One pipe. Two matches. Three grams of tobacco.
Those are the main ingredients for the pipe-smoking contest slated for this Saturday at El Humidor in Wilkes-Barre as part of a celebration of International Pipe Smoking Day.

Of course, another necessary ingredient are pipe and tobacco enthusiasts, people like Dr. Mike Garr, Wilkes University sociology professor and El Humidor employee. Garr has been competing for a number of years, locally, nationally, and abroad. He explains the competition involves preparing, lighting, and smoking the pipe.

“Everybody is given the same pipe — we are using a Savinelli, the same tamper, two matches, a piece of paper, and three grams of tobacco,” Garr says. “Contestants are given five minutes to prepare their tobacco and load their pipes.”

Garr will take an organizer role in this contest rather than his usual participation.

“They are then given one minute to use the two matches to light their pipes,” he continues. “After the two matches are used or the minute is up, contestants see how long they can smoke their pipes without relighting.”

There is a $30 entry free to the competition, and contestants get to keep the pipe, which is valued at over $30, and they will receive a tin of tobacco. The competition will be capped at 10 contestants, so Garr suggests people show up early.

Garr is a president of the Pocono Inter-Mountain Pipe Enthusiasts (PIPE), the organization sponsoring the contest. He’s also vice president of the United Pipe Clubs of America (UPCA), the national federation for pipe clubs in the United States, to which PIPE belongs.

PIPE meets Tuesdays at El Humidor and is made up of an assortment of pipe lovers.

“You find all ages coming to the store,” Garr says. “Cigars are popular among both young and old. Pipes are less popular, but again the ages vary quite a bit. In PIPE, the youngest member is 22 and oldest is 59. We have two engineers, a gun salesman, a beef jerky salesman, a retired school teacher, an unemployed artist, a chef, an appliance salesman, and, of course, me.”

Aside from weekly meetings to enjoy a pipe and company, the group brings in speakers, hosts events and contests, and organizes trips, such as to the Parodi factory in Scranton or to the Chicago Pipe Show in May.

Garr’s first competition was in 2002 in Philadelphia. That same event was where the charter for UPCA was signed; Garr was one of the signatories representing PIPE. Today, pipe clubs across America actively promote competitions, including the biggie, the national Chicago Pipe Show. In 2008, Garr took second among over 30 contestants.

“The club and El Humidor sponsored me to go to Wurselen, Germany for the European Championships,” he says. “Over 300 contestants were at the contest. I sucked and was one of the first to go out. But, it was an interesting trip, especially since I lost my passport on the plane to Frankfurt.”

Garr also took first at the Northeast Regional pipe contest in December 2008 and also at the 25th Annual CORPS Exposition & Celebration in October 2009.

And, as a social scientist, Garr’s researched his hobby, too. He’s presented his studies on the health of pipe and cigar smokers relative to non-smokers at the American Sociological Association in both 2007 and 2008.

According to its official Web site, the mission of International Pipe Smoking Day is to foster links across the globe in honor of friendship, benevolence, and tranquility and to celebrate the fraternity of pipe smokers across all borders. The purpose is to celebrate the “noble art of pipe smoking” where people can “put into practice the time-honored and ancestral traditions of raising our pipes in toast to each other …”

by Donna Talarico, Theweekender

Dan Griffin said he quit smoking a decade ago, but came to the pipe-smoking contest at the Gaslight Festival to compete anyway.

Fellow competitor Jonathan Kempf works at a school, but said he’d rather not say which one so as not to influence the children.

Judy Vetter came to the event to watch her boyfriend — but she hung back because she said she’s allergic to smoke.

So it was at the annual anachronism that is the Gaslight pipe-smoking contest as it got under way Sunday in Jeffersontown with six contestants.

Four younger men joined two old-timers in puffing and eyeing each other’s pipes under the columned portico that shelters Jeffersontown City Hall, each nursing 3.3 grams of tobacco, trying for the longest time on just one light.

Under the watchful eyes of a judge holding a stopwatch, the winner, Coy Howard, 37, coaxed his bowl of burley and vanilla-flavored Virginia tobacco to burn 71 minutes, 30 seconds. He snuffed out Gorden Vogel, age 71, who lasted 70 minutes, 45 seconds.

“I pray for two things,” said Howard, a factory worker from Springfield, Ky. “That mine does not go out and others’ do.”

Only two smokers claimed pipe smoking as a habit they still indulge in with regularity.

Once a fixture of festivals far and wide, pipe-smoking competitions have fallen from favor in recent years.

Souvenir pins from the old days studded the red tobacco pouch on the lap of Griffin, a competitive puffer since 1984.

His collection included pins from pipe-smoking marathons at the Ham Days celebration in Lebanon, Ky.; the Steamboat Days Festival in Jeffersonville, Ind.; and the Kentucky State Fair, which snuffed out the event in 2004.

“Politics,” grumbled Griffin, 67, of Jeffersonville. “It is not as big as it used to be. We used to have 15 contests locally. The season began in March in Springfield and crescendoed until the world championships in October.”

