June 28, 2013
Dan Bailey Visits CrossFit HQ: Part 2

There’s more to Dan Bailey than a fake mullet, ultra-intense Broflex training sessions and trash-talking Rich Froning.

In Part 2 of Bailey’s visit to CrossFit Inc. headquarters in Scotts Valley, Calif., he’s punk’d with a heavy dose of toilet paper and then proceeds to some snatch work.

Then the 29-year-old athlete meets videographer Dave Leys, who shows him a sketch and small model of his invention: the catapult deadlift. Bumper plates are stacked on one end of a sort of see-saw, and at the other end a barbell is attached to some chains. The bar stays locked in place while the athlete performs deadlifts to actually move the “floor.”

“So instead of deadlifting—picking it up—you deadlift into it,” Leys explains.

Bailey looks equal parts amused and concerned.

“That’s pretty devious. Don’t show that to Castro,” he says, referencing Director of the CrossFit Games Dave Castro.

The day ends with Bailey catching waves in the Pacific. But first, he must be appropriately attired.

“I don’t know what else to do,” he says, struggling to pull on his gear. “Can you tell this is my first time with a wetsuit?”

Bailey finished third in the cutthroat Central East Regional and will be looking to improve on his sixth-place finish at last year’s Games when the world’s fittest compete in Carson, Calif., in less than a month.

Video by Jordan Gravatt.