9:16 p.m.
Men who have been growing beards for three months put their follicles to the test Thursday night at Carver’s Brewing Co., where the annual Beard Competition was held.
Contestants were judged on beard length, beard color and beard absorption, in which they had 20 seconds to dip their bristles into a bowl of beer and wring it out into another bowl as many times as possible to see how much liquid they could transfer.
Kira Roberts, fiancee of Charlie Cross, showed up in full support of her man. But she gave him a week to trim the mane. “My birthday is next Sunday, and I don’t want no raggy old man,” she said.
9 p.m.
Desireé Trujillo, dressed as Jareth the Goblin King played by David Bowie in the fantasy movie “Labyrinth,” walked away with best overall performance at the Drag Race & Fashion Show held Thursday at El Rancho Tavern.
Living in the moment may have been her secret. Trujillo signed up at the last minute thinking she’d strut across the stage and be done. Instead, contestants had to dance through a song in front of 100-plus cheering audience members.
6:40 p.m.
Leading contestants set a grueling pace of 38 seconds per lap during the Waterslide-a-Thon held Thursday at the Durango Community Recreation Center.
Going down the slide wasn’t the hard part; rather, it was climbing out of the pool and hiking the 39 stairs to the top.
Twenty people entered this year’s competition, up from 12 last year, said event organizer Bill Whitacre.
Sean Meissner won with endurance race with 246 trips down the water slide, an new record for the event.
“I’m an ultra marathon runner so I knew I had pretty good endurance for it,” he said.
He had a close competitor for a while, and he feared a bathroom break would derail his dreams of clinching the championship, so he held it in until the end.
“After a while, I just didn’t have to go anymore,” he said.
Pruned and tired, he decided to go home after the event.
“I’m just beat.”
5:30 p.m.
Oysters slurpin’ champs to defend titles
Chris Farley retook his crown for eating the most oysters in 60 seconds at this year’s Beat it! Eat it! Oyster Slurping contest at Highway 3 Roadhouse. But he didn’t beat his all-time record of 63 oysters.
C.J. Wise was defending her title from last year when she devoured 54 oysters. She won among women this year by eating 56 of the slippery devils.
Chuck Norton sold 68,000 oysters in 2015. He purchased 1,000 Chesapeake oysters for Thursday’s competition.
The trick is to pick them off the shell and stuff five or six in your face at once, Norton said.
“We have paper towels,” he said.
Oysters are a good source of zinc, which can help the prostate, he said.
Another fact about oysters: “They improve your sex life,” he said.
4:43 p.m.
A hot wing champ has been crowned.
Baird Kleinsmith won the contest held at Cuckoo’s Chicken House. This was his seventh or eight time entering the competition.
“I’ve got a unique super-human skill for handling hot foot,” he said. “I was meditation for a second there.”
The hot wings, made with habanero extract oil, were spicy!
The final two contestants battled it out in round 15 before Kleinsmith was crowned the winner.
Twenty people entered the contest, but five were out after just the first round.
Each contestant had a different technique ranging from tearing the meat from the bone with their hands to shoving the entire wing into their mouths.
The reigning champ, Ben Pittenger, who had won the last three years of competition, was a no show this year.
Madison Upton, who went out in the third round, said she had no idea what to expect.
“It’s very tingly, very warm, and the part that really gets you is waiting for that next wing.”
3 p.m.
And the winner is....Loose Feet. The team conquered Snowdown 2016’s Phantasy Phoosball event Thursday afternoon at Buckley Park.
San Juan Smiles took second place and Mercury took home third on the competition which featured both some amazing foot skills and some killer outfits.
Speaking of outfits, best costume awards went to Will Lacy and John Mace. Hannah Kitchenhoff was recognized for most-valuable player.
“It was tough, but in the end, we penetrated more,” said Dominik Fry with Loose Feet.
10:30 a.m.
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