What Did You Screw Up At Your First Comp?

tdwalker

tdwalker

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Pros, Mentors, Champions,

What did you screw up at your first comp? Did you forget your knives? Overslept and let the fire go out? etc.?

Just wondering because I'm planning my first comp, and I'm trying to get some "Gremlin-be-gone."

Best Regards,
 
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A buttload of screw ups. My dad talked me into only setting up 1 canopy. He decided to have a few too many and passed out at 10. I decided to set my alarm and sleep for a few hours...at least I thought I set my alarm. Woke up at midnight and could here someone's guru beeping. I said to myself..some farker let his pit get too low. Well, I was that farker. Temp had dropped 40 degrees.
Back to the 1 canopy up. It was pouring...and I mean pouring. I ended up having a 2 foot section to stand where I wasn't getting wet. I had to stand there for 4 hours..lol. Pork and brisket were overcooked. Skin shrunk on the chicken and we had to turn in skinless chicken. Fun times had by all.
 
Not necessarily at my first contest, but some of my early brain farts included leaving my sauce at home, falling asleep at the stickburner and letting the fire go almost completely out, wrong sauce on wrong meat, grease fires, etc. Good luck!

Sent from the Swamp-Droid
 
Let my wife put together a turn-in box, when she had never even practiced one before. I let her now that she has seen and made a few practicing at home.
 
1st comp ever..54 teams state record team count(at the time)chicken kept us from Grand..1st brisket,2nd ribs,8th pork,34th chicken..we took RGC but it could have been Grand if it weren't for that dam chicken!
 
Not really a screw up since things ended up going pretty well for us, but I decided not to trim and prep the meat at home. I figured we'd have plenty of time to do it onsite. We did, but it was a lot more hassle than doing it at home.
 
honestly, i didn't screw up anything my first contest. It ran like clockwork. I prepped, practiced, etc, and all went smoothly.. just be prepared, and the little screw ups won't be major.

Now, my next 47 contests, some I wished went that smootly !!
 
Podge you go to contest before doing your first one or what did you do to prepare for the first one? I was a lot more confident about contest late last fall when we decided to start a team but after going to a KCBS judging class realized what we are up against.
 
Not enough beer!!!
Didn't talk to many teams at the first contest. Seriously, go around say hello to EVERYONE!! Tell them its your first comp and 99% if not a 100% they will say do you have any questions? They will also say if you need anything just holla.
Your goal (minumum) is not to DQ. if that doesn't happen success is had by all.
 
At our first we had issues getting our chicken done on time. Cooked it to the last possible second, almost decided to not turn it in. Everything else went smooth as possible. Got one call that day..............chicken.
 
I remember our first contest we had no plan, cooked the meat like we liked it and got hammered. We've since probably dropped half the stuff we used to bring, have a printed out plan of exactly what we want to do when and spend more time focusing on staying on track than making sure our beer isn't empty. A good friend also taught me, drink up Friday, have a good time, but put it away at 9p, get your chit in gear and then get to sleep. Sage advice.
 
Oh Lard. Let's see -- we had a leaky backyard Bar-B-Chef offset and a Weber kettle. VQ brought 240 pounds of lump charcoal. Hey, we didn't run out. Every other bit of crap we brought was similarly overstocked -- we could have dry-camped for a MONTH.

We let the butcher pick and trim our ribs for us. Got to the site, opened the package and found thin, crappy racks with shiners. Not within striking range of a market for repurchase. Our neighbors offered us the racks they weren't going to use -- BBQ people are just the best -- but we ran with what we brought.

Too nervous to get any sleep. I think each of us napped for 20 minutes in a chair. Will never make that mistake again.

Brisket was done at 7AM and we had NO clue how to hold it -- we were so green, we didn't even know at that time it could be done. Just left it in the coolest part of the cooker. The result is memorialized in the "What NOT to turn in" thread. It's a lot funnier now, but VQ went afterward and apologized to the head judge for that brisket, who knew EXACTLY which one he was talking about!
 
We destroyed our Brisket- sooooooooooo Dry. Got 2nd in Chicken. That was a Prof contest. Our very 1st was a Back Yard at Yardley- I think we were close to last in everything
 
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