Hi everyone,
I think I’ve finally recovered after Chicago. I was silly enough to plan work trips immediately before and after the show. But now I’d like to update you on the UPCA events at The Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show 2025.
The UPCA Happy Hour at Short Fuse Brewing on Thursday night was a great way to start the show. The brewery is a short walk from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, so I think we’ll keep the tradition going next year.
The UPCA Annual Meeting on Friday was well attended, both in-person and virtually. I’m so glad we were able to offer a virtual option this year, and hopefully we have all the bugs worked out by next year. I’d like to thank Scott Pearce and the Pipe Tobacco Council for attending. It was nice learning about what they do. I’m looking forward to working with them in the future. In total we had 13 clubs represented, which was enough for quorum. For a list of the specific business items covered/voted on during the meeting, please consult the meeting minutes which were sent out a few weeks ago. Of note, the UPCA has a new secretary. Please join me in welcoming Michael Bergstrom of the Seattle Pipe Club to the UPCA Board. Look for an introduction email from Michael soon. I’d like to recognize the outgoing secretary, Andre Tessier of the New York (and several other) Pipe Club(s). There’s a good chance you learned of the UPCA from Andre. Never shy and seemingly everywhere, Andre was dedicated to the UPCA from the start. The organization will be forever indebted to him for getting us to where we are today. Thank you, Andre.
The Vernon Vig National Pipe Smoking Contest on Saturday featured 28 participants. It was exciting to see the final two participants, Eric “Toby” Cabrera from the Long Island Pipe Club and Barry Tannenbaum of the Great Northern Pipe Club, sitting at the same table, going for 20 minutes longer than the third place contestant, before Barry finally went out. Congratulations to Eric “Toby” Cabrera for winning this year’s contest with a time of 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 39 seconds! Furthermore, Toby has already agreed to represent the UPCA in the World Championship of Pipe Smoking later this year in The Netherlands. More on that in the next few months! We would also like to congratulate the winner in the International Division, Guoqing Zhang, with a time of 34 minutes, 20 seconds. And Jules Ewart was this year’s winner in the Woman’s Division at 27 minutes, 05 seconds. Congratulations, Jules! A full list of contestants and times will be up on the website soon. The Merchant Service contest pipes were well-received. We thank them for their high quality work. The UPCA will be selling all remaining contest pipes. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if interested. We would also like to thank Iwan Ries for donating the Spilman Mixture. And a huge thank you to everyone who donated to the prize table. Once again, we were able to ensure that every contestant went home with a prize. The generosity of the community amazes me every year.
On Sunday The Karloski National Fast Smoke Contest was a direct competition between new UPCA Secretary Michael Bergstrom of the Seattle Pipe Club and Greg Polla of Merchant Service and the Hudson Valley Pipe Club. It was also a direct competition between corn cob and briar, as Mike used the contest pipe provided courtesy of our always generous sponsors at Missouri Meerschaum and Greg brought his own table pipe. The tobacco was Frostika 1800. In the end, the mighty cob was victorious, with Mike finishing in 7 minutes, 14 seconds.
It was a busy Chicago show, but an excellent Chicago show! Our thanks as always to the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club for all they did to make the show run smoothly. And for more of what happened at the show, including how UPCA Vice President Nathan Davis did at the Battle of the Briar, please read this article from James Foster of the Austin Pipe Club. Hope to see you all at the next UPCA General Meeting in June.
Best,
Kyle Bowen
President, United Pipe Clubs of America