My interest in competition barbecue was piqued when the Learning Channel (TLC) aired a marathon of the BBQ Pitmasters first season. After watchng the marathon I was hooked and wanted to compete. I wanted to learn more about competition barbecue and my wife blessed me with a cooking class with the North Carolina Barbecue Society. This was an informative class and I met some nice folks but it didn’t give me knowledge I needed to compete. After searching the net I came across Pigs on the Run Competition Cooking class led by John Atkins. This class gave everything I need to launch out into competition barbecue. As you may know with any hobby, things are expensive so I decided to do some backyard comps first. This way I could compete learn more about want to do for only $75 – $100 (way cheaper than signing up for a pro comp at $250). As I was gearing to compete my nephews Rashard (aka Rah) and Rastus (aka Dinky) expressed their interest in competitive barbecue and joined me in my adventure. Since Kirby is our family name I chose the name KIRB-B-Q (KIRBBQ).

​

In April 2013, team KIRBBQ competed in the Backyard division of the Pork in the Park Festival which was held in Salisbury, MD. My expectation was simply not to come in last. I was surprised to hear my team name called for 4th place in chicken, and just as my wife and I made it to the rest of team we heard our team name called again for 3rd place in ribs. Just as left the stage again we heard them call KIRBBQ as the Grand Champions for the amateur division. That was one of the greatest days of my life. I was hooked on competition barbecue. I had planned on participating in two more comps after Pork in Park but life happened and I was not able to attend those events. In September 2013, we were finally able to make to another competition and competed in the backyard division of Smoke’n on the Track competition at the Shenandoah Speedway. With this being our second competition we were blessed to finished 2nd place overall out of 23 backyard teams. With two successful placings under our belt I believed it is time for us to move into the big leagues of competitive barbecue.