Who Moves On? Cigar Smoking World Championships 2021 U.S. Semifinals

Speaker: 00:00:00

- [Rob Gagner, Boveda] It's a competition that takes time,

Speaker: 00:00:02

(blues music)

Speaker: 00:00:05

patience,

Speaker: 00:00:06

(blues music)

Speaker: 00:00:09

and a steady hand,

Speaker: 00:00:10

(blues music)

Speaker: 00:00:13

and intense focus.

Speaker: 00:00:18

The slower you smoke,

Speaker: 00:00:20

(blues music)

Speaker: 00:00:22

the better off you'll do.

Speaker: 00:00:24

(blues music)

Speaker: 00:00:26

Welcome to the slowest race on Earth-

Speaker: 00:00:31

the 2021 Cigar Smoking World Championships.

Speaker: 00:00:36

For this episode of Box Press,

Speaker: 00:00:38

we visit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Speaker: 00:00:40

And our first stop was at Club Leaf & Bean

Speaker: 00:00:42

where they're putting on the U.S. Semifinals.

Speaker: 00:00:45

Now slow smoking a cigar is usually a sign of someone trying

Speaker: 00:00:48

to appreciate the flavors and complexity of a stick.

Speaker: 00:00:52

But here, they're competing to see

Speaker: 00:00:54

how slow they can smoke the cigar

Speaker: 00:00:56

and also not incur penalties like breaking your ash

Speaker: 00:00:59

and burning your cigar ring.

Speaker: 00:01:01

At first mention, it sounds outrageous, but it is real.

Speaker: 00:01:05

The smoker who takes the longest

Speaker: 00:01:06

to finish their cigar is the winner.

Speaker: 00:01:09

- [Fred] I didn't make fun of it, but I'm just like, okay,

Speaker: 00:01:11

this is just kind of weird. Like we understand longest ash,

Speaker: 00:01:14

but this was just like, okay, how slow can I go?

Speaker: 00:01:16

But then the more you get into it you start thinking,

Speaker: 00:01:18

well, what is that time? Should I puff every minute?

Speaker: 00:01:20

Every two minutes? Every three minutes?

Speaker: 00:01:22

- [CHRIS] It's not normal. You're not sitting down with a drink

Speaker: 00:01:25

and a cigar. You're paying attention to your ash,

Speaker: 00:01:27

you're paying attention to is the thing lit.

Speaker: 00:01:29

On paper you look at it and you're like,

Speaker: 00:01:31

hey, you know, this sounds pretty simple.

Speaker: 00:01:34

And then you go to do it and you're like,

Speaker: 00:01:35

it's a lot harder than you thought.

Speaker: 00:01:37

- [John] I saw somebody do three hours

Speaker: 00:01:39

and I guess that was the world champion last year

Speaker: 00:01:41

or something. And I was like, I don't know how

Speaker: 00:01:43

you get three hours out of one of these cigars.

Speaker: 00:01:44

- [Chris] How the hell do you get three hours out of this cigar?

Speaker: 00:01:47

That's I mean, without going out?

Speaker: 00:01:50

- [Fred] This is crazy small. When you start talking about,

Speaker: 00:01:52

you know, how slow can you smoke it.

Speaker: 00:01:55

The guys that are doing two and a half hours,

Speaker: 00:01:57

they're in a different world. They somehow have just,

Speaker: 00:01:59

you know, and I think it's skill

Speaker: 00:02:02

and I think there's going to be some luck.

Speaker: 00:02:03

- [Joel] I got one to an hour and a half the other day,

Speaker: 00:02:07

but the first two matches did not light it.

Speaker: 00:02:08

- I have noticed some of them just go out without warning.

Speaker: 00:02:11

- [Fred] This just went out because I was talking.

Speaker: 00:02:13

This just went out. There you go. I'm out.

Speaker: 00:02:14

- [Boveda Rob] (laughs) You were actually

Speaker: 00:02:16

keeping it going pretty well.

Speaker: 00:02:17

- [Fred] I thought I was, but I wasn't paying,

Speaker: 00:02:18

I wasn't really watching the heat or anything

Speaker: 00:02:20

like that, but yeah, you can lose it in a second.

