Smoking contest?

Yo LM

There are a couple of takes on Slow Smokers. The most rigorous are the ones sanctioned by the international Commite in France, whereby a standard pipe is issued, along with 3 g of the same tobacco blend and 2 matches. These are run in the US by UPCA. Their site has background on the setup. The big one was a week ago at the Chicago CPCC show. Otherwise, some groups let players bring whatever pipe they want and may standardize on the blend. These are fun, regardless.

hp
les

Here's a lil sumpin to strive towards....


www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/smoking-a-pipe-for-the-longest-time-without-relighting

Jiminks could beat that.

Just my luck! I never finish first and when I would finish first in something I would lose..SMH!!!!!

There are two different sets of rules in the US: UPCA and IAPSC.

The OP was wondering how to do one at home. Simple but you need an accurate scale. Pick a tobacco. Weigh out the same amount. UPCA uses 3.0gm and IAPSC uses 3.3gm. Any amount will do for at home as long as the loads are all the same. Everyone loads their pipe. Everyone is given two matches and one minute to light their pipe. No relight she allowed. Last one smoking wins. IAPSC rules allow the use of any tamper and cleaners while smoking.

Note: I am the Secretary of IAPSC. Under IAPSC rules, contestants use their own pipe, any non-combustible tamper, and can use cleaners during smoking. For official IAPSC contests the same blend "IAPSC Competition Blend" is used. IAPSC has been around for 69 years.

I'm not aware of any articles or videos.  I regularly compete in both UPCA and IAPSC contests and can answer questions.  Maybe I should sit down and write an article.

My local contests are probably not truly reflective of averages elsewhere.  I am a member of Arrowhead Pipe Club which meets at Paul's Pipe Shop in Flint, MI.  Paul Spaniola who opened up Paul's Pipe Shop almost 80 years ago helped to found IAPSC 69 years ago.  As a result, Arrowhead is a slow smoking club.  We do pipe smoking contests at 10 out of our 12 meetings a year in addition to hosting two official events: Michigan IAPSC Regional in the spring and IAPSC World Championship in the fall.  Also, our members do quite well in the UPCA US National in Chicago.  One of our Arrowhead members is 4 time IAPSC World champion and 3 time UPCA US National champion.

At Arrowhead Pipe Club, we compute an average of our member's times each month.  Typically, the club average comes out to be about 40 to 45 minutes.

The typical winning time in the IAPSC contests and the UPCA US National is usually between 1hr 15min and 1hr 45 min.  A time of an hour will typically put one in the top 10.  We typically have similar results in our monthly meeting contests simply because we have several club members who regularly post good times.

I would like to emphasize that pipe smoking contests are NOT cut throat competitions and all about winning.  Sure, bragging rights are fun, but it's really about doing your personal best and enjoying the fellowship of other pipe smokers.  For our official contests here in MI, we follow the contest with a potluck dinner and cash bar.  We also do a couple pipe related raffles to help cover costs.