3D future though) if we want to achieve the respect of the powerlifting community at large. But if this project would build a strong enough base to launch a global RAW powerlifting federation from then why not indeed? As it is now, the IPF is pretty much it for global (as opposed to "just" international) powerlifting and they recently opted against going down the RAW road. This could mean having official meets supplemented by unofficial virtual meets, perhaps having both noted on the charts but only the official lifts noted as records. What part in this weightlifting would or would not play is another big question, there may be little point in fragmenting it between us and the IWF as there is no equipment divide.

This is quite wild speculation with only three meets behind us and 50 members, but like Olle said, we got to dream. I take the fact that we are as a very positive sign of a growing community spirit. Discussion is also picking up on the boards on other topics than the practicalities of upcoming meets which is also nice to see. Small steps in the right direction, but I'm getting very excited all over again. ;D

Cool stuff. I like the idea of doing a virtualmeet in person and meet the community. And going to Seden or Finland for that purpose.

I do plan to start in the IPF so I am not so much in favor of turning this into an official federation at this time.

Happy to hear that. By mid-2009, I think there will be enough of us who feel this way to make it into something quite memorable. Whether that is a handful or a bigger crowd remains to be seen.


That brings up another important point. One of our goals is to create a big community that spans over the federation divides where everyone can feel welcome no matter where they lift. Being unofficial supports this goal well.

I want to make it extremely clear that I do not have any aspiration whatsoever to actively work towards creating a federation. My point is that if the community grew to the point where this may be an option I could well consider it, but that's really outside our current scope by far. Also, I don't see much value in yet another federation unless it brings something new to the market (i.e. global RAW where there is none). Powerlifting is fragmented well enough already. Case closed, but as a thought experiment it is certainly interesting. For now, let's walk down the virtual path and see where it leads us.  :D

Ohhh yess it´s a dream, but a dream that I want to make reality. But the first offical gathering(meet) I think should reside in Finland, so kris can teach as all some Moomin Swedish... :D. But a firts meet in mid -2009 is a reasonable goal. Maybe we have a few olympiclifters with us by that time.

Yes, I said it firts and I will check the possibility to have a future meet in our gym. I think it could be a very very cool thing to do... ;D

Regarding the federation aspects, I mean the pure spirit in virtualmeet is what´s makes it so great. It´s a inoffical crossplattform lifting community. And I think that it will be the largest and most popular in a few years. But still it has to stay inoffical as it is the purpose and fun of it that makes it´s so great.

Yesterday I found this on Powerlifting Watch (http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/node/6546) that sums it up in a very very good point of view:

Well said!

Unless someone wants to discuss the date further, let's stick to July 2009 and agree that I will organize it here in Finland provided no other more suitable venues/organizers pop up by autumn 2008. I look forward to organizing this and will put in the effort to make it more than worth it for anyone who participates. Stay tuned, this will be fun!

Let's continue this discussion elsewhere, could a moderator please extract the relevant posts and set them up as a new topic? EDIT: Thanks Olle!

I submit, on my own and completely unsportsmanslike without asking Kris that we hold this 2009 gath-meet at Kris' Forest Gym in Vasa.  8)

How cool would that be? I mean, I know how nice it is to lift in the great outdoors, but I bet not a lot of people do...

Um, I also submit that this be only in the case of not being a huge event. If we're under or up to 10 people, and in case Kris agrees, it could perhaps be done..? :D

Indeed, if no more than a handful are coming we could consider this, especially if there are good connection flights from Helsinki on that weekend. Otherwise we'll stay in Helsinki and cook something exciting up here... got some ideas, but I ain't saying no nuthin' bout' that yet... how this whole thing will unfold will to a large degree be dependent on the number of people showing up.

Yeah, I say we have a big lifting event and then after have a big eating event, you know we all have to have a good post-meet meal  :)

Most definitively! Being in Finland, there will naturally also be a post-meet sauna.

This will take some careful planning, especially as I'd really like to also host a weightlifting meet provided there is interest. One option would be to reserve a suitable space for most of Saturday and hold both meets back to back with a buffet served up on the side and the sauna kept warm. We could have live on-the-spot judging like in a traditional meet (still videotaped of course!) with results collated with a virtualmeet held concurrently online.

If we are just a few participants an agreement with a suitable gym could be made, otherwise we will need a hall (or a sports field if we head outdoors) with the equipment hauled in. My outdoor gym could probably take about 30 participants under these conditions with a real wooden sauna and a lake as additional benefits provided I build a platform and get a hold of a weightlifting set. The evening could be free for socializing, sightseeing or whatever.

Then Sunday would have some kind of not too strenuous event, perhaps a seminar of some sort that could do double duty as relieving the post-meet soreness followed by more good food etc. etc.

That would mean that most people would need to fly in on Friday, and those who can't stay longer have the option of just skipping Sunday and leaving in the morning. The rest would then fly out on Monday (or continue with a nice vacation in Finland).

Just brainstorming here, but a skeleton like this springs to mind. All ideas welcome, there is plenty of time to think this over once we have a better idea of whether this will be a small gathering or something a bit larger. But unless something very drastic happens, this gathering will come to pass!

