Another Home Run For SECC
If you attended MAL this year you were treated to a fantastic performance by a real quality candidate, Mr Jeff Jarnigan who competed with the title of Mr SECC Leather 2009. Jeff is as gracious as he is dedicated to his community, which also describes the SECC (South East Conference of Clubs).
Jeff was their first contestant at MAL, having been selected to represent the conference at their first ever Mr SECC Leather weekend back in '09.
Leatherati was on hand the weekend of February 12 - 15 for the second conference weekend in Augusta, GA at the very accommodating (and huge) Parliment House resort. Yes, it's related to the infamous resort of the same name in Orlando and it's got even more nooks and crannies where you can get in to lots of trouble. But more on that later.
Oh, and speaking of huge, the dynamic and legendary Michael Brandon was on hand all weekend as the SECC's personal ambassador to the very appreciative attendees. Mmmm mmmm good.
The weekend kicked off with a rather unexpected but fun welcome from Mother Nature with 6 inches of snow drifting in to cover everything with pure whiteness. I believe the snow was possibly the only pure thing around and soon enough guys were chucking snowballs, building anatomically correct snow men and plopping down in nothing but jockstraps to make snow devils.
There were 6 excellent men competing at this year's event; Jamie Brimmer from Columbia, SC representing the Leather Order of the Midlands, Steven "Dragon" Greene from Atlanta, GA representing Onyx Southeast, Larry Johnston from Jacksonville, FL representing First Coast Leather Society, Steve Pettus from Charlotte, NC representing The Tradesmen, Randy "Tanner" Sullivan from Orlando, FL representing Trident International-Central Florida, and Eddie Vizcaya from Charleston, SC representing Trident Knights.
The first official events of the weekend was the Kickoff Party on Thursday night and then a second kick off wine and cheese party on Friday night with a "very special" performance by Michael Brandon. Apparently even snow doesn't slow him down!
Of course while everyone else was frolicking, the contestants had an appointment with the judges for their pre-interviews. Filling out the panel this year were 2009 American Leatherwoman and CLAWS member Dakota, 2009 American Leatherman Alex Lindsay, Mr Atlanta Eagle 2009 and IML 2009 second-runner up Alan Penrod, Atlantic Motorcycle Coordinating Council (AMCC) President Steven James, and Head Judge Mr SECC Leather 2009 Jef Jarnigan.
Once the judges ran the contestants through their paces they were all released to head over to the Meet and Greet at the Filling Station bar adjacent to the resort. We quickly discovered that this is no ordinary contest weekend. The scores for the competitors encompass their performance for the entire weekend including raffle ticket sales to benefit the travel fund, the requisite pre-interviews, leather scenes, and onstage question. Judges were also instructed to observe the contestants throughout the entire weekend to score how they interacted with each other and the weekend attendees. Tough work!
On Saturday the sun came out and the weekend continued under gorgeous Georgia-blue skies. After breakfast it was off to the Demos and Discussions in the new completed Pig Pen multi-room play space. Very hot! Those attending were treated to Hot Wax with Master Regi, a very intimate one on one with Michael Brandon, a discussion on openness and kinkiness with ALM Alex Lindsay, and a hypnosis demo with Lady D. Great stuff all around.
In the early afternoon we all headed over to the Cafe for Jeff Jarnigan's Top Shelf farewell cocktail party. Nice stiff drinks, excellent conversation and yummy food made this a must-attend event. Way to go jeff!
After a teeny bit of down time it was back to the contest for the Leather Scenes. We've been to a lot of contests with contestant fantasies and demos but some of these blew everything else out of the water. All of the scenes were well-presented but a couple in particular stood out. Randy "Tanner" Sullivan pulled off an amazing domination and flogging scene that took those assembled through the gamut of emotion from consternation at the realism of the scene to the relief at the conclusion with a particularly well-delivered line from Tanner that cut all of the tension loose and revealed the scene for what it was - really, really hot consensual play.
The uniform pigs in the audience were on their feet for Larry Johnston's war zone domination and interrogation scene with a hot buck private that ended in a piss waterboard scene that left more than a few chubbies in its wake. F**k yeah!
That evening we were back for the Parade of Colors and the Formal Leather/Uniform dinner. Great food guys! We also recognized the assembled past and present titleholders in the crowd and SECC President Jerry Ramsey presented the 2010 SECC President's Award to the First Coast Leather Society for their exemplary contributions to the SECC community.
And finally on Saturday night, after a quick cocktail break, it was time for the Leather Finals onstage contestant intro and question. But important business was lined up first, ie the raffle prizes! The contestants had been hard at work all weekend hawking raffle tickets to benefit the SECC Leather travel fund and had managed to raise over $3000! The stage was nearly flooded in huge baskets that were released to lucky ticket holders. In addition, IML had donated 3 weekend packages for a separate raffle and there were some very luck people who managed to snag those.
It was revealed to us before the onstage question that there was less than 10 points separating 1st place from last place. Amazingly close! And what's more, only 3.2 points separated 1st place from 3rd place. A real knuckle biter for sure. The fact that all of the contestants nailed their onstage portion just left us in more of a quandary - who was going to come out on top?
Finally the moment of truth. Larry Johnston emerged as Mr SECC Leather 2010, with Eddie Vizcaya snagging 1st Runner Up and Randy Sullivan filling out the top three with his 2nd Runner Up position. Every contestant gave it their all this weekend and really put a tough task in front of the judges. Congrats to all of the guys and a big welcome to Larry Johnston to the titleholder ranks. Now you're in for it!
Once the requisite pictures were snapped and backs were slapped it was off for some play time. Master Regi was doing a hot wax scene on Tanner in the Tower play space with a capacity crowd on-hand to soak up his expertise Down in the Pig Pen the action was definitely on as well with the sling room full to capacity, some serious impact play from Lady D in the main dungeon, and American Leatherwoman Dakota and American Leatherman Alex Lindsay doing a tag team tickle scene on Glenn the Judges Boy for the weekend. Ah....we love it when it all comes together like that.
Unfortunately the weekend was winding down all too soon and so we gathered for the Mingle with the Winners southern-style breakfast at the Cafe on Sunday morning and gathered some sustenance for either the drive home or the Leather Tea later that afternoon for those staying over.
We'd like to say a huge thanks to the SECC for a truly memorable event. You should definitely put this on your calendar for next year. We love the IMLs and MALs of our world but there's something really, really appealing about weekends like SECC where you get to spend good one on one time with not just the contestants but all of the varied and kinky folks that are the heart and soul of our community.
Our hats are off to the SECC and we wish Larry Johnston the best success as he heads in to his year as Mr SECC Leather.
You can also run through all of the Interviews we did with each of the contestants and be sure to check out the Photo Galleriestoo!
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