For competitive beard growers, it seems a town with good beer trumps all.

That Central Oregon has seven breweries was a deciding factor in Beard Team USA’s decision to pick Bend as the host of its inaugural National Beard and Moustache Championships, said Phil Olsen, founder and captain of the team.

After the team members spend a grueling day going beard-to-beard on June 5 at Les Schwab Amphitheater, it’s likely you’ll find them celebrating that evening by guzzling a few of Bend’s finest brews.

“There’s an odd correlation between Beard Team USA and beer-drinking,” said Olsen, of Tahoe City, Calif. “I think it’ll be hard to keep them out of the breweries.”

Stimulating the local economy — everything from breweries to lodging — is one reason Visit Bend worked to get the beard team to hold its first national competition in Central Oregon. Doug La Placa, the president and CEO of Visit Bend, the city’s tourism-promotion agency, said he expects the competition could bring upward of 1,000 competitors, family members and other tourists to town.

La Placa said it’s too early to forecast any economic impact numbers. Visit Bend is sponsoring the championships.

Hosting competitions like the Beard and Moustache Championships, versus solely having the outdoor recreation events Bend is known for, shows off a different side of Bend that is eclectic and fun-loving, La Placa said.

Plus, the event draws more tourists during a down economic period, he said.

“We don’t want to be known as a one-dimension tourist destination,” La Placa said. “It’s a nice change of pace.”

Considering the dynamics of the beard competition, calling it a change of pace might be an understatement.

Worldwide beard and mustache competitions have been held throughout Europe since the 1990s, drawing every variety of facial fur imaginable, but they’re relatively new to the United States.

Competitors can be judged by a variety of categories, including multiple subcategories of mustaches, full beards and partial beards. At the United States’ first national facial hair competition in Bend, anyone with facial hair can register for a still-undetermined fee to compete in one of five categories, each boasting a $1,000 first-place prize.

Olsen, who founded Beard Team USA in 2003, introduced the United States to beard and mustache competitions when he organized one of the biennial World Beard and Moustache Championship events in Carson City, Nev., that same year. Garnering more interest in the sport is one of Olsen’s reasons behind hosting events like the national championship.

Since its beginnings, Beard Team USA has grown to a group of more than 1,500, Olsen said.

Serious competitors

U.S. competitors have fared well against the more experienced international competitors, with a few landing first-place trophies. Burke Kenny, of Olympia, Wash., beat out the lot to win the blue ribbon for his natural full beard with a styled mustache at the 2007 World Beard and Moustache Championships in Brighton, England.

He was hooked after 2005, when he first attended a beard and mustache competition in Germany and spent time celebrating and drinking beer at Oktoberfest.

“It was a surprise to be in the top three,” Kenny, 25, said about finishing first. “(The other two) were clearly very distinguished past beard winners.”

Jack Passion, from the San Francisco Bay Area, has twice bested his competition in the natural full beard contest, landing first place both at the Brighton, England, and Anchorage, Alaska, events. His orange, bushy curls drape from his chin and cover most of his chest.

Passion started growing the beard more than six years ago after his freshman year of college. That same year, he heard about the world championship competition in Carson City but decided against going because his beard was still in its infancy.

When 2005 rolled around, Passion took a chance and traveled to Germany to compete in the world championships. Like many Americans traveling there, Passion said he thought of it more as a spectacle.

Even so, he landed third place in the natural full beard contest.

“It was a huge upset that this 21-year-old American would show up out of nowhere and do very well in this huge competitive category,” Passion said. “All the Germans were (angry) that I wore a pirate costume.”

But since then, Passion has turned his beard into somewhat of a career. He has written his own how-to book on growing and caring for facial hair, and sells T-shirts on his Web site with a likeness of his beard printed on the front. Being so involved in the world of beards has turned the tables.

“Now, I can’t take it as lightheartedly as when I started getting into these things,” he said.

But the competitions still are lighthearted, Passion and Kenny said. People dress up in costumes to accentuate their beard style, make friendships and have fun, they said.

Passion and Kenny, who became close friends after they met at the German world competition in 2005, plan to attend Bend’s National Beard and Moustache Championships.

Some international competitors might show up as well, said Olsen, the organizer. The Canadian beard team already reserved its spot, he said.

Open to all

Olsen said there could be as many as 400 local and out-of-town contestants looking to land one of the $1,000 prizes. He said he’s working on getting celebrity judges for the event, and local company Lay It Out Events is scheduling live music.

People can compete for best mustache, best partial beard, best full beard or freestyle, with the winner of each earning a $1,000 prize. Another $1,000 will be handed out to a contestant selected at random, Olsen said. The prize money was made possible by support from the local community, Olsen said, declining to elaborate.

Although locals can enter the competition, two area public figures The Bulletin spoke with don’t think they’ll enter — or would win — the competition.

Jefferson County Commissioner Wayne Fording said it’s unlikely he’ll enter his moustache in the competition.

“It’s not like I got any really fancy mustache or anything,” Fording said. “Just below my nose, and above my lip.”

The same goes for Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan. Although he has a full beard that he keeps well-trimmed, he said his probably doesn’t deserve a prize.

“The winners look way more dedicated to growing facial hair than I,” Dugan said. “I just hate to shave.”

For more information about the National Beard and Moustache Championships in Bend, visit Beard Team USA’s Web site at www.beardteamusa.org.