CrossFit Pohaku to host third annual Double Trouble competition

Double Trouble

When: April

Where: CrossFit Pohaku, 74-5616 Alapa St., Kailua-Kona

Cost: $120 team

Signup: wodrocket.com.

Info: 345-1782 or 960-3752 or ahuebner72@gmail.com.

KAILUA-KONA — Andy Huebner, owner of CrossFit Pohaku, and co-founder/coach Dana Waite are sick and tired. Not literally, of course, because they’re CrossFit trainers and probably in better shape than anyone you know.

But even the most formidable of physical specimens retain the capacity for exhaustion, and in the collective case of Huebner and Waite, that exhaustion comes from the barrage of misconceptions flung their way every time they tell someone what they do for a living.

“What everybody sees about CrossFit is either somebody getting hurt — which is somebody doing things wrong — or they see the guys at the Crossfit games, which is awesome to watch, but then it puts that barrier there,” Huebner said. “People go, ‘I can’t ever do that!’ which is totally wrong, because you can. It’s like anything in life. You’ve got to start somewhere. Wherever you want to go, however much you want to push yourself, it’s limitless.”

So, in a two-pronged effort to quash rumors and unite the CrossFit communities of Hawaii, Huebner and Waite are going to rustle up some trouble. “Double Trouble” to be exact.

Double Trouble is a one-day CrossFit competition April 23 focusing on all aspects of fitness: strength, agility, coordination and gymnastics. It is Hawaii’s largest CrossFit competition, featuring competitors from five gyms on the island, and the only CrossFit event in which participants partner up with a teammate.

“We knew that without making it a lot of fun we wouldn’t have a big attendance,” Waite said of the competition, now entering its third year. “I think that one of the best things about Double Trouble is that it’s a partnership. You’re not alone. You’ve got someone to lean on.”

The competition will feature RX athletes performing workouts using prescribed weight guidelines — a specific amount of weight lifted as a key component of the workout — as Olympic lifting is a big component of the workout style billed as functional fitness. But also competing will be scaled athletes, typically the general public entrants or the less experienced, who will not be bound to workout weights “as prescribed,” but still can take part every bit the heavy lifters will.

The teams will be broken into three categories: male-male, female-female and co-ed. There will not be a division for kids this year, although some teenagers are signed up to compete. Waite said more than 130 CrossFitters competed in 2015, with even more spectators rotating in and out throughout the day.

Winners will receive “swag bags” consisting of T-shirts, stickers and hats, while top winners will receive a variety of donated prizes ranging from restaurant gift certificates to luxury hotel stays.

Local businesses have supported Double Trouble since its inception, including food vendors, clothing vendors and some wellness professionals such as chiropractors, massage therapists and active-release doctors who set up tents around the gym’s perimeter.

Sponsors that sign up to donate prizes before Monday will have their logo emblazoned on the participatory T-shirt and be mentioned by the emcee over the loudspeaker throughout the day.

Kincaid Krizek is a 45-year-old handyman and member at Huebner’s gym who credits CrossFit with changing his life after he received an unnerving medical checkup a few years back.

“I was super out of shape, overweight, had bad blood levels and couldn’t even do a pull-up,” said Krizek, who will be participating in his second Double Trouble this year. “I found CrossFit and within a year, everything that was wrong with me was totally back to normal.”

Krizek’s accomplishments, while significant, fall considerably short in comparison to what a first-year Double Trouble participant, Casey Kapuniai, has achieved. The 31-year-old personnel manager at Altres Staffing started CrossFit in May of 2015 in something called the “Transform Program” after her doctor told her gastric bypass surgery was a necessity to improve her health.

Kapuniai is a type-2 diabetic, and at the time, weighed roughly 300 pounds.

“I could barely run, barely do a burpee,” Kapuniai said of the motion where an athlete touches their chest to the ground, stands up, and jumps six inches while clapping their hands overhead. “I was definitely depressed. I hated shopping, going out in public. Even simple things like taking a trip, it was embarrassing because I couldn’t even fit in the seat belt. Now, I’m in season three of Transform and down 90 pounds.”

Kapuniai now runs the Transform Program.

It’s not just confidence that she derived from CrossFit but community, and so it’s fitting that her first real CrossFit competition will be the only one on the island that involves a partner.

“The cameraderie here is amazing,” Kapuniaia said, echoing a common sentiment of Pohaku patrons. “The people have been very welcoming, very encouraging and very inspiring.”

Community is a core value at CrossFit Pohaku as well as a primary goal of Double Trouble. The competition’s first year saw donations of more than $1,800 to Keiki O’ Ka Aina, a Hawaiian-based nonprofit organization, which states its primary goal as educating children and their families.

Last year, Pohaku — meaning stone in Hawaiian — used charitable proceeds to sponsor young people who wanted to join the CrossFit gym but couldn’t afford it. There is no charity lined up for 2016, but Waite said the competition will resume its charitable giving next year.