Kevin Henderson (Mr Rubber Cleveland 2008 - center in photo) attended the recent CLAW weekend and shared some of his fun with us!
I am reporting to you after an awesome Saturday at CLAW…. and from what might be one of the best CLAWs yet. CLAW (Cleveland Leather Awareness Weekend) is one of my all-time favorite leather events, and I am not saying this just because, as a Cleveland native, it happens to occur in my own backyard. What started off a small venue for local leather lovers ten years ago has grown into an international affair, attracting thousands of sexy leather daddies, rubber pups, and ‘matrix mamas from all over the world while raising thousands of dollars for charity. (This isn’t your ordinary local bar fundraiser.)
CLAW has also become the unofficial kick-off to IML, where the majority of the current IML class gathers to meet the judges and strut their stuff only a month before they enter the competition, providing LOTS of hot eye candy. The weekend is full of fun times, endless parties, great friends, and good food. CLAW has something for everyone: ranging from educational workshops to uniform parties, bondage & disciple parties, jock and sports gear parities, puppy parties, and pansexual play parties to a well-stocked vendor’s mart to a kinky BDSM art show. You will not walk away disappointed after having attended. CLAW is also a place where I have met some of my best friends in the community, and I look forward every year to seeing them when they come back to town.
I arrived Saturday afternoon at the Hilton in downtown Cleveland and headed right to registration. This was the first year that CLAW was held at the Hilton, and I think it was a very good move. The space at the Hilton was much bigger than the hotel in previous years and offered a nice change of setting. CLAW offers a variety of weekend packages which can be purchased online, but because I could only attend on Saturday, I bought a day pass for $5. This gave me unlimited access to all of CLAW's hotel activities and parties for the day. I also purchased a ticket to the International Leather Family Dinner that occurs annually on the Saturday of CLAW. I then immediately headed down to the vendor’s mart to check out their stuff. After buying some silicone lube to shine up my gear for the night, I took a moment to enjoy all the hot guys walking through. People were dressed in a variety of outfits ranging from jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes to just a rubber jock and boots to full, formal leather attire. (Plug: I wore a fun t-shirt that said “Respect Rubber” that got lots of compliments. I purchased it randomly a few weeks ago in Akron, “the rubber city” because it is the historic center of the American tire industry, when I walked by their store front for the first time. Check out some of their awesome t-shirts at www.rubbercityclothing.com.) There was also a cigar smoking tent outside this year which provided a nice place to hanging out and talk to new people.
After cruising the vendor’s mart and talking to friends in the tent, I met up with my friend Kip Hollar, Mr. MAL 2009, who very graciously let me change into my formal outfit for the night in his room. After changing, I headed to the titleholders cocktail party. It was pretty much held in the hallway—a little cramped for so many people and the line to the bar was a little too long. After talking to a few people, I slipped out to the tent to wait for dinner to start.
The International Leather Family Dinner is my favorite event every year at CLAW. Everyone dresses in their formal attire and sits down to a nice meal. You are seated somewhat randomly at a round table of 8 people, which is actually really nice: you get seated next to people you might not otherwise get to meet and you quickly make conversation with the entire table. There are few speeches and awards given out, and the food is always good. You get a real sense of community from these dinners, and I always walk away with a few more friends. (I met Daniel Hennagir, Mr. Twin Cities Leather 2011, this weekend. Not only is he SUPER hot, but he is a really sweet guy. *Drooling* I think I’ve developed a little bit of a crush. )
At the dinner I met up with my friend Tyger Yoshi who I had met at a previous CLAW and we decided to go to some of bar parties that night. After changing into some rubber gear that showed some more skin, we hopped on one of the trolleys that CLAW provides to take people from the hotel to bar parties around town. We headed first to the “Report for Duty Uniform Party” at the Leather Stallion Saloon, sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Uniform League (MAUL). Lots of hot guys dressed up in uniform! The Leather Stallion also had a nice back patio that was packed. They had a BBQ going and I enjoyed a nice, thick beefy hot dog with relish! Drinks were very affordable, and people seemed to be having a really good time.
We soon decided to head to a different party so we hopped back on the trolley and headed across town to a CLAW party at The Shed. It was pretty empty when we first got there, but it was packed wall to wall within the hour. The patio was so crowded that I could barely move. I tried searching for my new crush, but I had no luck. I had some fun talking with Brent Heinze, Mr. Colorado Leather 2010, but the place soon got so packed that we decided to head to the final party of the night.
At Mean Bull was The Bondage & Discipline party. Mean Bull is a smaller bar compared to the rest of the bars we were at, and it was absolutely packed like a sardine can. It took a while to get in, and once inside people could barely move. On the dance floor were lots of guys dancing as well as some bondage demonstrations. Loud music and flashing lights pulsed through the entire room. It was too loud and dark to really talk to anyone, so most people just danced or found themselves in dark, crowded corners. I noticed that a lot of guys at this particularly party weren’t in gear; I got the feeling a lot of them didn’t attend the other CLAW events. Still, it was fun. Tyger is a master bondage and rope expert so he did some rope bondage demos on me and another sexy boy.
A lot of guys were heading to the Recon Warehouse Party (think dark rooms, cages, slings, cruisy hallways) that took place in a warehouse space connected to Flex that would go until 6 AM. While it sounded enticing, I was getting pretty tired and decided to call it a night.
Overall, it was a great day. There’s no contests, just a lot of fun. There are lots of things to do, several different venues, and CLAW caters to a lot of different kinks and interests. Most of the guys are very good looking. Only down side: the crowd is still aggregately in the “older” bracket so I sometimes feel like the youngest guy there and there still isn’t a ton of rubber to be seen, although both counts are changing as the years go on. I’m looking forward to next year already.
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