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closeWhen surfing enthusiast Darrin Downs was a 110-pound eighth grader, he couldn't do a single pullup.
Downs didn't need anyone to tell him he needed help. He just went right to work achieving fitness the hard way - lifting weights.
"I was inspired by an older sister's boyfriend," he said. "I originally starting lifting just to get bigger and stronger."
Two years later, as a 135-pound high school sophomore, he could do 27 pullups.
Downs has since discovered that he loves body building. The 5-foot-9, 210-pound competitor has won three trophies in competition, including a fifth place in the Vancouver (Wash.) Natural Body Building Championships in April.
"Now I'd like to compete in body building for many years," said Downs, who has worked at City Gym in Bellingham for two years. "Men don't reach their competitive body building peak until their 30s. Most of the men I compete against are quite a bit older."
Downs stresses that his body building will be drug-free, so he will enter the "natural" competitions.
"I've decided that's the way I want to go," he said. "I've decided it's not healthy (to take steroids). And it would be more of a symbol of me giving up if I started using drugs in body building."
Downs, who grew up in Poulsbo, also finds that body building doesn't hamper his love of surfing.
"I still surf. It doesn't restrict me too much," he said. "I just have to make sure I have a board big enough to float me."
Downs, who intends to become a certified physical therapist, is finishing studies at Whatcom Community College and now wants to earn a four-year college degree.
"I didn't take school seriously when I was younger," he said. "Sometimes I would ditch school and go to the gym."
He says body building, which he began seriously at age 20, has given him self-confidence and self-respect.
"I'm immensely self-confident now," he said. "Everything has improved. The knowledge you're setting goals and meeting them is important. I feel I'm satisfying a male's primal urge to be stong and powerful. Body building is the celebration of the human body as a work of art. You go (into competition) as though it would be an art show."
His girlfiriend of nearly three years, Katherine Lundberg, a local substitute teacher, said she'll never forget how much support Downs received from friends, parents and three older sisters at a body building show.
"The announcer asked 'Have you got all of Bellingham there?' He couldn't believe how much support Darrin was getting," she said. "We just blew the roof off.
"Darrin puts on a good show. He just lights up.
Downs trains many months for a competition. He earlier finished fourth in Tacoma and fifth in Spokane at important shows.
"I just like the body building lifestyle," he said. "To call yourself a body builder is just satisfying. It's been a goal I've had ever since I started lifting weights."
He has found, though, that "eating healthy can be really expensive."
But it's a priority for him. In fact, he consumes 4,000 calories per day. It's not the 12,000 that swimmer Michael Phelps consumes, but it still attracts attention.
"Meals are quite hilarious when we go out to eat," Lundberg said. "People watch Darrin eat, and they don't know where he's going to put it all."
Downs says it's too difficult maintaining the four percent body fat at which he competes, so he's normally about 10 to 12 percent.
He also has learned about "the little mental games body builders play back stage during competition." He said it's all part of the exhibition.
Downs has a special bottle of wine a friend gave him. He says he won't open it until he finally takes a gold medal.
"I bring that bottle to every show," he says. "I'll open it when I finally win one."
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