In the amateur world Arnold Strongman championships in March of 2023, Cristian Candemir, who finished fifth, lifted and loaded a 200-pound block, a 250-pound sandbag, a 287-pound Basque cube, a 300-pound sandbag, and a 265-pound fire hydrant within the allotted 60-second time limit, leaving only a replica of Iceland’s 410-pound Husafell stone unaddressed.
That was why he went with his parents to Iceland on Sept. 29 to celebrate his 30th birthday, the 2012 East Hampton High School graduate said before his shift at Fini Pizza in Amagansett began Saturday afternoon. “Stone lifting is an ancient tradition, people have been doing it since the Vikings. The stones were used to measure a man’s strength and his position on the ships they rowed.”
The Husafell stone, a basalt slab, served as the door to a pastor’s goat pen in the mid-18th century, said the hearty, black-bearded Candemir, who also works as a barista at Starbucks in Bridgehampton. “Legend has it that he wouldn’t pay his daughter what he paid his sons unless she lifted and carried it around the pen, 115 feet . . . and legend has it that she did. Icelandic people are a different breed — they’re really strong mentally and physically. . . . It’s the most famous lifting stone in the world, though there are others in Spain, Pakistan, Japan, and, for sure, Scotland. . . .”
As far as he knew, he was, at 205 pounds, the lightest person, or certainly one of the lightest, ever to have lifted the stone and carried it the aforementioned 115 feet around the pastor’s pen, a feat that has added weight to Candemir’s claim to be “the World’s Strongest Barista.”
As for Iceland, he said that it “was ethereal, surreal — we saw the aurora borealis in our nine days there — but didn’t get to go on the Golden Circle tour or see the black sand beach because Husafell is an hour out of Reykjavik, where we were staying, and I failed the first time I tried it. . . . I’ll definitely go back.”
Four days after his first attempt Candemir succeeded, thanks in large part to advice he’d received from the Husafell site’s custodian, and to the five months of stone-lift training he’d undergone at Body Tech in Montauk and at Strongman gyms in Brooklyn and Mamaroneck, N.Y., under the direction of his California-based coach, Kalle Beck, and his nutritionist, Saxby Payton, who lives in Houston, where his parents also live.
“I couldn’t figure out how to lift it — it’s very intricate. There was precipitation on the first day and that made it hard to grip. The custodian, Pall, an artist and musician who’s a direct descendant of the pastor — his art’s in one of the Chicago museums — saw that I was having trouble and invited me into his house where he told me how to lift it. I had trained in one style and he told me a different one.”
“You see,” he said, summoning up a video he’d posted of his lift-and-carry feat, “I’m holding it upside down with my fingertips. . . . There are two different achievements. What I did is called a ‘fullsterkur’ in Icelandic. Just lifting the stone is a ‘halfsterkur.’ It was a magnum opus achievement for me. It’s very, very rare for someone my size. Most of those who have had success with the stone have been big men. Google says around 100 to 150 people have achieved this. No one my weight. I know of one guy . . . but he’s 10 pounds heavier and a lot stronger.”
And the good news, as far as Candemir is concerned, continues: “The Saturday before I flew out to Iceland, the Strongman Corporation announced that 175-pound and 200-pound men now have an opportunity to win a pro card! The first pro under-175 competition is going on now in Fort Lauderdale. It’s eerie that every one of my dreams and goals in Strongman have come true. I’m maniacal about this next goal — I’m going to cut down to 190 and then sweat off the remaining 15 pounds in the days leading up to competitions. And as the New York State chair for the Strongman Corporation I’m going to promote my own pro competitions too — maybe even one in Montauk, perhaps at the Hither Hills parking lot.”
“I’m building a resumé,” he said, “both within the sport and outside of competition. We’ll see where it all leads. I’ve got a lot on my plate for next year.”