This year, the International Association of Pipe Smokers will hold its 61st world championships near its headquarters in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

The association’s Web site lists Internet links to seven pipe-smoking clubs nationwide, including the Kentuckiana Pipe Smokers Club based at Kremer’s Smoke Shoppe in downtown Louisville.

Before the contest began, the owner of Kremer’s shouted to be heard over the keyboard and drums of a six-man gospel combo playing for festival passers-by on Watterson Trail.

“We used to have 60 or 70 members in our club,” Gayle Sallee said. “Now we only have four or five.”

This was the second year Kempf, 27, who also works as a clerk at a liquor store on Bardstown Road, competed in the pipe-smoking contest with his friend Jordan Humbert, 26, a musician.

“I haven’t smoked a pipe since last year,” Kempf said. “I don’t need another bad habit.”

Nate Keller, 18, said he took up pipe smoking under a tree in his Jeffersontown backyard last year to ease nerves jangled by his job setting bowling pins at King Pin Lanes on Taylorsville Road.

“After you have had a harsh day, it puts you in a mellow mind,” Keller said. “There is not much pipe smoking out there. I like to be a member of a small group.”

Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669.

Shouldering a saw, Amer, 18, heads to the woods every night to cut down trees near his village of Markieh in the northern coastal province of Latakia.
With his family, he decided a few years ago to abandon tobacco growing after three years of severe drought caused productivity to plummet.

To deal with the family’s deteriorating financial situation, Amer started working in the production of charcoal from the oak trees of the nearby Al-Shoaira forest.

The charcoal fetches a good price because of demand for it to use in nargiles, the hubble-bubble tobacco pipes popular in cafes across the country, but the uncontrolled harvesting of wood is endangering the country’s forests.

It is thought that hundreds of Syrians work in the production of charcoal today, especially in the heavily wooded northern coastal areas of Tartous and Latakia.

The numbers have increased because of the recent rise in unemployment and inflation, observers say. Some people with other jobs produce charcoal in their spare time to raise cash because their salaries are insufficient.

“I earn more than a public employee,” said Amer, who refrained from giving his last name because his new occupation is considered illegal.
Syrian men enjoy a hubble-bubble smoke in a Damascus cafe. (Photo by Sean Long)

“Why would I look for fixed employment if this work generates more money,” he added.

Those working in the production of charcoal say they make on average US$400 a month.

People in cooler mountainous areas have traditionally been allowed to use branches from the woods, which are viewed as public property, for heating. But since charcoal production became popular, cutting down trees has reached alarming levels, experts say.

Dr. Mahmoud Ali, a professor of environmental sciences at Tishreen University in Latakia, said the green cover is decreasing “dangerously” in Syria and the area of forest per inhabitant and relative to the country’s total land area is low.

“Producing charcoal could kill the trees or affect the quality of the wood by making them more vulnerable to attacks by pests,” Ali said.

The growing deforestation is also leading to climate change and other undesirable effects on the environment, said Dr. Amin Moussa, an agricultural expert also teaching at Tishreen University.

Especially on the steep mountain slopes, cutting down trees is causing landslides and leading to a deterioration in soil fertility, he said.

The charcoal making process involves chopping branches into small pieces that are then placed in four-meter-deep holes and allowed to burn slowly in the absence of air for about 10 hours.

That means the charcoal makers can go away to do other work, returning in the evening to collect the product.

Abu Kasso, a farmer from the village of Sanybleh near Al-Shoaira forest, said that the resulting charcoal is sold to local merchants.

Charcoal fetches more than US$2 a kilogram, mainly from cafe owners who need to feed the growing demand for nargiles, and that makes it a lucrative business.

“I feel guilty about what it does to the forest but I have no other way to feed my family,” Kasso said.

Although the authorities have tried to prevent the systematic chopping down of trees by posting security guards at the entries to forests and sending out patrols, they have not been able to contain the activity, observers say.
Forests of Syria’s Latakia Province (Photo by Ali Karim)

Some forest guards admit that they turn a blind eye to the making of charcoal and accept bribes from farmers who produce it.

“My salary is not enough. I have to resort to additional sources of income to secure my children’s future,” said one forest guard speaking on condition of anonymity.

Experts say that laws prohibiting the abuse of natural forests have not been properly implemented and that other strategies should be adopted to prevent deforestation caused by the production of charcoal.

Ramez Yazbek, an agricultural expert, said that the government should organize the manufacture of charcoal because banning it completely is not realistic.

The authorities should allow the cutting of some of the tree branches in a way that does not harm the tree itself, Yazbek said.

Omima Nassif, another environmental expert, said, however, that forests like Al-Shoaira should be turned into nature reserves and used for ecotourism in order to protect them.

Young people currently working in the production of charcoal could be employed as guides to the forests, she said.

Some residents in the villages around the forests have been complaining about fumes that come from the charcoal pits. Doctors also report an increase in lung disease in mountain areas.

“We are all living off these forests but we are also paying a price by getting health problems,” said Rabiha, a housewife living in Dlaybet village near the Al-Shoaira.

The government should protect the environment but also create job opportunities for the residents of the villages, she said. “The authorities are pouring money into the cities at the expense of rural areas.”