A California State Championship

A California State BBQ Championship
Imperial Beach, California
July 4th weekend, 2003

GRAND CHAMPION
Big Belly BBQ
Bentley Meredith
  
RESERVE CHAMPION
Go Ducks
???
  

Todd Eves from "Out of this World BBQ Products & Catering" captured a 4th Place in Brisket and <BIG RED PIT>
   

By Carl Kaun:

Congrats to the champions and the winners of all the categories. Thanks to Gene Goycochea for organizing, and John Hopkins for repping this event. Thanks also to all the Imperial Beach volunteers who did a lot of things for us, and to the judges for their help in making it a very nice event.

The venue was a little different from previous events, as we set up on the street rather than the hotel parking lot, but it seemed to work fine. The place was pretty filled with people, as you can imagine on a 4th of July weekend, and Friday night was a little "livelier" than a lot of cookouts tend to be.

There were 11 teams total, and I think nine entered the seafood competition. Despite a good number of newer teams, the Surf & Turf was very competitive, as demonstrated by the number of newer teams in the standings, and I thought the scoring range among the teams looked pretty tight.

There were several Traeger's in attendance, and Big Belly's grand championship showing with one seems likely to further increase both the number of them in competition, and the rumblings from some purists about real barbecue.

Anyway, it was great fun, and great also to both see old Q'ers and meet some of the new people. Now it's time to get it up for Follows Camp. See y'all there.