Speaker: 00:02:23

The one I just had was the first one that went out on me

Speaker: 00:02:25

before the 40-minute mark, you know, before getting the ash,

Speaker: 00:02:27

that's the first one that went out.

Speaker: 00:02:28

So now that just scared me

Speaker: 00:02:29

for tomorrow. Thank you very much.

Speaker: 00:02:31

- [John] I practiced a couple of times for the event. Not too much.

Speaker: 00:02:34

I've been smoking cigars so long now.

Speaker: 00:02:35

I feel like I've been training my whole life.

Speaker: 00:02:36

So practicing the match and you know,

Speaker: 00:02:38

trying to keep it up and straight,

Speaker: 00:02:39

like is what I've been trying to do.

Speaker: 00:02:41

- [Joel] I think I'm going to focus on my own cigar

Speaker: 00:02:43

and if I have a chance to make them laugh,

Speaker: 00:02:45

that makes them shake their cigar,

Speaker: 00:02:47

maybe ash early, that's what I'm going to do.

Speaker: 00:02:49

- [Chris] I think every cigar smokes a little differently.

Speaker: 00:02:52

Sure, I'll look around just to see how everybody's doing,

Speaker: 00:02:54

but I don't necessarily know that adjusting

Speaker: 00:02:57

what I'm going to do would work.

Speaker: 00:02:59

- [Fred] Anybody has a chance at this.

Speaker: 00:03:01

I think any average person that's smoking a couple of cigars

Speaker: 00:03:04

a week should absolutely just do it for the fun of it

Speaker: 00:03:07

and try it and see how it goes.

Speaker: 00:03:08

And you can be really good at it.

Speaker: 00:03:10

You might get lucky, but yeah,

Speaker: 00:03:12

I actually think it'll take off.

Speaker: 00:03:14

I think when people understand it and they get past this,

Speaker: 00:03:16

oh, it's a World Cigar Smoking Championship.

Speaker: 00:03:18

It sounds intimidating and in reality,

Speaker: 00:03:20

anybody, anybody could win.

Speaker: 00:03:22

You get one minute to cut and light your cigar

Speaker: 00:03:26

and you get two matches. After one minute,

Speaker: 00:03:30

you can no longer cut it, you can no longer touch it up,

Speaker: 00:03:32

you can't light it, you can't do anything else. Obviously,

Speaker: 00:03:34

if the cigar goes out, you're out

Speaker: 00:03:36

of the contest at that point.

Speaker: 00:03:37

- [CSWC Announcer] We are going to start the clock

Speaker: 00:03:39

and you will have one minute, two matches.

Speaker: 00:03:42

Mark, go ahead. Start the clock. Guys, good luck.

Speaker: 00:03:46

Cigar Smoking World Championship 2021 underway.

Speaker: 00:03:51

You've got that cigar. Get them lit.

Speaker: 00:03:53

Five minutes, no talking please.

Speaker: 00:03:57

- [Fred] The next one is really the dealing with the ash.

Speaker: 00:04:00

So you can't drop the ash for 41 minutes.

Speaker: 00:04:04

At the 41-minute mark, you can now ash

Speaker: 00:04:06

the cigar without any penalty.

Speaker: 00:04:08

When you get all the way down to the band,

Speaker: 00:04:10

you cannot burn the band. If you burn the band,

Speaker: 00:04:14

it's a penalty and it's a significant penalty

Speaker: 00:04:16

and it could make the difference

Speaker: 00:04:17

with some guys I've seen on some

Speaker: 00:04:19

of the qualifiers where it took a guy from second down

Speaker: 00:04:21

to sixth because he tried to push it through it.

Speaker: 00:04:23

I have a good construction, and everything's going good,

Speaker: 00:04:25

and the environment is good, then it's not too bad.

Speaker: 00:04:26

You just hold steady and a lot of people

Speaker: 00:04:28

will just hold it up like this and they hold it by the band.

Speaker: 00:04:30

And they'll just keep theirs like this

Speaker: 00:04:31

and they'll take a puff like this.

