NICA's 1993 National Championships
Ok, if you saw this before, you’d have seen the appalling lack of info related to these pics from the 1993 National Championship, my first world or national championship experience. I’m starting to fix that now. You can also read the blog entry that introduces this gallery. There’s at least a little more info there.
Thankfully, the pics in the slideshow aren’t quite as crappy π© as they appear in the previews. They’re almost as crappy, but not quite. I may switch the gallery out at later date to fix this :/
Read on below the gallery for more info on this awesome event from quite a while back!
the 1993 National Championship results and stuff
As far as results, I don’t have tons at the moment, but hopefully I can fix that later. The NICA website might have previously had that info, but it’s long gone π Mark Daukas won the event, with his “Harmony” single block sculpture and his 2 block “Bearer of the Heavens.” (I’m pretty sure that was the title.) Steve Rose took second place. Dean Carlson might have taken third; I don’t have the info handy. I’ll ask Dean the next time I talk with him or see if I can find the info in my files.
Other sculptors at the event include Dan Rebholz, Aaron Costic, Eugene Shea, Jeff Bleier, Kevin McDonald, and Naomi Hamamura. All of these sculptors (and others there that I’ve forgotten to mention) had significant impacts on ice sculpting in the years to come. One unfortunate incident was that one sculptor, Jun Medina, had a medical emergency at the event π
my experience at my first National Championship
As for myself, I didn’t take any place or even close, lol. I was just happy to be there! My two block eagle dancer sculpture was something I’d never tried, and it wasn’t a very risky or well though out piece. I had strong experience with my griffon design, but I remember feeling like I didn’t have enough time. Sometimes when I sculpt, I get complacent and too comfortable with a design and I lose my sense of urgency. I’m sure that’s what happened here and the result was an unfinished griffon.
Even though I didn’t score well in the competition, I still tried to make the most of my trip. Before I went back to Albuquerque, I took a short course from the winner, Mark Daukas, in Cleveland.Β
Later, I took a longer course from Mark in Las Vegas. Combined with the previous short seminar, that proved to be a nice foundation for my ice sculpting skills. Up to that point, I’d learned mostly from Chef Victor Rede, smaller competitions, trial and error, and books. I’d also tried to pick up techniques from the old NICA newsletter.
Mark Daukas ran his “Icemaster” seminars around the country for a while. These were 3 day courses and gave many wanna-be professional ice sculptors a solid starting point of ice sculpting knowledge and specific instruction on snowfill engraving. Since I was a wanna-be pro myself, it was very helpful. Check out this somewhat over-the-top interview with Daukas that touches on his Icemaster courses.
So as it turned out, the 1993 national championship competition turned out to be a nice gateway to my advanced ice sculpting education π
boring details that nobody reads
I’m working on rebuilding my collection of ice sculpture galleries. I had a bunch on the old ice carving secrets site, so I have all of those and many more to add as well. As for more like this, check out the selection of ice sculpting competitions.
Also, you might also find photos and info from this gallery on the ice sculpting secrets Instagram account or the facebook page. Since you can’t comment on this page, comment there if you have any thoughts or knowledge related to this event. Thanks!