Too many competitions???

[W.I.T.W.A.G?]

seeing as how you said "cost aside" I would say do as many as you can while still enjoying yourself. Once you get to where you're not really excited it's time to slow down. That being said consistency is much easier to accomplish the more you do. Good Luck in 2019!

[CBQ]

Originally Posted by Chodempole

Anyone ever do too many or not enough?

Depends on when you ask my wife

What's your goal?

If you want to have fun, any amount you are comfortable with is OK. A lot of casual teams do 5 and enjoy it.

If you have a competitive streak and want to improve, I've always felt that teams need to do at least 10 in order to gain enough experience for it to be meaningful.

If you are trying for a KCBS Team of the Year ranking, you are cooking at least 15, and probably in the 20-30 range if you are a top 25 team.

Winning it all takes a lot more than that, as Brad pointed out.

A lot of teams that cook 10 contests think the people that do 25+ are crazy but in a weird way I find that contests are easier when you are doing them back-to-back. Cook, unload, reset, go again. It's harder when you take long breaks between contests, at least for me.

For the first year though...stay under 10. Figure out what works, what doesn't, and if you like doing it before you commit more time and money.

[ffemtreed]

I would say it all depends on your setup, more specifically the ease of setup. If you are popping up tents and packing and unloading a trailer every weekend it might get old fast. However if you have a dedicated trailer setup just for BBQ and you just pull into a spot and are ready to go it will be a lot less stressful for you.



Cooking in the dead of summer outside with very little shelter can really take it out of you as well, even in the North East. So you may have to give up cooking comps in July / August (unless you don't mind the heat).