David Traver didn’t expect to win the freestyle category in the World Beard and Moustache Championships.
But he did.
The Anchorage man certainly didn’t think he’d go on to be crowned champ of the international competition that salutes those with the fanciest whiskers. But he was.
PHOTO: AP
“Kind of cool,” said Traver, 43, who normally competes in the full beard category but decided to do something different in the freestyle category for Saturday’s competition — very different. He and a stylist worked for more than an hour to get his long beard woven into the shape of a snowshoe.
The judges went for it.
“No American has ever placed in the freestyle, let alone won it,” Traver said on Sunday.
Traver defeated Gerhard Knapp and Hans-Peter Weis, both Germans, to clinch the top spot in the freestyle bout.
In the overall competition, Traver beat out Benjamin Juergens of Los Angeles, who won first in the imperial partial beard category (hair on the cheeks and upper lip), and Jack Passion of San Francisco, who was first in the natural full beard category.
“His beard is supremely impressive,” Traver said of Passion.
Nearly 300 competitors from more than a dozen countries competed Saturday. The competition, which began in Germany in 1990, is divided into 17 categories: eight styles of mustaches, four varieties of partial beard or goatee and five kinds of full beards.
The winners of the categories then compete for the top three spots in the overall.
The natural full beard category is the most competitive. There were 144 contestants, many of them dressed in costume to make a lasting impression on the panel of judges, which included well-known Alaskans such as Iditarod greats Jeff King, DeeDee Jonrowe and Martin Buser.
Quite a few other Alaskans did well at the competition. David Caswell of Kenai placed third in the Verdi category, a short and rounded beard no longer than 10cm below the bottom of the lower lip.
In the Garibaldi competition — a beard that is round and wide at the bottom and no longer than 20cm — Alaskans took the two top spots.
Douglas Renfro of Anchorage was first. Norman Pendergraft of Eagle River, Alaska, was second.
And in the natural full beard with styled moustache category, Bob Gengler of Eagle River came in second, behind Bernd Popiak of Germany.
“I was very surprised,” Gengler said of his second-place finish. “That is pretty exciting for me.”
Gengler said he’s not very good at styling his mustache and on Saturday it wouldn’t cooperate. He kept putting wax on it and trying to get the shape right.
“It kept falling out of the circles I was trying to make,” he said.
The 44-year-old physical therapist, however, gave it his best shot. He dressed for the competition in a trapper-style look, complete with a buckskin leather shirt, a fur hat and fur boot covers. He hung antlers off his belt.
Alaskans appropriately swept the Alaskan whaler category, a new category this year in which the beard should look like a traditional seafarer’s beard. Jeremy Feltman of Kenai was first, Aaron Suring of Juneau was second and Shawn Campbell of Anchorage was third.
Nicholas Dighiera of Eagle River placed first in the Hungarian mustache category. John Plummer of Anchorage placed third in the freestyle partial beard category and George Haskins of Fairbanks took second in the English mustache category.
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