John Lawrence
Active member
Sorry about the delay in starting this month's thread. I have to confess that I've been keeping a little secret and I was away this past weekend bringing that secret to fruition.
Last April during the Ward World Championships I got this crazy idea about going back to Ocean City and entering the World Shootin' Rig. I hadn't been there since 1995. The reason was that my son was growing up and playing spring sports and we just couldn't get away. Twice during that time I bought the materials and reference to make entries for the World Class but circumstances just never came to be for me to go back. In fact about five or six years ago I even carved a decorative Atlantic Brant, with all of the texturing and burning, but just never painted it to enter. It sits on a shelf in my basement unpainted still.
So what was the so crazy about this idea? Last April was the time I was finishing up my original pair of Labrador Ducks and writing the article that is on another part of this web page. If I was going to go through all that was required to get back into the competition scene I wanted to go up against the best of the best and at the same time make a statement about my core philosophy about inclusion rather than exclusion (Thanks for the shout out Justin, I didn't know you were going to do that but the timing was perfect). And I needed subject matter that just screamed all of this. My crazy idea was that I asked the Ward Foundation if I could enter a rig of Labrador Ducks.
There is a very involved story of what happened over the course of the last year which I'm probably going to write as a new article (at least one magazine is interested in seeing it.) But at the same time I will be showing to everyone here after I finish it. You know I can be a rather controversial figure in the decoy world believe it or not, and I wasn't quite sure just how I would be accepted at Ocean City. But I can tell you this, I received a very warm welcome and was overwhelmingly treated very well. Many people came and found me to talk about the articles I've written and my philosophies about treating decoys as art.
The show has changed in the last sixteen years and as we have all heard it is smaller. But the quality of the work presented was just phenomenal. The World Class Shootin' Rig entries have been down over the last few years and I wasn't sure who would compete nor how many entries there would be. But when I entered my rig last Thursday evening I was the eleventh, which was more in line with the better days of the past, and as I found out most of the big dogs came out to play this year.
Saturday morning rolled around and I was waiting to see the rigs put into the bay when somebody put his arm around my shoulder and said "Hey old man". It was my son Jake, who is an assistant Volleyball coach at Georgetown University and because of that I don't get to see him very much. That alone made my trip. But anyway the weather was a little snotty and there was a fairly rough chop on the bay when the decoys went in. Of course you never can really tell what is going on during the judging but I thought they looked good and floated very well. The judging was done by 11:30 but the results were not announced until almost 6:00pm. Now I've done many competitions and if you don't know I used to be a college Volleyball coach also, so as a coach in particular you learn how to win without rubbing it in and on the flip side you learn how to lose gracefully. So in other words I was prepared for either.
When the announcer got to the five World Classes Shootin' Rig was first. And for the big ending--------I had won third place. Pat Godin with his rig of Goldeneyes was second and Tom Flemming from Minnesota (whom I hope will be joining this web page very soon) was named the World Champion with a wonderful rig of Oldsquaws.
So the full story will come in the next couple of weeks but the message I got was that YES there is room at the World Championships for risk taking and personal style. And that is a wonderful message.
I got back well after mid-night last night and Mama Volleyduck waited up for me. When she has some time this morning to download the photographs I'll post them for everyone to enjoy. But here are the three Labrador decoys (prior to an emergency bill color adjustment done last Monday) that I entered.
View attachment P1100081.jpg.
View attachment P2100189.jpg.
View attachment P2100196.jpg.
Last April during the Ward World Championships I got this crazy idea about going back to Ocean City and entering the World Shootin' Rig. I hadn't been there since 1995. The reason was that my son was growing up and playing spring sports and we just couldn't get away. Twice during that time I bought the materials and reference to make entries for the World Class but circumstances just never came to be for me to go back. In fact about five or six years ago I even carved a decorative Atlantic Brant, with all of the texturing and burning, but just never painted it to enter. It sits on a shelf in my basement unpainted still.
So what was the so crazy about this idea? Last April was the time I was finishing up my original pair of Labrador Ducks and writing the article that is on another part of this web page. If I was going to go through all that was required to get back into the competition scene I wanted to go up against the best of the best and at the same time make a statement about my core philosophy about inclusion rather than exclusion (Thanks for the shout out Justin, I didn't know you were going to do that but the timing was perfect). And I needed subject matter that just screamed all of this. My crazy idea was that I asked the Ward Foundation if I could enter a rig of Labrador Ducks.
There is a very involved story of what happened over the course of the last year which I'm probably going to write as a new article (at least one magazine is interested in seeing it.) But at the same time I will be showing to everyone here after I finish it. You know I can be a rather controversial figure in the decoy world believe it or not, and I wasn't quite sure just how I would be accepted at Ocean City. But I can tell you this, I received a very warm welcome and was overwhelmingly treated very well. Many people came and found me to talk about the articles I've written and my philosophies about treating decoys as art.
The show has changed in the last sixteen years and as we have all heard it is smaller. But the quality of the work presented was just phenomenal. The World Class Shootin' Rig entries have been down over the last few years and I wasn't sure who would compete nor how many entries there would be. But when I entered my rig last Thursday evening I was the eleventh, which was more in line with the better days of the past, and as I found out most of the big dogs came out to play this year.
Saturday morning rolled around and I was waiting to see the rigs put into the bay when somebody put his arm around my shoulder and said "Hey old man". It was my son Jake, who is an assistant Volleyball coach at Georgetown University and because of that I don't get to see him very much. That alone made my trip. But anyway the weather was a little snotty and there was a fairly rough chop on the bay when the decoys went in. Of course you never can really tell what is going on during the judging but I thought they looked good and floated very well. The judging was done by 11:30 but the results were not announced until almost 6:00pm. Now I've done many competitions and if you don't know I used to be a college Volleyball coach also, so as a coach in particular you learn how to win without rubbing it in and on the flip side you learn how to lose gracefully. So in other words I was prepared for either.
When the announcer got to the five World Classes Shootin' Rig was first. And for the big ending--------I had won third place. Pat Godin with his rig of Goldeneyes was second and Tom Flemming from Minnesota (whom I hope will be joining this web page very soon) was named the World Champion with a wonderful rig of Oldsquaws.
So the full story will come in the next couple of weeks but the message I got was that YES there is room at the World Championships for risk taking and personal style. And that is a wonderful message.
I got back well after mid-night last night and Mama Volleyduck waited up for me. When she has some time this morning to download the photographs I'll post them for everyone to enjoy. But here are the three Labrador decoys (prior to an emergency bill color adjustment done last Monday) that I entered.
View attachment P1100081.jpg.
View attachment P2100189.jpg.
View attachment P2100196.jpg.
Last edited:
