we have five colleges universities schools here representing you know themselves today and you know they're calling ari programs their coaches there's twenty one students competing in two competitions and a compulsory event that they had last night where they got to do buffet style piece and then today they get a single block to do four hours of a freestyle piece where they'll do something as they prepare for further down the road collegiate nationals and some other events at dalton this year this is a little different kind of competition as well it's it's an educating competition so the coaches will be allowed to help the students throughout the event which is not normal for nika competition but since we're working on the education of the young carver's and preparing them for college and national championships we want to get in there get our hands wet a little bit show some pointers on their sculptures to prepare them and just to help them get better we also are here to educate the coaches as well so what we do with the coaches is after everybody's all done we turn them into the judges  they will judge their own students and their sculptures and they're going to learn the process in which we judge which in turn will help them prepare the students to compete and i guess sanction competitions too so everything that we do here is based on education of everyone that's come here including myself and you know the other well as they visit each you know area where the students are represented kind of in areas with their schools so as you visit each area you're kind of visiting a school's set of students and each student's going to use you know typically the same you know arsenal of tools but they'll be some variances you'll see the running and in all areas you'll see other smaller electric tools like diagram enters and such running as well as you'll see the the old style japanese generals coming out you know and a lot of that's going to stem on the coaches and you know what their what their favor ability may have been as the an individual carver and you'll see that coming through their students and you'll see you know ice flying every which way to russian from some tool because it's got to go somewhere to relief that block to make something spectacular and that's what people are going to see at the end of the day is something spectacular even though it's a collegiate level of then by the time this year progresses on and this is really a spawning event there's going to be some great pieces here you'll see pieces at the national collegiate level that could almost be national championship level  years ago with the chamber of commerce and it has grown and grown and grown and other schools have actually joined us so it's nice to see the expansion of this and it was just our school in the beginning it was kind of a promotion and it's got bigger and bigger and bigger and so it's kind of neat and one thing that today's competition is it's a two day competition tonight is a buffet carving and then tomorrow night is a free style so today it is a a compulsory where the students don't know what they're going to carve they're giving a template and two hours to carve and the purpose of today's competition is to do a buffet piece something that you would carve to put on a buffet to last maybe three or four hours so at least for this particular competition that the pieces will be a little bit bigger a little bit wider and then then a mate be tomorrow  and it's a point system there's ten different categories that the students are being judged on and within those ten marks there's it's worth ten points so at the end of the competition there's a possibility one hundred points and the students are not only competing against each other but they're also competing against a point system so for example if they get anywhere in the seventy mark range then they earn a bronze medal there in the eighty point range and they earn a silver and if they're in the ninety point range they earn a group medal so even though they might get seven place they might still earn a bronze medal which is coming knee so it's sort of a double sort of competition that they're going against each other but they're also going it's a point system and a lot of times like ninth place and first place could be a difference of two or three points and we break it down to the like the tenth of a point so so for example one of the categories is originality and it's an original piece of what score somewhere in the nines or if it's a piece that has been car before it might be in the savants so and that's just one of the ten categories so that's what's kind of unique about these competitions right and so each time the car they're tweaking their piece a little bit more but but it's a lot of information for the student so as coaches there's a coach from akron ohio oakland community college any poor human a college i know is here and and we're just trying to tweak it a little bit and not try to overwhelm the students because most of them of only been carving maybe three to four months so we're just want you know to learn safety and to get some nice definable pieces what we started and most all these colleges are our clubs so it's above and beyond the classroom and what's coming neat is all of them are co owners schools or hospitality schools and a lot of students when they go through a cone or school no matter what it is the learn how to cook but if they can learn how to ice car or cake dec pull sugar or do chocolate work then it makes them more marketable in the industry so not only is this a nice friendly competition but it's also making them better potential employers who are who are a potential employers in the industry so it's  if they work in a bank of silly they can they can put a price carving out your carving on a circuit which these students are it's a big circuit so when you go to when you're kind of building momentum it's like it's like football in the n f l you know once you start win and it becomes addictive once you start cranking out good pieces it becomes addictive and then you get better and better and you're improving your sculpture so you know this is the first event of the year and it's very early in the year so you start out you know you really want to start out strong and then the kids that win kind of springboard and you know it helps them get up for the collision nationals and then for the other students if there are a little behind then they know this is where i got to be this is what i got to do so it gives them  vision of where they need to be in the next month to compete at the collegiate level these students you have to remember also students so you know it's not going to be too long that they're vying for job opportunities at places as well and as they do well in this and they can show these things in their portfolio these students all have an advantage that a lot of other students don't have because they can springboard their resume and their portfolios with things just like this holland experience that they get you know which aids in their further hiring process because we have a small industry in the ones that stick to it there's places