Alec Pinkston, by his own admission, is at best a hobbyist woodworker. So, when he bought an eight-foot wooden toboggan for $75 off Craigslist last winter, Pinkston admits to “totally winging” the rehab process.
“It’s seen better days, but it’s looking good now,” said Pinkston, a 40-year-old television commercial producer who moved to Portland from Chicago with his wife in December 2020.
The Missouri native said he and his wife contemplated a move to Maine for years, having visited friends in the state many times, but said participating in the U.S. National Toboggan Championships in Camden was likely their tipping point in deciding to relocate to the Pine Tree State.
“We really absolutely loved it,” he said.
The annual three-day event, which starts today and runs through Sunday at the Camden Snow Bowl ski area on Barnestown Road, is more fun than competition. There is no cash award and the grand prize is a simple mahogany trophy.
For more than 30 years, however, organizers have conducted the toboggan competition with fanfare and an extravaganza that rivals professional sporting events. Roughly 400 teams from all over the country and parts of Canada show up to compete each year. In addition, thousands of fans, friends and family members show up to take part in the snowy spectacle.
This year’s event, billed as the 31st annual, is the first National Toboggan Championship since the coronavirus forced last year’s event to be canceled.
“We’ve never had to cancel before,” said Holly Anderson, co-chair of the Toboggan National Committee, which organizes the event.
Anderson said there will be some COVID-related restrictions in the two buildings associated with the competition — a souvenir shop and the check-in building for teams. Inside these buildings, Anderson said, masks will be required and a limited number of people will be allowed inside each building.
Otherwise, this weekend’s races will go off as they have in the past.
“That’s our plan, to keep it as normal as we usually are,” she said.
Anderson said tournament organizers have about 400 two-, three- and four-person teams registered for the event. The turnout, she said, is close to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, Anderson said, slots were sold out about two weeks earlier than organizers expected.
Some competitors, Anderson said, are like Pinkston, and have raced before, but there are also plenty of newcomers.
“I think it’s a good mix of returning and new (competitors),” she said.
Pinkston said he jumped at the chance to compete this year.
“We knew once it was back on, we were going to participate again,” he said.
In 2020, Pinkston said, his whole family traveled to Camden to participate, including his father, Keith, who competed to mark his 70th birthday. Keith Pinkston turned 72 on Friday, and will race again this weekend.
Alec Pinkston has registered two teams: a two-man team named “Sled Zepplin,” featuring himself and Nick Strohecker, 40, an old college roommate who now lives in New York, and a three-man team, “Missouri State Champions,” featuring Pinkston, his father and Pinkston’s brother, Ryan, 46.
So, why would someone travel hundreds of miles to compete in a race for bragging rights? Pinkston said Camden makes the experience special and the event is the epitome of a fun, unique small-town event.
“This is one of those things that doesn’t happen in most places,” Pinkston said.
In 2020, Pinkston borrowed a toboggan so he could compete, but this year he was determined to bring his own.
“Having your own (toboggan) brings another level to it that we’re really excited about,” he said.
Another competitor bringing his own toboggan is Benjamin Anderson, 23, of York. He studies traditional wooden boat building at The Landing School in Kennebunkport, and said he often noticed a wooden toboggan on display at the school.
When he asked about the sled, school officials told Anderson that a group of students built the toboggan in 2017 to compete in the Camden race.
“This year I heard the toboggan races were on, so I threw a team together,” he said.
Anderson said he has never ridden on a wooden toboggan before, but looks forward to the experience.