Speaker: 00:04:39

- [Boveda Rob] Anthony, you were the first one out. What was your time?

Speaker: 00:04:42

- [Anthony] Um, 19 minutes.

Speaker: 00:04:44

- [Boveda Rob] 19 minutes. How does it feel?

Speaker: 00:04:47

- [Anthony] It feels great.

Speaker: 00:04:48

- [Boveda Rob] Is it? (laughs) It feels great.

Speaker: 00:04:51

So did you have any plan at all or were you just

Speaker: 00:04:53

like, hey, as long as I make it.

Speaker: 00:04:53

- [Anthony] I was going slow, but a little too slow.

Speaker: 00:04:55

- [Boveda Rob] Yeah, a little too slow. I'd have to say so.

Speaker: 00:04:57

Nice job. I hope you do it again.

Speaker: 00:05:00

Do you think you're going to do it again?

Speaker: 00:05:00

- [Anthony] I will.

Speaker: 00:05:01

- [Boveda Rob] Alright. Nice.

Speaker: 00:05:03

Second, third, fourth time, maybe smoking

Speaker: 00:05:05

a cigar and he competed. You could do it.

Speaker: 00:05:10

You've made it past the 40 minute mark.

Speaker: 00:05:13

You're what? Maybe halfway to the band?

Speaker: 00:05:16

- [Fish] Roughly speaking.

Speaker: 00:05:17

- [Boveda Rob] Roughly. When do you think you will ash?

Speaker: 00:05:20

- [Fish] The ash protects the burn, but at a certain point in time

Speaker: 00:05:24

there's so much ash it restricts the airflow

Speaker: 00:05:26

that it chokes it out.

Speaker: 00:05:28

We're going to have that bright red in there.

Speaker: 00:05:32

I think I'll leave it on to a degree.

Speaker: 00:05:35

So as long as I have that red in there.

Speaker: 00:05:37

- [Boveda Rob] Other than being by the rowdy table,

Speaker: 00:05:40

you guys have been pretty quiet, pretty steady.

Speaker: 00:05:43

- That's right. (background drowns out response)

Speaker: 00:05:44

- [Boveda Rob] Exactly. Do you know

Speaker: 00:05:47

when you think you want to ash it?

Speaker: 00:05:49

Do you have a strategy?

Speaker: 00:05:51

- Instincts.

Speaker: 00:05:53

- [Boveda Rob] Instincts? Got it.

Speaker: 00:05:56

A lot of smoke going on still.

Speaker: 00:05:59

There's a lot of guys still left.

Speaker: 00:06:01

A third of them are still left.

Speaker: 00:06:04

It's anybody's game at this point.

Speaker: 00:06:06

Are you measuring how many minutes you puff in between?

Speaker: 00:06:11

- Yes. So actually that fell.

Speaker: 00:06:13

- [Boveda Rob] Good. Okay.

Speaker: 00:06:19

- So yeah, I can run the clock on how long I draw.

Speaker: 00:06:22

- [Boveda Rob] Okay. So that's part of it?

Speaker: 00:06:24

- Yes. It's all about math, baby.

Speaker: 00:06:29

- [Boveda Rob] How much time do you think

Speaker: 00:06:30

you got until you reach the band?

Speaker: 00:06:34

- Maybe 15 minutes.

Speaker: 00:06:36

- [Boveda Rob] Okay. We'll see.

Speaker: 00:06:38

We'll check back in 15 minutes. See what you do.

Speaker: 00:06:44

You went out what?

Speaker: 00:06:46

- 110. It went out.

Speaker: 00:06:48

- Did you band out?

Speaker: 00:06:50

No, no. It went out.

Speaker: 00:06:51

- [Boveda Rob] Did you nail the light?

Speaker: 00:06:52

- Yes, I nailed the light.

Speaker: 00:06:53

- [Boveda Rob] You got the light?

Speaker: 00:06:54

- Yeah. I got right down to the band

Speaker: 00:06:56

and it went out. Like, just stopped.

Speaker: 00:07:00

That was a good cigar.

