InfraStructures - March 2008 - It's Official: World's Best Bricklayer Settled in Vegas Speed Showdown

It's Official: World's Best Bricklayer
Settled in Vegas Speed Showdown

The housing market may be slowing down but the bricks were flying faster than ever in Las Vegas as bricklayers from across the country and the world faced off to decide the World's Best Bricklayer. North Carolina resident and bricklayer Garrett Hood snatched the coveted title in the annual SPEC MIX Bricklayer 500® event with an amazing 791 bricks laid in just one hour.

Garrett Hood and his assisting mason tender, Kevin Hallman of McGee Brothers Company won with a narrow margin of just eleven bricks. To take the title, they went up against teams from California, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Utah and Colorado plus, for the first time ever, teams from England and Canada.

"Congratulations to Garrett on his win. The standard of craftsmanship, skill and competitive spirit was higher than ever this year," says Brian Carney, vice president and general manager, SPEC MIX, Inc, organizers of the annual event at the World of Concrete trade show. "And with just eleven bricks separating first and second place, it was a fiercely contested battle that made great viewing for the 5000 spectators who showed up to cheer the teams on."

As this year's champion and World's Best Bricklayer, Mr. Hood receives $5000 in cash and the keys to a brand new, fully-loaded Ford F-250 XLT SuperDuty truck. Runner up Mike Boll of G. Porter and Company from St Charles, Illinois, receives $4000 and a Bobcat 2200 Utility Vehicle for his 780 bricks laid. Jeff Neely of Advanced Masonry from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, took third place with a final brick count of 729 bricks to win $3000 in prize money. In addition the three also win thousands each in sponsor prizes.

The SPEC MIX Bricklayer 500 also tests craftsmanship and mason tender skills. This year Dave Moyle of Steve Moyle Masonry from Manchester, Iowa, won the SPEC MIX Top Craftsman® award for his high quality and craftsmanship laying 652 bricks in the time allotted. Shane Barclay of Rice Lake Construction, Deerwood, Minnesota was named 2008 SPEC MIX Toughest Tender® award for his winning time of 17 minutes and 40 seconds taken to set up a pre-determined mason work area for colleague and mason Mike Hendrickson.

The 2008 SPEC MIX Bricklayer 500 is an annual bricklaying competition comprised of the best bricklayers in the world. Twenty teams made up of a mason, and mason tender, compete to lay the most bricks while meeting strict, defined quality standards. The competition has the largest winner's purse of any masonry competition. The competitors compete for well over $150 000 in cash and prizes before a crowd of 5000 spectators.

For more details about this event go to www.specmixbricklayer500.com where archive video footage can be viewed.

Source: SPEC MIX, Inc.