you know very many of them that look for the qualities that only a few of us share so they gain that here so if you see somebody gets a first place in holland you know and that aids if they're going to a place where they need someone with strong ice carving capabilities or at least a foundation that aids immensely in their further you know education and they're hiring you know their employment so you know the important thing to remember too is that these they're full time students and most of them are working you know part time sometimes full time so them for them to come on and take on nice carving that's full time as well so they're getting their practice and they're trying to practice or taking their classes they're doing everything that they need to do to get by but this is all extra so the students that are involved in this are generally your hard work being overly dedicated you know students that really want to do something and you know that says a lot when you go to get a job is that you know they're want to go the extra mile they've got that edge they want to be perfect they want to be really good at something and they want to have some you know a niche and nice curving really provides a good niche for you know job  that it takes a lot of time management to be involved in it and then that time management as you learn how to compete nice carving really becomes you know part of your lifestyle because it's it's how you win it's how you do well and it's how you progress and  there's also a lot of volage just ticks with dice so they're they're learning a lot of things and they probably don't realize it yeah they don't realize it sometimes you'll be like oh yes the things i learned there just because of something like this you know so it's it's a springboard it  this is called out that the eighteenth or nineteenth year that we've been doing this and one thing i love about holland is is that it really promotes the sport of ice sculpting we go to different competition and we don't get the crowd is going to be one of the best places for this competition be how it's a lot of community involvement with the stores they help sponsor the event because without their assistance and we can't hold these these come petitions and it's great for the students because we get great press and it's great for the portfolios because then they put that in their portfolio when they get jobs it makes it just helps their confidence and it is just nice it's great press with it without holland and i always appreciate coming to holland and in this far we get from the city and the community i'm george name alarm from the university of africa ok and how long have you been sculpting ice this is my second year on november marked the my one year anniversary doing it very cool now you were talking about cutting your he took me her yes see once i went through and cut this was all solid i cut this out and as you can see again there was the bit and created actual separation count do you have you have a plan or a drawing to go from here or yeah actually they what they do is before the competition they give us a template and then from that template you put on your ice what the ice so it sticks and might my name is jeff peter sack i've been carbon ice for six years now as a professional i sculptor i was the past executive director of the national ice carving association that's the sanctioning body that's putting on the event this weekend  have five different schools here from as far away as from the university of akron we have a brand rapids community college henry ford community college oakland community college and the artists to detroit here this weekend they will also be competing later on this month in frank competition well we did some interactive pieces last night we did a snowman in a snow woman down the street for a medic drug and it was a nice piece where people could go behind it put their faces into the snowman sculptures and then get their pictures taken so that was a nice success as there was a line in the center as soon as the everything moved and people could get in there it was just face after face after face in those holes they were all over it in pictures and then we did a few pieces for some of the businesses that came together and wanted to have sculptures in front of their store so it's we've got sculptures all up and down the street last night with the kids curving the compulsory event as twenty pieces lined a mall up and down the  street you're going to see a wide variety you're going to see animals four legged animals fish you're going to see birds abstract pieces that might turn into robots or i mean there's no telling what some of these kids will think of and come up with are so creative they are and then we give them the design that's part of the compulsory part of the event we assign them a sculpture and then we want to see how they can take that sculpture and that template and turn it and make it into their own a little bit and how they put their own little artistic twist to it and at the same time we're looking for technical you know technical issues with the carvers too so that that's where we're kind of focused on as well the artistic twist is great and we want them to be artistic and creative their designs but at the same time you know the technical parts got to be there so that's that's really what our focus has been this week and well i don't disagree little town because one because they invite  and open up their doors and then help us to educate other carvers in our me in our mediums which is usually important to us if we don't educate young carver's and we don't have cities like our own that will help us put these types of events on then you know then our you know could die off so it's very important to us how they've invited us and everyone in the city is so nice and everyone comes out yesterday friday night was about lying it's a sculpture is a lot about creating shadows in floating lines today i'm going to focus most of the discussion on your template lines floating those lines through sculpture making sure that by the end of your piece you're going to have hard lines and very visible lines that are perfect to the original template or design that you've created so i noticed yesterday through the compulsory event about a third of the students had a good concept of a hard line and how to float some of their template lines but the vast majority had some trouble with it so that's one thing we really want to focus on today sculpture and everything that you guys are doing is basically floating lines ok there's a lot of different things that are going to happen and they're all going to be based on lines ok and so that's going to be our focus today i want i carve in a very systematic manner and i call it the ten steps to thirty currying you know you want that curve that mirror image curve on that side i haven't i haven't completed this side and the center yet but i i want to have that that perfect reversed image on the back side ok of that curve ok and there's a couple of different reasons why you want to make sure that you're cutting out straight one because it makes it easier on your butt to if you