A competition you can really sink your teeth into

Leslie Stone puts a spice rub on ribs outside the "Cool Smoke" vending booth at Saturday's Blue Ridge BBQ festival in Tryon, N.C. "Cool Smoke" finished second overall and was one of several competition teams which sold barbecue to the public. The barbecue competition was won by Chatham Artillery of Savannah, Ga. (Ledger photo / SCOTT POWELL) Sweat glistened on the face of Blacksburg resident Paul Mayes on Saturday afternoon while he opened tender barbecue pork fresh off the grill.

Mayes stayed up all night with friends while swapping stories and carefully cooking barbecue for a cookoff at the Blue Ridge BBQ & Music Festival in Tryon, N.C. The Blacksburg resident and his wife, Danyel, were 20 minutes away from turning in their pork entry to judges with the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

The couple formed the Triple J barbecue team in the fall of 2007 to pursue their love for barbecue cooking. Now in its second season, Triple J is named for the couple's three children, Jada, Jordan and Jessica.

"A lot of people follow NASCAR, the NFL, basketball and baseball. Barbecue is my sport," Paul Mayes said. "We started out cooking barbecue for a couple of church fundraisers and entered our first barbecue contest with friends in November of 2007. We have been hooked ever since."

Triple J was among 79 teams from across the country involved in the Blue Ridge BBQ competition. The teams competed for $20,000 in cash and prizes for the best chicken, ribs, pork and brisket barbecue entries in the contest. Triple J had two Top 20 finishes, placing 15th in ribs and 16th in pork.

More than 20,000 people attended the event at Harmon Field to sample championship-quality barbecue, enjoy live music, play in the water and watch a cookoff sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

Paul Mayes is a maintenance supervisor with Omni Source in Spartanburg. Danyel is a third grade teacher at Luther Vaughan Elementary in Gaffney.

Their Triple J team will compete closer to home in a few weeks at the first-ever South Carolina Peach Festival barbecue competition scheduled for July 18 in Gaffney. The couple spends many weekends working to perfect their own barbecue recipes for competition events.

"We wanted to include our kids as part of the barbecue team. Our kids have entered a couple of cooking contests and won trophies at some barbecue competitions," Danyel Mayes said. "The kids love it. It's been neat to see them have a little success. Hopefully, they will help carry on the family tradition some day."

The main competition was held Saturday afternoon at the Blue Ridge BBQ & Music festival. The barbecue contest featured teams from North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas.

Festival-goers walked around "Hog Heaven" to watch the barbecue teams at work.

Many teams sport names as original as the special barbecue recipes they prepared for judges. This year's team names included the "Serial Griller," "Too Bad You're My Cousin," "Too Old Men and a Grill," and "Blindogs Outlaw BBQ Gang."

Gaffney resident Steve Taylor is already working on naming the team he will enter in the Peach Festival's barbecue competition. His current choice for a team name is "Sleep Easy and the Midnight Smokers."

Taylor said he makes it a point to stop by the Blue Ridge BBQ Festival each summer in Tryon.

"I really enjoy it. I have been to the festival every year except for the first one," Taylor said. "I plan on competing in the barbecue competition at the South Carolina Peach Festival so maybe I'll pick up a few ideas while I'm here."