Our club held it’s first “Slow Smoke Contest” on March 4th, 2009. The turnout for the event was incredible, standing room only until we got more chairs lol.
Every participant received a corn cob, 3oz of tobacco, and three matches. (Normally, only two matches are allowed for the one minute you have to light your pipe, but it was our first slow smoke, so we gave everyone three.) We were given one minute to light the pipes, and after that one minute, you weren’t able to re-light. Tamping could only be done while the pipe was in your mouth, and you couldn’t sip a drink until after the first ten minutes of the slow smoke.
I think it was more fun watching our members smoke a pipe outside of their normal choice of fine briars! Some dropped out with a sigh of relief, and a few actually dropped out due to smoking the entire bowl. The lil corn cobs got very hot, and there were reports of flaming pipe shafts (unconfirmed). *laughs*
Our winners, Bob Bogan and Bill Hyde smoked their corn cobs for 37 minutes, and both of their pipes went out at the same time. We called it a tie, and the gracious winners donated the prize pipe (a Savinelli il Meglio) back to the club for a future contest so we could all have fun again sometime soon.
It was a great meeting, and a great contest. We all look forward to doing it again!

