When the second-fittest man on Earth asked to film a haka, Henry Heke took it a step further.
The member of CrossFit Hawkes Bay composed a special haka—a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge from New Zealand’s Māori people—for NorCal CrossFit during the mid-January CrossFit Tour stop in the country.
“I wanna see some biceps,” Heke said, coaching CrossFit Games athletes Jason Khalipa and Scott Panchik through a newly created haka for Khalipa’s affiliate in San Jose, Calif.
“We’ve come up with a haka, and the haka is about invoking the gods and sort of sending out the warning shots,” Heke explained.
Then Khalipa, Panchik and Rusty Bruner, the latter a coach at NorCal CrossFit, together performed the new haka with native Māori men—shirtless on the mats below the pull-up bars.
Afterward, Khalipa was all giggles.
“It was fuckin’ awesome, dude,” he said.
Later, Heke invoked the gods for Khalipa as the 2008 CrossFit Games champ attempted at 270-lb. hang snatch for the fourth time.
Video by Jordan Gravatt.
10min 56sec
HD file size: 203 MB
SD mov file size: 76 MB
Please note: For smoother viewing of HD videos, please download the entire file to your hard drive before watching it (right-click and choose Save Link As...).
Additional audio: CrossFit Radio Episode 288 by Justin Judkins, published Aug. 9, 2013.