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The birth was faster than the conception.

I was staring through my camera at a pile of burning coals with pork dripping and Bad Ass was born. No pain, no mess.

Bad Ass BBQ entered the world at the edge of the Fraser River in New Westminster at a BBQ cookoff.

I am a news cameraman making a living shooting sometimes terrible things.

This time I was looking at something good, something I love, cooking and socializing and I thought, “This looks incredible. I WANT to do this.”

I was at a cookoff because I saw a sign in the back of a restaurant in Vancouver while I was eating lunch. It said there would be a contest that weekend in New West.

“I’m going. I’m going to do a story about this,” I said.

“That’s crazy,” said the producer. “We don’t do BBQ stories on the news.”

I went anyway.

I started taking pictures of their cookers. Neat. Bizarre. Big, small, rocket ships and ancient burners. A new world was luring me in.

I was in awe. I interviewed some of the cooks and it was like a fish hook got set deep in my mouth but it did not hurt.

They said things like, “Here, just take a look at this!” And they opened their cookers to show me amazing meats, all tender looking, caramelized and juicy.

One Texan said, “Come over ‘ere son. Got a hankerin’ fer the best dang chili y’all ever et?”

That was it. I swallowed the hook, the line and the sinker. Put a fork in me I was done! Incredible people, amazing food and an attitude that doesn’t knock on your door too many times.

But why was this one cook following me around saying, “Hey, Bad Ass!”

He was Jim Ericson of Beaver Castor’s BBQ, one of the original cooks for the PNWBA (Pacific Northwest BBQ Association). He was a mind reader. He knew they had all hooked a new BBQ devotee and he had already picked our team name.

It was like conception, birth and baptism all at once.

I joined the organization that day and have been cooking competition BBQ with my wonderful and understanding wife, Karen, ever since.

Actually, she is a much better cook than I am - there, I said it to the world, honey. Can we do an extra cookoff this year?

Let the good times roll!