2008 Competition Season

Now that January is almost over, it's time to start looking ahead to the competition season.

Entries have been submitted for Q Haven to compete in two contests:

The first is the "Freeze Your Butt Off 2008" at Jiminy Peak Ski Resort in Western Massachusetts. This will take place the first weekend of March. The Saturday part of the contest is just a People's Choice Wings contest. Sunday will be a KCBS style BBQ cookoff, with some kind of "Iron Chef" fifth category. This contest is not KCBS sanctioned, but it is sanctioned by the New England Barbeque Society, which means it will count towards the 2008 Team of the Year.

The next is the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge in Abingdon, Massachusetts on Saturday, March 29th. This is a one day grilling contest, with the categories of fish steak, sausage fatty, beef of any kind and grilled vegetable. I attended this contest last year and it was a lot of fun. Gary and Michele Taft of the "Lunchmeat" team do a great job putting this event on. This was where Q Haven got its first ever call for grilling, a 5th place for fish. It was also the only time I have ever done a competition completely solo. It was challenging, but fun nontheless.

After Snowshoe, it gets tricky.

Memorial Day weekend brings two area contests. One is Grillin' On the Bay, which will be on the shore in Brooklyn, NY. The other is at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT. We will be at one of these.

I will not be competing at the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest in June this year. This is for a few reasons. One is that I have a fundamental problem with an event that charges $5 a person for admission, draws around 20-thousand people over a three day event, then only gives two-thousand-dollars in TOTAL prize money for both grilling and BBQ. Sure, I understand and support the concept of raising money for charity, but that is a joke. But they would not have an event at all without the competition teams, and feel they treat us as an afterthought.

Also, they have decided to go ahead without NEBS sanctioning because they don't want to pay a $50 sanctioning fee. It's silly and petty.

We also will not be cooking at Lake Placid this year either. This one I'm really bummed about. I love the town, and the event has been a blast each of the last two years. But Sheila will be more than eight-months pregnant by then, and it's a six-hour drive for us. We just can't do it.

Hopefully we will be able to do Peter's Pond in mid-June. But, again, Sheila will be very pregnant by then, so this one will have to be a last minute decision.

Since Sheila is due July 22nd, that will likely mean that Harpoon and New Paltz will be out too. I hate to miss Harpoon, especially since it is so hard to get into the contest in the first place. But really there is no other option.

Hopefully we will be able to do one of the September contests, maybe Lowell or Harvard. Since we have the camper with AC and a furnace, we could easily bring the baby. It's best to get them started on the circuit young!