Saturday, October 15, 2011

Training For Competition

Next month is the 11th Annual Slow Smoke Competition at the Seattle Pipe Club. Although I have watched this event for about 4 years now, I have never entered. Because there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that I'd win. I have been smoking a pipe for this same amount of time but I wasn't a very competent pipe smoker. I couldn't keep a pipe lit for very long. And I wasn't secure in this part of my identity. Being a female, I stand out like a sore thumb at pipe club and felt quite awkward. But since my retirement I have had more time to devote to this hobby and something has "clicked". Pipe smoking feels natural and I am no longer self conscious. And I can keep my bowl lit. Consistently. For a good length of time. I decided it would be fun to enter this year's competition. There aren't a lot of prizes this time around. But that Scotch sounds good. There will be 15 competitors and many of them have won in years past. In order to stand a chance I will have to train, and train hard. This year's competition will feature a straight billiard style pipe and 3 grams of Dunhill's Early Morning Pipe tobacco. My preferred strategy would be to practise using the same style, unsmoked pipe and the exact same tobacco. I have a lot of tobacco in my cellar, but no Early Morning Pipe. So I have settled with using a similar cut from the same company, Dunhill London Mixture. My husband donated one of his unsmoked billiards for me to practice with, as I do not have a pipe of that style in my collection.


Each evening I head to the basement smoking lounge to practise my slow smoking technique. Last night my time was 52 minutes. Here are the times from last years' event. A time of 52 minutes would put me in the top four. I could live with that. But I would really like to take second place and bring home that Scotch.

3 comments:

NewlyAwakened said...

You should watch a movie called "Beer Fest." It is over the top stupid and raunchy but funny as hell and all about training for an underground secret international beer drinking competition. You will laugh your ass off and it will totally fit with your beer swilling and pipe smoking efforts! LOL I have it on DVD and will leave it on your porch next time I am in town if you'd like :)

crazihippichic said...

That sounds like my kind of movie. Maybe I can glean some training tips. If you happen to think of it, and are out this way, I'd love to watch it. Thanks for offering.

NewlyAwakened said...

Like I said, it is raunchy and stupid beyond all hope but oh soooo freakin' funny. My dad and Hubby can't watch it but I laugh to it about 6 times a year. LOL I either like really smart and nerdy documentary type movies/tv shows or really stupid brain dead ones. No in-between! LOL