Cost of competing in BBQ

[Barefoot BBQ]

From my last few results, POORLY!

[tduffy]

Originally Posted by Rockinar

How do you cook if you're asleep at a hotel? LOL

Hot N fast. I get a full night of sleep at a hotel and fire is lit at 5am.

[Texan79423]

I have retired from comps. All I can tell you is if you have to ask you will never understand it.

[bubbletop]

If you have to ask "how much"? it's probably too much!

[tduffy]

I ask "How much?" quite often.



Just because you aren't rich and have a budget don't mean you can't do this and be competitive. It's knowing where to spend the money and where to save. I'm a low budget team and have held my own pretty well.

[Bill-Chicago]

Originally Posted by masque13

That is truly awesome! Congrats and I tip my hat to you. I would love to be in a position to dig in and take my shot at this as well but just too many outside factors at this point in my life to take that kind of risk.

And I don’t know how many teams realize this, but I came to realize a couple of seasons ago that guys like me can’t really compete with guys like you week in and week out. Sure, can I have a real good cook and land on a couple of good tables and beat you or someone like you in a category or two? Yes. Can I even maybe have a great overall cook and possibly finish higher at a comp overall than you? Perhaps.

But to truly be great at something requires commitment and time and practice to create great skill. Folks that are cooking 35 plus contests per year and doing restaurants and or catering on the side will fire up their smokers more in a month than I will all year. I have come to accept that guys like me are there at contests to fill out the field and make sure there is plenty of prize money for guys like you to take home. Lol. I realize that if I truly want to be able to compete on the circuit more consistently then it’s on me to find a way to fire my smokers up more and practice more to increase my skill level.

But you know what? I love being at contests, I love the whole BBQ culture. And even though I know we are fighting long odds of winning at most contests, I still love doing it. We’ve had enough success to know that we are gonna eventually pop a grand at some contest in the future and that will feel wonderful. But I also know that will never be the norm for us because of time limitations and quality of competition from folks like you.

In the end it’s al good because I just love being around it and meeting great folks and learning all the time. And I never resent being at contests with teams that compete all the time. I actually love being in tough fields at comps because I love trying to match up against them and see if I can pull the upset. Lol. I have tremendous respect for people that do this all the time like you do. It’s damn hard work and you’ve found a way to make it work for you! Very cool indeed.

I'll cherry pick this one out as it resounds in me to really answer the heart of Dave's question.
Loved gettingbasted success story, but reading this forum for a decade will show he is the exception, and my hat is off to him.

I loved Masque's post from a different perspective. Instead of "how much does it cost" I tended to read it with the inflection "Was it worth it to compete for you"

Read his response in that light.

Some people like to vacation on a beach in Mexico. Some like to drive the upper Northeast. Others like to cruise the Alaskan coast and see all the beauty there.


I just dropped around $8K or so this summer on 3 weeks in the Philippines with our entire family. Wouldn't hesitate to do it again in a heartbeat.

My point:
What kind of vacation budget do you have? I would bet a good number of folks in this thread would say that their competition schedule IS their primary vacation.

So before dreaming big about winning, and about a life in BBQ, its an easy question. Would you like to spend your free time with like minded folks, talking BBQ, learning new things, the camaraderie, the fun, etc that goes into competing?

Further that with your experiences here. I see you are a recent joinee, but would you attend a competition with the Brethren spirit of making new friends, and then in turn helping out the other new guys down the road?

You are asking a question that will pay you untold dividends in the future, you will reap what you put into it, and the BBQ community will be better off for it when you enter into it with the mindset of being part of that community. It's us and us, not us and them, for the majority of teams from what I've read here.

Check out the Brethren Bash section of the forum, and if there is a "meat up and greet up" in your area, most competitions can end up like those, Brothers helping Brothers, if you allow them to.

Good luck to you as you enter the world of competition BBQ!

[LTG]

Originally Posted by tduffy

I ask "How much?" quite often.



Just because you aren't rich and have a budget don't mean you can't do this and be competitive. It's knowing where to spend the money and where to save. I'm a low budget team and have held my own pretty well.

Glad to see you posting again.

Your definition of low budget and mine is completely different.
Low budget to me is 2 ez ups and 3 homemade drums. Not a new trailer with an Outlaw on the back.

With that being said, this hobby is damn expensive. No way around it. I started like everyone else with a pop up and a couple of basic smokers. It morphed into the monster it is now. Has it been worth it? Depends on what day. But the feeling of your name being called last is unreal.

[Untraceable]

The toughest part is even when you win, you need receipts to cover the 1099’s. Essentially at best the goal is to net out. Granted at the end there is an opportunity to cash out by selling your equipment and if your lucky, your recipies and methods. Taken GC or RGC in 24% of our contests. Our best year was the most expensive

[Jason TQ]

This is how I still feel about the cost of competing........never gets old.......

[tduffy]

Originally Posted by LTG

Glad to see you posting again.

Your definition of low budget and mine is completely different.
Low budget to me is 2 ez ups and 3 homemade drums. Not a new trailer with an Outlaw on the back.

With that being said, this hobby is damn expensive. No way around it. I started like everyone else with a pop up and a couple of basic smokers. It morphed into the monster it is now. Has it been worth it? Depends on what day. But the feeling of your name being called last is unreal.

I base my "low budget" off of how many contests I can afford to cook and how I can stretch out the sponsor dollars and the money I invest into it to cook as many as I can. I'm a 13-14 comps a year cook right now as that I all I can afford to do. I used to do less. Maybe where I am at now isn't very low budget anymore? I have never factored what equipment a person has into that equation. Parrothead drives around the country pulling an offset that is probably close to 20 years old and cooks under an ez-up but is far from a low budget team as he typically cooks over 25 a year. I often see teams cooking on WSMs next to $100,000 motorhomes. I suppose it's all subjective.
But you are right, no matter how much or little you invest in equipment it is still expensive. The weekly expenses is the same if you want to be competitive.