Speaker: 00:07:01

- [Boveda Rob] Yeah?

Speaker: 00:07:02

- Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker: 00:07:03

- [Boveda Rob] Did you practice before this competition?

Speaker: 00:07:06

- I had two. I had one, I was at 53 minutes.

Speaker: 00:07:11

Legit, it was like that far down and then went out.

Speaker: 00:07:15

Last night, I was at 14 minutes and it went out.

Speaker: 00:07:19

- [Boveda Rob] 14 Minutes.

Speaker: 00:07:20

- Like a light switch it just went out.

Speaker: 00:07:21

- [Boveda Rob] So it went out?

Speaker: 00:07:22

- No, it's still burning. I was at the label.

Speaker: 00:07:26

- [Boveda Rob] You were? Did you let it touch

Speaker: 00:07:29

the label? Did it burn?

Speaker: 00:07:30

- No, it was right at the label.

Speaker: 00:07:32

The label started turning brown.

Speaker: 00:07:33

He was right there. I said, I'm out.

Speaker: 00:07:34

- [Boveda Rob] So you recorded your time at what?

Speaker: 00:07:36

- I think it was at 105.

Speaker: 00:07:38

- [Boveda Rob] 105? Not a bad time.

Speaker: 00:07:40

- Not a bad time. I will practice

Speaker: 00:07:42

and hopefully get back into next year.

Speaker: 00:07:47

- It's out.

Speaker: 00:07:51

- [CSWC Announcers] We have three contestants left.

Speaker: 00:07:56

- And then there were three.

Speaker: 00:07:58

- [Boveda Rob] Did the band get burned on the left?

Speaker: 00:08:02

(background conversations)

Speaker: 00:08:15

- It's over with a 15-minute penalty.

Speaker: 00:08:18

127.51, you burned the band. 127.51. Sorry.

Speaker: 00:08:26

- [Boveda Rob] It's down to two.

Speaker: 00:08:29

(background conversations)

Speaker: 00:08:41

- [Fish] (Aww)

Speaker: 00:08:45

- [Boveda Rob] Out? 128.29

Speaker: 00:08:48

(clapping)

Speaker: 00:08:55

- [Boveda Rob] Thanks, Max! That was awesome.

Speaker: 00:09:03

You came in third, but you burned the band.

Speaker: 00:09:08

How did that happen?

Speaker: 00:09:10

- [Kevin] I was so focused on keeping it lit,

Speaker: 00:09:13

I lost track of the rest of the cigar.

Speaker: 00:09:15

- [Boveda Rob] Do you think you would have called it earlier

Speaker: 00:09:16

if you had known? Or would be you still gone for first?

Speaker: 00:09:19

- [Boveda Rob] Yes. I think I would have went for third.

Speaker: 00:09:20

If I knew that the guy behind me

Speaker: 00:09:22

was way ahead, I would have called it.

Speaker: 00:09:26

- [Boveda Rob] It happens. You can't control it always.

Speaker: 00:09:28

So you gotta know when to do it.

Speaker: 00:09:30

You gotta know when to fold them.

Speaker: 00:09:31

So how does it feel to win out of 28 guys?

Speaker: 00:09:35

- [Aaron] Exciting, very exciting.

Speaker: 00:09:36

- We were golfing on Tuesday

Speaker: 00:09:38

and I said, Hey, you should do this competition.

Speaker: 00:09:40

And he said, what is it? No practice,

Speaker: 00:09:42

he came in and won the whole thing.

Speaker: 00:09:45

- [Boveda Rob] Wow. For tomorrow's U.S. Finals,

Speaker: 00:09:48

what are you going to take away from this

Speaker: 00:09:50

to get you through the finals?

Speaker: 00:09:52

- [Aaron] Focus and slow and steady.

Speaker: 00:09:54

- [Boveda Rob] You are very focused over here. Very focused.

Speaker: 00:09:57

Congratulations.

Speaker: 00:09:58

- [Aaron] Thank you very much

Speaker: 00:09:59

- [Boveda Rob] Nice work!

(excited chanting: 00:10:00

AARON! AARON! AARON!)