This entry is not exactly breaking news, but it’s a look back at a significant ice carving competition that I’ll always remember because it was the first time that I was ever around a lot of REALLY good ice sculptors. I’ve also added a photo collection made up of many of the ice photos that I took at the event.

    The event was held in early 1993 in Youngstown, Ohio and was the third annual NICA National Championship. There were three future national champions (Dean Carlson, Aaron Costic, and Steve Rose) as well as the defending two-time national champion (Mark Daukas) competing at the event. There were also a number of other carvers that would go on to compete at the Olympics and other international events as well as carvers that had definitely made a name for themselves in the ice carving world (Randy Rupert did the ice carving for “Groundhog Day,” one of my favorite movies.)

    One carver who was noticeably absent was Vivat Hongpong, who had narrowly lost to Mark Daukas at the previous two National Championships. However, Hongpong would more than make up for this in 2002 by winning the Olympic Gold medal with his son, Art, at the Cultural Olympic Ice Carving event in Provo, Utah.

    I was a little intimidated by the level of carving that I faced at the competition, but I learned a lot and tried to get the most out of the experience. I didn’t know all that much about photography at the time, so when I recently looked over the photos that I’d taken, I was pretty disappointed. Using Photoshop, I tried to get the best I could out of bad photos. I thought that they would still have some value, so I added most of them to the site. If you’re using a Mac then you might think the photos are a little bright; that’s intentional because PCs display images a little darker than Macs (the gamma settings are different, if that makes sense.)

    In the end, Mark Daukas won the event for his third straight championship. He earned a silver for the innovative “Bearer of the Heavens” that included a molded white ice component and a gold for “Harmony.” “Harmony” was a detailed angel holding a small harp with individually carved strings. You may have seen a poster showing this sculpture with colored lighting. It still ranks as one of the most impressive sculptures that I have ever seen.

    On a sad note, one of the carvers, Jun Medina, had an aneurism at the event and had to be taken to a hospital. From what I understand, he never fully recovered and died months later. At the awards ceremony, many of the carvers contributed to a fund to help defray his medical expenses. Daukas donated some of the prize money that he had just received. Jun and his brother, Virgilio Medina, were both carving at the event. I’m not sure which of them carved the Native American sculpture that I included in the photo collection.

    After the competition, I was able to attend a seminar by Mark Daukas where he talked about preparing for and participating in ice carving competitions. It was a precursor to his later IceMaster instructional seminars and was very useful even though I missed some of the seminar because I had to catch a plane.

    I hope you enjoy the photos and if you were at the competition and have anything to add or want to correct something that I screwed up, please comment below. Thanks!