Lifting, Food, and Sauna.... Couldn't ask for a better vacation !!!!  Oh and I can't forget about the socializing and sightseeing, to really fullfill the package.  Now all I have to do is talk the wife in to it  :o  That may take awhile, luckily this isn't till 2009.

Time to revive this question and chart what kind of interest there may be in actually turning this into reality.

Simple question: is there anyone here who would like to seriously entertain the idea of coming to Finland for the weekend of July 11-12th 2009 to meet up in person and perhaps also to do a virtualmeet on location as suggested above? Note that we are only charting preliminary interest so far to see whether we should push further with this idea or whether to postpone it.

Yep. Still interested.

There's a chance I might be able to do this.  I should be entitled to another 15-day period of R&R leave, and the government pays for the ticket no matter where I want to go.  If there was ever an opportunity this would be it.  I could probably do a week or so.

All I would need to know is what airport to fly into, reasonable hotels nearby, stuff like that.  Also, would I be able to get by language wise?

Hey Alberto, I like the sound of that. We have known each other online for quite a few years now and I would really look forward to meeting you in person. :)

The airport to fly into would be Helsinki. Depending on whether we do this in Helsinki or at Toffe's Gym (you'll probably vote for the latter?), you would either take a train (4.5 hours) or another flight (45 minutes) up north to Vaasa. My suggestion would be that I meet those of you coming in Helsinki and we hop on the train together. Naturally, I would also be picking you up at the airport. If it's just Christian (possibly with family) and you, then we could accomodate all of you in the cottages at Toffe's Gym and/or at our apartment here in Helsinki. Otherwise I can probably have you booked into a suitable hotel in advance; my brother is a hotel manager and knows the ins-and-outs of hotels here. We could look closer into these details once you know whether you will be able to come.

Language wise you wouldn't have big problems getting around Finland. English is compulsory in most schools from the third grade and we don't have dubbed TV-programs, so most of us speak at least adequate English. The pronunciation is of course heavily affected by our native tongue and may not sound pretty at all times, but you'd get by fine. Won't have much use for Spanish there though.  ;)

This is starting to sound pretty exciting. :)

More info here now:

http://virtualmeet.net/gathering/

At this stage, two lifters are tentatively coming. :)

Nice job on the video Kris. Especially the part were you you move the camera through the woods towards the power rack.

Not being familiar with Finish cuisine: Could you point to some examples. I only stayed one night on a stopover on Helsinki airport many years ago. That included just about the best breakfast I ever had. So I am curious.

An update: seems like one more lifter is ready to book his flight, so tentatively three lifters are flying in from abroad. Måns Rinne (http://virtualmeet.net/mansrinne/) and I are naturally attending from Finland.


Hey thanks! And thanks to Måns for letting me borrow his video camera, decided to do a larger size video simply because I had DVD quality footage to work with.


Well, we eat our share of pasta, Asian food and what not, but of course we also have the traditional Finnish cuisine. Our cuisine bears evidence of having had a lot of contact with both of our neighbors Sweden and Russia; as a trivial example, Swedish meatballs are as much a staple here as in Sweden.

I once took a course in nutritional anthropology where it was pointed out that Finland can traditionally be divided into an Eastern oven food culture influenced more strongly by Russia and a Western stove food culture with more Swedish influences. This difference also ties into cultural and health differences.

I think the following list I found in the Finnish section of Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Finland#Eat) gives quite a representative picture of the most common suspects:


I'll take any feedback, but I can see the gathering as an opportunity to serve you all up with a good selection of the more tasty bits and pieces of our cuisine. Salmon, breadcheese with cloudberry jam, rye bread and sausage would be likely delicacies and go well together with a lifter's diet. And of course, you'll have the opportunity to sample salmiakki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_liquorice) and Finnish sauna beer if you like too.

I'm also thinking Terva-snapsi (vegetable tar schnapps) as something to enjoy during and after our post-meet sauna on the island.

Very Finnish to the taste, and you'll either love it or hate it vehemently. Not much middle ground, I'm afraid. Same goes for salmiak, incidentally, which also has been made into a drink. I think definitely the salmiak can be mixed together with the terva drinkwise to produce something most Finns would love. ;D

That would be awesome ! I'm going to take two weeks off from work for this weekend !

Excellent! :) :) Shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions, want to discuss travel plans or anything.

Generally about the schedule, I recommend flying in on Wednesday and leaving some time on Monday for those that have the time. This leaves enough time to make this a stress-free experience, but flying in Friday and leaving Sunday also works. If anyone wants to stay longer to combine this with some sightseeing, going to Lapland/Russia/Sweden/Estonia or whatever, that's also an excellent idea. 

Regarding food etc., I'm going to send out a small questionnaire before the event to get a list of possible allergies, won't-eats, really-like-to-eats and so on. While there will be opportunities to try out some of the Finnish peculiarities, I will make sure that there is something on the menu for everyone.

