First Competition

My BBQ team, The Soundside Smokers, competed in our first competition this weekend in Myrtle Beach SC. We figured worst case, we get to spend a long weekencd in at the beach. It started pretty funny. The volunteer helping direct traffic was "perplexed" to say the least that all of our gear was in the back of my mini van. He didn't want to let us into the cooks area. When we got in, we we set set up amongst the other teams with: 2 UDS, a bullet clone and a 22.5 weber kettle. We felt extremely out of place. We were definitely the only drumheads. There were 17 teams and we finished 9 in chicken, 9 in ribs and 7 in pork. I won't get into the brisket that needed 2 more hours on the smoker...:icon_blush: All in all, I think I had the best weekend ever. The teams were great. Thanks especially to Cameron Cookers for hooking us up with items we missed. Here are our turn ins...let me know what you think.

Thanks everyone. We had an absolute blast and met some really nice people. The ribs were cooked well but the racks were not meaty. We went with that layout trying to fill the box and trying to help with the fact they were not the same size. I made my worst choices with the brisket. I stuck to my plan that we developed during practices even though the conditions were different. It needed 2 more hours to get tender. We got killed on tenderness and that seemed to drag down taste scores too.

I became a CBJ earlier this year and have judged in 3 comps. I took it seriously from the beginning but I have a new respect for what the teams go through. I think CBJs need to do more than cook with a team. They need to compete. There is so much time in planning, packing, organizing, stressing, cleaning, travel etc. The actual night of cooking is a very small part of what a team goes through.