WWA’s 2023 Decoy Competition to Judge World’s Best “Working Decoys”

Decoy Corner Article

By Bruce Urben, WWA President

The Decoy Corner articles in the WWA newsletter are widely accessed through the internet by carvers, collectors, waterfowl hunters, bird watchers and others. What amazes me are the number of inquiries and calls we receive each month from all over the US. From people wanting help in identification of their vintage carved decoy that was in the family for years, to appraisal options and where and how to market their antique blocks. Earlier this winter we were able to help a retired collector move his entire decoy collection to an East coast Museum as he prepares for leaving his life home and moving to assisted living arrangements.

2022 Best of Show at WWA’s DCCE

This column has a wide readership so I wanted to talk a little about WWA’s upcoming annual Decoy Carving Contest and Exhibition (DCCE) being held at the Waterfowl Hunters Expo in August. Our first few contest years saw entries from most of the Midwest States, but lately the entries have come from California to North Carolina, Minnesota to Michigan and Ohio to Illinois! This will be our 5th annual Contest (omitting the COVID years) and it is expanding again.

Such contests are sanctioned by the International Waterfowl Carvers Association. The IWCA was established in 1988 by a group of carvers that wanted a way to level the playing field by establishing rules and procedures that would be followed by all carvers in a fair and transparent way. They defined and established standards for carving divisions, carver categories and experience, judging procedures, carving techniques and a carver registration system. There are tens of thousands of registered IWCA carvers competing worldwide under this IWCA system. And there are several different categories of carving, from working decoys for hunting to artistic representations whose working lives are spent on a mantle.

In 2022, our contest was selected to hold the IWCA championship for the “Style” division. “Style” is a floating, semi-decorative decoy category. The top finishing carvers from our contest last year are being recognized in this month’s IWCA Competition’ special edition magazine produced by the Wildfowl Carving Magazine.

For 2023, I am happy to announce that our 2023 WWA Decoy Carving Contest and Exhibition has been selected to host the “IWCA” Working Decoy Division Championship at our Waterfowl Hunters Expo. This is the largest attended Championship offered by IWCA.

The nation’s best carvers in this Division will be submitting their decoys, which are intended to be hunted over, to be judged as the best in Species, Category and ultimately, the Best of Show! I hope you will take this opportunity to come and view all of the decoys at the WWA Decoy Carving Contest and Exhibition at the 3rd annual Waterfowl Hunters Expo at Sunnyview Expo Center in Oshkosh, WI, August 26, 2023.

This IWCA Championship never been held closer to you since its inception.  It will be worth your drive!

Hope to see you all there.