Also, to clear any confusion about schnapps, Finnish beer etc.: there will be some of that available but don't expect any drinking parties on the island. There's many reasons for that, but foremost I think it rhymes badly with the spirit of Virtualmeet.net and this gathering. I also want to ensure that this event is welcoming to everyone whether a party animal or not.

On a practical note: How about mosquitos at that time of the year? Just so I bring plenty of of repellant.

An update: Alberto Caraballo got his travel request approved and his arrival looks fairly certain at this stage. As he will be staying for almost two weeks in Finland, we decided to drive up to Kilpisjärvi (http://www.kilpisjarvi.org/index_en.htm) in Lapland a day or two after the gathering. It's a 900 km (560 miles) drive up north past the Arctic Circle into wide open rugged nature and the most sparsely populated area of Scandinavia. The itinerary is still open, but we plan on camping and will possibly also do anything from a day hike to a two-three day one. It's also something of an unique melting pot between what is officially three countries (Finland, Sweden and Norway) but which are united by a common culture, people (the Sami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people)) and, in practice, open borders. This gives us plenty of options to consider, including returning south through Sweden and then crossing back into Finland by ferry.

The trip will probably be about a week. We will be going by car so if there is anyone else contemplating staying longer than the gathering we have two seats left. Epic gathering followed by an epic road trip...  ;D

Also: I mentioned creating a list of events in Finland and neighboring countries earlier for those considering a longer stay. I started but it is a bigger project than I anticipated. I think it makes more sense if I look into events and locations by request (eg. knowing when you plan to come and what your interests/budget is). So please, contact me if there is anything I can help you with.

The gathering is now an exciting four weeks away! Toffe's Gym is also officially open for the season as I spent the weekend at the cottage bringing it out of winter mode and cleaning up for the gathering. It was still rather cold there with the mercury just above freezing at night and 11-13 degrees celsius/52-55 fahrenheit in the shade on sunny days. The temperature should be much higher in four weeks unless this turns out to be a very odd summer.  ;D

To make sure there is enough weight around, I also tested how much weight the bar can hold with my current plate stash. It came to 270kg/595lbs (see the picture below, click it too see a bigger version). We will bring some more plates with us if anyone thinks that there is even a small chance that they will need more come meet time, but I suspect this will be enough for now.

At the moment, it seems like Alberto, Christian, Måns and myself are coming. I haven't heard anything recent from any of the others who said to be considering it. It is not too late for any Virtualmeet.net member to jump on board (even if you haven't been in touch about it earlier), but I would appreciate a small update on your plans regardless of whether they are still tentative or fairly certain. If you can't make the gathering, there is of course still the option to join the virtualmeet on that weekend.

Can't wait.  :)

My request was electronically transmitted for ticketing on June 2nd so I should have an itinerary in a couple of weeks or sooner.

\o/ Excellent!

I plan to arrive in Helsinki on Friday 10th. I will get the tickets beginning of July, then I should have the final itinary (going back Sunday or Monday).

Looking forward to the meet.

Christian, sounds excellent! If you are able to get a morning flight it's a bonus, we could then get an early start and arrive at Toffe's before evening (it's a 5 hour drive minus any pauses or scenic detours). But the afternoon will work fine too. Since Alberto and I are heading to Lapland after the gathering, we will be going up by car. We're four at the moment so we will fit comfortably in our car, but if more people are coming Måns could probably take his car too.

For the return trip you have the options of grabbing the train or a flight. Flight prices vary wildly depending on what flight you take and on what date and may in some cases be cheaper than a train ride (but do check the price after taxes and charges, the base price is often listed really low).

To check train timetables against the return flight, head over to vr.fi (http://www.vr.fi/eng/). In the "Tickets and timetables" box, enter Vaasa as the departure station and Helsinki as the destination. You should reserve about 1.5h for the bus ride from the train station to the airport; in practice you'll get there in a tight 30-40 minutes but this would leave some room for possible minor delays. The train ride is about 4.5 hours depending on what kind of train you select. If you opt for the train, you can buy your ticket here, no need to book beforehand.

For flights, check Finncom (http://www.fc.fi/home.html) (again Vaasa as the From and Helsinki as the To). The flight time itself is only about half an hour.

Regardless of how you're going back, I'll naturally drive you to the train or airport. They're pretty close so no need to factor in any driving time should you opt for, say, an early Monday exit.

As usual, if you have any question you know where to find me.  :) This is going to rock.

Come on guys, we need more pics!

Couldn't agree more. :)

Full coverage of the gathering and at least a few pics from the road trip will be available some time after the meet results are out. It has been an intensive experience with first the gathering weekend itself followed by a six-day and roughly 3000 km / 1864 miles road trip through Finnish and Norwegian Lapland up to North Cape and back. I spent some 15 hours of today sleeping to recover... and digesting it all will take much longer than that.

I also know that Alberto is working on full coverage of both the gathering and the road trip, can't wait to read that one! (link to follow)

Meanwhile, here's a few goodies courtesy of my father Ingmar who acted as the official meet photographer. Some pictures have also been posted in the meet thread (http://virtualmeet.net/community/forum/meet-talk/313/msg2287/#msg2287).