It is with great sadness I report the death of one of my most popular physique models of the late 70's.  RON TEUFEL died in Essington, Pennsylvania on December 22nd.  He was only 45 years old.  No cause of death has so far been stated.

I filmed Ron on the Santa Monica beach, in California, back in July 1977 and again in July 1978.  It was a beautifully sunny day each time and Ron was in superb shape having recently competed in the AAU Mr. America events of '77 and '78.

Ron was a former Mr. USA and Teen Mr. America and one of the best built shorter men that I have ever worked with.  Most notable were his incredible abs, rock hard physique which appeared to be hewn out of granite and his excellent arms.  You can see his beach posing film as part of my video V-111.  Photos I took of Ron made the covers of Ironman magazine in November 1977 and May 1979, and Muscular Development in December 1978.

Highlights of Ron's career included the following:

1975  Teen Mr. America (AAU)

1975  Teen Mr. USA, 1st Short Class (AAU)

1977  Mr. America - 1st Short Class (AAU)

1978  Mr. California (AAU)

1978  Mr. USA Overall Winner (AAU)

1979  Mr. America 1st Short Class (AAU)

1980  IFBB Mr. International - 2nd light heavy weight class

1981  IFBB Washington Grand Prix - 5th place

1982  IFBB Night of Champions - 7th place

For a full contest history, see http://www.musclememory.com/.

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My Travel Schedule for 2003

Firstly let me thank all of you for your support in 2002.  It has been a record year for us with the number of contests covered and bodybuilders we have taped.

It isn't easy carrying 3 heavy bags of equipment all over the world on planes, trains, buses and taxis.  This has often been on my own, especially in Europe.  My sincere thanks to my support team of Tina, Clive, Sean, Dick, Thomas, Brett and several others.

These are the contests we plan to cover in 2003.  Please register your interest now in any of the videos that will result from these events and we will contact you as soon as they are edited.

I am in the process of adding up just how many different bodybuilders passed through the lens of my camera on separate occasions in 2002 as it will be considerable.  It will be the total of all the competitors in all contests plus those we have taped in Expos/FIBOs plus gym workouts and interviews.  It took 6 separate overseas trips to capture this lot and I doubt it can be equalled in 2003, with air travel becoming more expensive and more stressful all the time due to increased security measures at all airports these days.

When you think about it, international air travel has not carried me overseas any quicker since my first flight to London in 1970.  In comparison the PC has evolved in leaps and bounds over air travel since 1975.  Spending so many hours cooped up in narrow uncomfortable seats is not much fun!!  It's also a health risk.

Let's hope that supersonic jets will soon be an option as life is too short to spend it flying in subsonic jets!

The total number of bodybuilders to pass through my camera for the year 2002 was 1246.  This does not include the Ironman Pro Invitational or the Masters Olympia.  These events were shot for us and we then edited and produced the videos.

If any contest promoter wants us to cover his event in 2003, please let us know and we will see if it may be possible.

You will note that the Arnold Classic Weekend does not feature on the list for 2003.  We have produced the only videos from the last 2 years of the Arnold Weekend.  In fact, no TV coverage has appeared so far for the 2002 Arnold event, so you could say we presently have the only available video record of the event.

In November I presented an extremely generous video proposal to Jim Lorimer for the 2003 Arnold Weekend, but to date I have had no reply.

My apologies to all the fans who can't attend and look forward to the videos.  I regret it is out of my hands.  We are extremely disappointed.  TV rights and video rights should be totally different issues in our opinion, same as at the Olympia.

I have recently returned from the WFF Worlds in Germany.  The results will be up on the site next week, when editing of this contest will also commence.