This past November a spectacular new natural pro, who just won the professional division of the Musclemania World Championships in Redondo Beach, California, set a standard for natural bodybuilders across the world.

As is evident in the accompanying photos, Derrick Brown from Alberta, Canada, competed utterly ripped, striated and tight, and with an engaging stage presence that gripped the audience.

His stage persona had a special resonance for Californians. Clad in black leather jacket and pants with the words "The Terminator" across the jacket's back, he might just as well have been California's own "Governator" for those of us who'd 10 days before voted to decide if the real Arnold should replace the "Gray Eminence."

The moment Derrick peeled off his jacket and began showing what he's got, it was clear he is somebody special.

Brown's ascent to this victory over four other pros hasn't been easy. To reach his level takes enormous drive, seriousness of purpose, focus, and hard work.

He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on November 30, 1959, which makes him 44 years old in the photos accompanying this article. He came with his mother and sister to Canada when he was nine. He must have had a Jamaican lilt to his voice back then, but now his accent sounds like pure, soft-spoken Canadian.

When he was 16, his mother died, and he began living with her sister. At the age of 19, he moved out to be on his own, enlisting in the military seven years later when he was 26. He served in the Canadian armed services for six and a half years, most of it in the military police.

When he left the military, he moved to Calgary and began working in a gym in its sales department. By nature Derrick is not a pushy person, so he really didn't enjoy the job, but he stuck with it. When he started competing, people kept asking him to train them, so he decided to start his own personal training business. This is what he's now doing.

Derrick started competing in 1994 by entering a small regional competition, the Southern Alberta BB Championships, put on by the Alberta Bodybuilding Association. He won the middleweight.

Also in 1994, he went on to the Provincial Championships, in which he won the middleweight class and garnered another overall, and then in 1995 he went on to the Western Canada Championships, in which he also won the middleweight class.

In 1995, he entered the Summer Classic, a show anyone was able to enter, in which the prizes were worth $4,000. In this contest, he won his weight class and the overall.

The year of 1996 was one in whiich he did a lot of powerlifting in order to increase mass. He entered a powerlifting competition and won the Up to 182 weight class. He then went on to the Canadian Nationals, put on by the Canadian Bodybuilding Federation, where he placed seventh out of 15 in the middleweight, and where he was also part of the second place duo of the couples class.

In 1997 he returned to the Nationals and again placed second out of 15. This time, however, he was part of the winning duo in the couples classs.

Both years in the Nationals, he experienced the frustration that so many natural bodybuilding champions experience in non-natural contests. Pitted against contestants on steroids, winning is almost impossible.

These experiences convinced him that he should compete in the "natural" arena. He took 1998 off to gain some mass, then in 1999 entered his first natural show in Vancouver, and won, thus qualifying for his pro card in the WNBF.

In 2000, he repeasted thiis experience, winning his weight class and the overall and getting his WNBF pro card. Then he participated in the World Championships in Atlantic City, where he placed 5th.

In 2001, he went to Las Vegas to compete in the Musclemania World Championships and placed first in the middleweights against 27 contestants. He did not, however, win the overall.

In the 2002 Musclemania Canada, in Toronto, he again won the middleweight, but not the overall. Determined to win a Musclemania overall title, he returned to Musclemania in 2003. This time at Redondo Beach, California, in mid-November of this year, he won the overall contest championship.

It was there that we first saw Derrick and were able to photograph him.

He's got everything a great bodybuilder should have—symmetry, definition, lots of muscle, a winning and unpretentious stage presence, and complete "finish." His physique possesses the look of an athlete rather than the refrigeratorlike proportions valued by non-drug-tested bodybuilders.

Anyone interested in contacting Derrick for personal training, guest posing appearances, photos, or other related matters can reach him at the World Health Club, (403) 974-0300, or on his cell phone, (403) 371-5425.