Some people stand around with idle hands, but a life time of hard work on the farm with arms full of corn bags made a MAN out of Johan Els.
And during the annual Nampo harvest expo, it was this manpower that landed him a Nissan Patrol Pickup for a year.
Although he won the Patrol Pickup for a year only, it is a great reward for less than two minutes of hard labour, for Els who until now worked on a dairy farm.
The Patrol Pickup was the prize in the Nissan strong man competition at the annual Nampo harvest expo; which Johan heard about via the grapevine.
"A friend from Kimberley – also Johan – phoned and said if I am as strong as they say, I should go to Nampo and give it my best shot. I am not really that strong – my father and the farm made a man out of me, and God has given me the strength …" says the humble 28-year old giant.
Els, a farm boy from Christiana in the Northern Cape, measures 1,97 cm and nowadays weighs 'only' 114 kg – quite a bit leaner than a few years ago when him and 'Windmill' vanRooyen played lock for Griquas in the Vodacom series
"I have been working on the farm all my life. After matric I farmed with my father, but recently have been working on a dairy farm in the district. It has been tough – some days I would put in two 10-hour shifts," he says. "But now that I won the bakkie, I am going to do my own thing", he said excitedly
"I am going back to farm on my dad's farm. A man needs a bakkie to farm, and my little Uno just doesn't cut it".
Grandpa Els taught Johan the skill of crop farming. "He put pumpkin seeds in his mouth, made a hole in the ground with his big toe and spat out the seeds one by one. I followed him and created a little bed around the seed.
He learnt from a young age to remove barriers in his way. When still courting his fiancée, Yolandie in the town of Orkney, he once removed a bakkie parked in the wrong spot. "The little Nissan 1400 was parked in my spot, so I picked up and pushed it wheelbarrow-style between two poles down in the garden. The owner could not maneuver it out, and had to ask me to carry it out…"
There are many strong-man tales about Johan, like the one at the Christiana potato festival a few years ago. Unfortunately the prize was not a bakkie, but he won a competition by picking up eight 10kg bags of potatoes at once. "The secret is in the way you pick them up – in the arms like a young calf".
The Strongman competition with the Nissan Patrol Pickup for a year as prize was much tougher.
"Although under the weather with flu, I drove the 300 km to Nampo at Bothaville. Time was of the essence as I had to get back to the dairy farm. On our arrival at 9:00, I started making my way to the Nissan stand, I had to do this quickly – trying being more important than winning. But winning would mean the key to farming for myself…"
On the way to the Nissan stand, one of the attractive promoters asked if I don't want to participate. "Everybody cheered me on. There was this big guy who has a sheep for breakfast, and a few blokes with steroid muscles, I did not think I had the slightest chance".
Contestants had to load 6 bags of corn weighing between 60 – 80kg on the back of the prize-bakkie. Then they had to run to the front and use a mechanical winch to move the loaded bakkie 4 meters against an angle, and all of this against the clock.
"I took the winch between both hands and applied the same technique for loading bales of hay – left, right, left, right – like when I was a child. The muscles in one's arms work until breakpoint and you almost pass out. The corn bags were child's play, those I can pick up with one had," said the giant farm boy with the tree trunks for arms.
No one was really surprised when Johan was announced winner of the competition. He completed the bag section in 10 seconds and took just over a minute to winch the bakkie 4 metres up against an angle. Later on teams of two attempted to beat his record, but none of them came near his winning time of 1 minute 21 seconds…
"I was a bit out of breath, but you must remember I did have the flu..."
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