2003: Preparing for the cookoff (part 4)

At the end of the day, we grab the booth, stacked neatly in my garage each year, load it in a couple pickup trucks, and haul it over to the Gilruth Center for setup. It's done in a couple of hours.

The "before" picture.


First, frame the base and put in the support structure.


Then put in the floor.


Add a couple of walls, which fit into pre-cut slots in the floor.


Next, install the balcony floor, which gives the walls support.


Put up the front of the booth and add the ladder in back.


Install railings in front and on the balcony.


The main part of the booth is complete!


Start putting up the thatched roof support beams.


Behind the booth, our tent is set up.


Add thatched roof, using discarded palm fronds.


Install Jello Shot Dispenser, surfboards, bikinis, and trophies
(done on the day of the cookoff).


Last but not least, install team!.

Once we're done with the booth, it's over to the Cut-Up Party, where we distribute the shirts that we made last week, polish off the skit and assign parts, cut up the meat and veggies, and make the jello shots.

2000: Surfin' Chili 10th Anniversary

It was time to retire the old booth. The old one looked like it had been built by a bunch of drunks (which, of course, it was), with pieces thrown together over the years. But the wood was warping and it was always too damn hard to figure out which bolt went into which hole in which support. A new design was needed.

We decided on a "beach house" theme, with a new color scheme (peach and aqua), a raised floor with a porch, a balcony, and palm frond roof. The surfin' pepper was the only visible remnant of the old booth, though we cannibalized some of the wood for the new one.

As part of the 10th Anniversary celebration, we celebrate our past: it was still built by a bunch of drunks, but this time we were (mostly) sober when we designed it. The banner reads "Celebrating Surfin' Chili's 10th Year".