In the year 2000, when I first arrived in Australia I had just finished a six month contract working as a massage therapist on board a luxury 5 star passenger ship cruising the Caribbean, Bahamas and the Virgin Islands. I met an Australian girl who was also working as a massage therapist. When our contracts had come to a conclusion, I decided to leave my home country of Wales to relocate to Sydney Australia where my defacto girlfriend was originally from.
Although I had followed the sport of Bodybuilding since I was a teenager I had never really ventured into the gym with the intention of becoming a bodybuilder, I used to party quite a lot and my beer swilling lifestyle wouldn’t have agreed with any muscle building intentions anyway. My girlfriend was very instrumental in helping me control the partying lifestyle I had lead for many years and thus I became more interested in Bodybuilding and started participating more within the local gyms.
The year of 2001 I decided to check out some local Bodybuilding shows with the intentions of an innocent spectator not of a potential bodybuilder. I went to a couple of IFBB sanctioned bodybuilding shows and started to get the itch to take part in the sport and compete. I had been competitive in several sports during my youth and decided that this may be a new beginning for me. I wasn’t aware of natural sanctioned federations so the thought of taking steroids was an option I had thought of more than once. I felt I needed this to make me competitive upon the stage. That was until I picked up a copy of Iron Man magazine where I saw an athlete by the name of Mark Kostanti featured, and that there was such a thing as a drug tested event. I quickly found out that he competed with the ANB federation to which I happened to later find, their next show was in 3 weeks following, and Mark Kostanti was to guest pose. I was in absolute awe of what I saw that night and had to question if this athlete was in fact natural. To me, Mark looked more ripped, symmetrical and pleasing to the eye than the people I had seen on the IFBB stage.
At the end of the event I spoke with the ANB president who was more than happy to explain to me about how the federation worked, conducted its test, always believed in putting the athlete’s health first and putting on a great show for the crowd. They certainly did, and from that day forth as a result of speaking with Robert and watching the unbelievable physique of Kostanti I decided that I would become a natural for life competitor and stay true to the ANB by competing in their events over the following years.
I had begun mobile personal training in Sydney as I had previously become qualified as a trainer in Wales when I completed my Sports Therapy course. A year later I had enough money for a down payment for a small personal training facility in which we specialized in 12 week transformations. During this time I had began writing for a magazine in the UK called Muscle News. I would interview several well known Bodybuilders and cover a couple of shows occasionally. Later I began contributing to the Australian edition of FLEX and Muscle & Fitness where I had the honor of featuring the great Mark Kostanti who had inspired me to push my natural bodybuilding path as far as I could take it.
Gary Phillips was the Editor in Chief and photographer of FLEX and Muscle & Fitness; soon I started to accompany him to overseas events such as the Arnold Classic and the Olympia. It was then I knew that I had to move to the USA if I wanted to earn money and make a living from my growing passion, writing as a bodybuilding journalist. Within the year of 2005 I relocated to Venice California where I began to write for some European magazines, sending through interviews and contest coverage of the huge array of bodybuilders on hand. I was continually submitting my editorials to the Weider offices in L.A. in hope of getting a response, but no joy. I quickly realized that it was much easier to sell editorials and interviews if I worked with a photographer who could shoot my subjects that I was covering. With that, I decided to purchase a camera and teach myself everything I needed to know about bodybuilding photography. I learned quite quickly how to shoot hardcore training images just by allowing the bodybuilder to train within his own natural habitat whilst I continued to shoot fly on the wall images so I could capture the real intensity of the workouts, no lights, no tan or fake weights, just hardcore. I began making comments into my voice recorder as I was shooting to document for my accompany editorial.
After many more submissions to the Weider offices, I got a call from the international Editor in Chief Peter McGough for an interview. That interview resulted in me walking away with a Weider photographer and writers contract, I couldn’t believe what was happening and I was absolutely overjoyed. I was getting paid to cover the greatest IFBB events in the world and interviewing and shooting the greatest IFBB Bodybuilders. During this time I was still in very close contact with the ANB in Australia and I continually made slow and steady gains throughout my training. Now I had trained with the greats like Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, Branch Warren, Gary Strydom and Gunter Schlierkamp to name a few. I was constantly learning different training styles before adopting the high intensity techniques of Dorian Yates; this was the training that my body responded to with positive effect.
I sent progress pictures of myself to Ron Ziemiecki from the ANB and after delegating with some of the other judges; I almost dropped to the floor when Ron asked if I would represent Australia in the WSNO World Titles. With no hesitation I began to prepare for the show whilst continuing to contribute and travel for the same passion. I later placed second in that show and couldn’t be happier with the result, although I was far from happy with my condition. I made silly mistakes in the last 48 hours which I have vowed not to make again. I shouldn’t have treated it like such a big deal; I should’ve treated it just like another show.
Soon I began to get upset with the certain amount of editorial and photography control that I felt I was under with several bodybuilding publications, and decided to break free to begin my own magazine. I made the decision after I told Dorian Yates and Lenda Murray at a bar immediately after the Olympia how great and inspiring I thought Joe Weiders autobiography “Brothers in Iron” was. The frustration of my control must have appeared quite evident and they both suggested that I should start my own magazine and both would support by contributing editorial. I went out and bought a huge printer, set it down in my one bedroom apartment, and 5 weeks later Kaged Muscle Magazine was born. I remember at 2am the first copy was delivered from the printer and the warm pages made me feel like a proud father.
I received some great reviews from all of the athletes and I finally had freedom of what I could shoot and what I could write. This freedom meant so much more than the money, which I admit wasn’t a frequent commodity in those early stages.
Approximately a year later I got a call from the largest health, fitness and nutrition company in the world – Bodybuilding.com. They wanted to meet with me in regards to business proposal. Within a week I was sat at lunch in the city of Boise, Idaho with the CEO of the two time 500 Inc company. He asked me if I would be interested in being the Editor in Chief of Bodybuilding.com.
I sit here now, writing before you holding that very position I was offered, the Editor in Chief of a 100 million dollar annually grossing company. It wasn’t my photography or my writing that got me this position, it was based on my decision to strive and do what I believe is right, take control, and follow through. It was a very hard and frustrating path (that’s another story) on occasions but I am extremely passionate about the sport from the inside and out, always worked hard, treated everyone with respect and always kept my word. And now guess what, I get to help over 250,000 daily visitors with their health, fitness and bodybuilding goals, it doesn’t get much better than that, for me anyhow.
Bodybuilding has so many positive attributes that reach much further than physical rewards. It has to be one of the most dedicated sports to participate in that exenterates self control in order to reach a goal; you have a head start in life just by participating in this gratifying sport. Although bodybuilding may not be directly financially viable, it can be indirectly, if you want it bad enough.
I have never forgotten my bodybuilding roots, and I believe those roots began on that great day in Castle Hill RSL, I constantly remind myself of this. I thank Robert, Ron and the ANB for providing the best bodybuilding federation in Australia, making everyone feel so welcome, and encouraging the natural path to bodybuilders. I also have a lot of gratitude towards Mark Kostanti for setting a standard that I will always train towards – a natural physique that everyone will highlight the doubtful quote that I once thought of him “no way can a great physique like that can be natural.”
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