There are quite a few other classes in the California Open, both floating and non-floating, lifesize and miniature. There were service and confidence decoys so lifelike that I expected them to quack!
I am fortunate to be able to spend some time near a small lake during the week. The lake is not accessible to the general public, and there is no hunting allowed there. Quite a few assorted wildfowl winter at the lake, and some have become used to the presence of humans. I can walk past feeding geese, so close that I could reach out and touch them, without them freaking out. (They do kind of keep an eye on me, however.)
At left, a PSWA Best-In-Show, Smoothie -- Gadwall by Jett Brunet. Peter Palumbo's Whimbrel and Tom Christie's Mallard aced the Service Classes.
After 17 years of this, it is safe to say that I know what a Canada Goose is supposed to look like. And it appeared to me that some of my Goosey Friends had gone to the show and squatted on the table. The Mallard Drakes had that hard-to-get-right luminescent metallic green glow to their head feathers. Definitely some world-class competitors out there.
While decoys were the name of the game, there were also some very nice Decorative and Interpretive pieces. I was particularly impressed with the hummingbird and the roadrunner. 
There were a few great-looking dioramas, including an owl (or was it a hawk?) attacking a snake.
The Fish Carvings were also well represented. 
There were several slick specimens that contrasted nicely with the feathered contingent.
Along the back wall and right side were prints and other miscellaneous flat work. Several 'flatwork' artists were featured, with their paintings displayed on a low wall. Hey! A wall! It was only then that I noticed that there was a low wall dividing the room. With a little circumnavigating, I found the opening and entered the Vendors' Maze.
The Maze was where all those guys who I had overheard mumbling, "Oh, I could do this - it doesn't look that hard . . ." to their wives and sweethearts had a chance to put their money where their mouth is. There were books, patterns, carving knives and chisels, power flex-shaft tools and bits, rough-outs, and hunks of virgin tupelo, butternut, and basswood. This was carefully mixed with jewelry in the wildlife theme for the ladies. I succumbed to the smell of leather and purchased a new business card case with faux-scrimshaw of a mule buck applied to the front. And it was priced at half of what I expected it to be. Score!
I ran into Laurie again at the Pfingst booth, where she had just bought one of the most lethal-looking bits I have ever seen. Try to imagine a three-cutter planer, without the infeed and outfeed beds, no fence and no guard. Smaller though, at about an inch diameter, but the cutters were more exposed than on a planer. This puppy looks like it can really bite wood. Or anything else that gets in the way.
I asked the fellow at the booth how it carves, and he said he wouldn't know . . . he was the machinist who designed and built the cutters.
"I only carve carbide," he said.
I remarked, "That must be tough carving." He grinned. "I've killed a lot of diamonds."
I'll be interested in what Laurie has to say about this new cutter configuration.
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