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Team BBQbyDan & Tropical Heat tied for 1st Place Overall - Grand Champion
    
The Tie-Breaker went to Team Tropical Heat  --- Congratulations Bill & Dan !!!
   

Half Chicken

1st - Tropical Heat
2nd - OU8 BBQ 
3rd - BBQ by Dan
4th - Pit Stop
5th - Papa Smoke House

 Pork Spare Ribs
     

Pork Butt
   

Brisket
   

Moorpark BBQ Contest, 8-September-2007

Moorpark California
   

Organized by the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce
and the IBCA contest facilitated by Thom Emery of the California BBQ Association

Arrival
This BBQ Cook-Off was nicely organized, well executed, and came out perfect.  Thanks to the dedication of the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce, the involvement of the CBBQA,  and all the volunteers that participated as judges, facilities setup, and all the functions it takes to make an event happen.  Sharon Conte and Lisa Mascotti (Moorpark Chamber of Commerce) were the folks that I knew by name and helped me so much in advance of the event.  I know there were many other volunteers and staff members that helped and sorry I don’t have your names.  From the CBBQA there was the direct involvement and on-site planning by Thom Emery and Bill Keyes.

Most of the teams arrived and were setup by the evening.  I arrived with Todd Eves, and his assistant Noel, of  Team OU8BBQ.  Neil & Sylvie of Team 4Q, John & Sharen Scott of Papa’s Smokehouse, and Bill & Dan of Tropical Heat were already in place and pretty much setup.  Pete & Pam of Pit Stop BBQ arrived just a bit later.

Venue

What a great place!  A Walnut orchard, on green grass, under shade, with a cool breeze blowing nicely all evening and all day Saturday.  It was definitely a perfect temperature.  Not hot like last weekend.  However, I did work with folks that live in Moorpark and they said on Sunday is was up to 90 degrees.  We had power, porta-potties, and spots all ready upon arrival.  The chamber folks were on hand to direct us to our spots and provide for any need we had.  Vendors were setting up their booths for sales the next day.  It is nice when it all works out nicely like that.

Thom Emery arrived somewhere after 09:00 pm and finally most folks in attendance were relaxing.  It was a great get-together and party from my perspective and I had a great time Friday night visiting folks.

Contest

I finally started prepping the meats later in the evening.  Put the briskets and butts on soon afterwards, got the fire up to temperature, setup for the long-burn till morning, and everything was going great.

Got up at 06:00 and adjusted the fire, prepared the chicken and ribs for cooking, and had breakfast with Todd and Noel of OU8BBQ.

Barb (my wife) arrived about 10:00 and  started the final preparations and turn-in chores.  The last 10 years I have just done KCBS contest.  This was my first IBCA (International. Barbeque Cookers  Association) and I  had to learn how to work in a different way.  Specifically:

-         Half Chicken turn-in.  Can’t be cut up

-         7 Ribs, stacked horizontally (no more)

-         7 Brisket slices, stacked horizontally (no more & no point/deckle allowed)

-         Pulled Pork, stacked horizontally

-         We used Texas Greens (tin-foil) in the turn-in trays.  That made life easy!

-         Turn-in on the hours (noon= Chicken, 1:00= Ribs, 2:00= Butt, 3:00= Brisket) with a 10 minute window before and after the hour.

It was definitely much more relaxed than a KCBS contest.  Overall I liked it and had a great time.

Thom did a fantastic job organizing the judging booth, judges, and all that goes with the responsibility of making an event successful.   Awards went off like clockwork at 4:00.  We had all been told we would need to vacate the premises after awards so many were ready to leave right after awards.  I went around and congratulated who I could fine then pulled out right after Todd by 4:30.  Too bad we missed being able to attend the after-contest-celebration by all the teams.  That is always a nice relaxing way to wrap up a weekend and get to socialize a bit more.

Congratulations to all the teams and thanks to all that made the event happen.  Overall it was a great event and am looking forward to next year’s.

Dan Cannon

BBQbyDan

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