I saw my first Ardor pipe seven years ago at a Denham Springs “antique shop.”
It had eight or nine beautiful, new Ardor pipes on display and priced at the MSRP. This “antique” shop – about a half-step above a roadside flea market, was asking full retail for the pipes. The least expensive one was $375. (In my opinion, an antique shop is a one owner location. If the shop rents out booths to a number of vendors like a flea market, then it’s a mall or market.)
I passed on those pipes at the time. Two years later we visited in the same “antique” shop and the pipes were still sitting there. It didn’t look like they had sold any. I passed on them a second time.
The Great Baton Rouge Flood of August 2016 destroyed the area and it was about eight months later before any of the stores opened again. When that particular “antique” shop re-opened, it had all new inventory and no pipes. I’ve often wondered what happened to those Ardors. I’d hate to think they are in a landfill somewhere.
I tell that story because it placed Ardor high on my bucket list of pipes I wanted to own.
Mayan Imports Pipe Night, Long Smoke Competition 2019
Call it fate, luck or someone just not knowing how good an Ardor is, but I now own an Ardor Venere. For the fourth year in a row, I attended the Annual Pipe Night in Metairie, La. Sponsored by Mayan Imports, a local cigar and pipe company with three locations in the New Orleans area.
I won the Long Smoke Competition in 2016 and 2017 and took home a straight Rinaldo Triade YY and a bent Rinaldo Triade YYY. In 2018 I was the seventh-place finisher which was good enough to claim a Rocky Patel Versailles by Nording.
This year, I decided to use a different pipe for the competition and selected the bent Rinaldo I won in 2017. It is a beautifully smoking pipe and I routinely smoke it for over an hour at a time without relights. The only problem is that having to relight your tobacco has more to do with the tobacco itself rather than the pipe you are smoking it in.
Oddly enough, I found the bowl on the Rinaldo did not quite hold all of the pre-measured Red Virginia we were given. I had the bowl packed the way I liked it, had a good draw but still had a very small amount left over. Then there was the problem with the charring light of the first match. When it went out, the top of the tobacco was not well lit.
So, when I use the second match, I had to puff harder to make sure I had a good, even burn going and wound up puffing like an old steam-engine going up a hill. This is not what you want to do in a long smoke competition. You risk burning your tongue (I didn’t) and you burn the tobacco too fast.
Read more about long smoke competitions.
I win by coming in second…
My first goal was not to be first out of the competition. Secondly, I wanted to finish in the top five and take home a pipe. Third, I wanted to win. Fortunately, I managed to get my cadence under control and with the judicious use of my tamper, continued in the competition as others slowly dropped out. As time ticked by, more smokers tapped out until it was just five of us left. A couple of minutes later, it became three as Glenn McPherson and then John Dumas went out in quick succession. I checked my bowl and knew I was getting close to the bottom but was still producing good smoke.
So. There we were. Myself (winner 2016, 2017), my friend Frank Mares (winner 2015, 2018) and a first-time competitor named John Lopez. I’m constantly moving the remaining tobacco in my bowl and working at keeping it lit. Frank is just sitting back all relaxed. John is constantly applying the tamper to his bowl. Frank raises his hand. He’s out at 49 mins.,39 secs. I look at my bowl and there is a bright red glow about the size of a pencil eraser but I’m starting to taste ash. John is still tamping. Then I go out at 52 mins., 39 secs. That is the worse time I’ve had in a long smoke competition.
The Winners and their prizes…
John Lopez continued on to win the competition with a 1-hour, 10-minute and 13-second smoke. He had the first pick of the five prize pipes, so I was trying to decide if I wanted the Rocky Patel or the Savinelli on the table.
He took the Rocky Patel.
I didn’t hesitate to take the Ardor Venere and Frank nabbed the Savinelli which was actually in his high school colors. John Dumas selected the Chacom and the Glenn ended up with a SMS Egg & Claw meerschaum.
The first two pipe smokers to have their pipes go out also receive pipes. Matthew Burkart received a hardwood pipe with a Fleur de Lis on it and Tom Lay received a Missouri Meerschaum Corn Cob.
© J. Gibson Creative Services. March 24, 2019