cut in to your ice and your curving let's say a downward angle like let's say you're not keeping your saw straight you've got a slight downward angle or you're slightly moved to the inside so if this is my template line here and i've been cutting on this severe angle i may have cut a huge chunk or corner off from my sculpture because i haven't been cutting string wall of a sudden you cannot successfully float that template line through ten inches because you've already cut off a large portion of it so cutting straight is usually important so it would also it would change your major reference points on the back so when you've got all these all these lines where are they intersect something's happening and on the back it becomes a major reference point it tells you something about your sculpture well if you cut on a bad angle then you could actually move your reference points which completely changes your sculpture ok so when you're doing your first dimension cut out it's really important that you're floating your exterior temple and your three d cutout through ten inches eyes and you want to be perfect that way you have the room and the ice to carve everything that's within your sculpture so what happens between this corner and this heads in this corner and this it in this stage of my carving is one solid plane ok and that plane is going to be sanded or or or shaped out so that it's square but it could be twisted it could have moved it could have flown motion but it's going to have a hard edge year and a hard edge here ok that makes sense there's a plane in between i'm ok if you take two hard edges and sand out that plane very nicely ok then it's going to look very smooth  perfect and when people look at it it's going to be you know very pleasant to look at and it's going to look as though it flows tonight at the hayworth will be having an awards dinner for the students and after the judges which are the coaches go through into all the categories and we tabulate we will have an official first place through you know there's going to be twenty one competitors so first through twenty one competitors and we'll place them accordingly based on all the criteria in our national ice cream association judging guidelines and then they'll have prizes that they win you know so first prizes got you know obviously all more than than last prize but we really spread the purse out to make sure that every student gets something in the things that they get or some things that they can use to further you know ice carving for themselves so we'll have a variety of prizes and also ribbons and recognition medals or not medals he's mean certificates to give out good evening everyone there we go now we got everybody's attention all right well thanks everybody i think we've got everybody here so i want to go ahead and get started with the award ceremony thank you all for coming out you know you guys did amazing job i know there were some challenges out there you know today and last night you know that's that learning curve of being part of the collegiate crew and and coming out and you know holland really does this really great job of outreaching and i couldn't stop complimenting you know certain folks along the way for what holland does for each individual here on this collegiate circuit that gets to come out here and be part of this you know big program they do what a showing of people that actually came through the downtown area you know it's not like you go through in your scieno they got a you know a german village over here and a wine tasting over here and this over here they just have this eye sculpting going on right but that's fantastic you know that something huge and you should all be very proud to be part of an event like this i'd like to thank the city of holland you know definitely in that group down town hall and group does everybody know who we're talking about as i'm not going to point or anything over there but you know they're over there they're hiding they don't want to stand up look at it that's ok we'll let him go on this one we'll let him go so thank you down town hall and for everything you've done all the businesses that definitely chipped in to make this possible you know in the coach is a big you know handshake for me and my crew up here you guys definitely come out and support your crew and support your team and support these students and you know that's how this whole thing progresses is from your hand to their hand and their hand at some point will continue this tradition as well so thank you to all the coaches no one from the night decided things i as the executive director and jeff peter sack who used to be the executive director and still very active in the field and greg who i know all of you look up to for support and ideas you know i was glad to have these two and myself up here you know to support you in this as well so without any further comments i don't know jeff do you have anything you'd like to comment on let's just let's shake it down  everybody's got to keep being anyway ok so there was a total of twenty one contestants today and you all competed you know very well the elements were definitely not in your favorite times with the wind and somebody had a face on it times and i know it was one of those days so first we're going to do the first through twenty first placement and then after that we'll jump into the team awards as well ok in twenty first place with a fifty two point two linear d in nineteen position with a sixty eight point seven robert speaks eighteenth to seventy two point one angela math in seventeenth spot in the seventy two point five stuart chris and sixteenth place with a seventy three point four tory cunningham fifteen the seventy four point five does a rewrite and fourteen position with seventy four point six alison smith and ninth place with a seventy five point three gregory l seventh place with a seventy seven point six brandon book all right in fifth place with an eighty one paul  one two three four five five yeah there you go awesome that's not a bad idea yeah we could in fourth place with a total score of one hundred fifty two point three grand rapids community college third place with one fifty six point three and a plaque for third place as a team university of akron in second place with no one sixty one point two henry ford community college and our fifth annual holland collegian invitational first prize for teams goes to o c c with a one seventy seven point five i do have copies of score sheets for everyone i'm just going to bring them and put them right up here if you want to come and see me and get one you know stop any of your coaches or any of us you know i think we all really took a really good eye at every one of your pieces so we can discuss probably you know a couple things i have a couple  pointers for a few of you specifically so you know stick around and don't run off i know some of you are trying to leave right now so jeff you have anything you know oh good deal i know you are so so well spoken and written all right well thanks everyone we appreciate you coming out have a safe ride home safe night of your stay in here in town thank you know