Deano’s Aaric Kendall Brings Home Olympic Gold
Most days, you’ll find Aaric Kendall of Deano’s Backhoe Service installing septic tanks or doing finish grading with a Case backhoe. During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, however, he did something a little more unusual.
Kendall, owner of Double A Carving Co. (pictured below right), and his teammate, Benjamin Rand, won a gold medal for ice carving in the Cultural Olympiad event.
During the grueling 12-hour first event, Kendall and Rand carved 3,000 pounds of ice into a woman jumping over a spark while holding a dove—reflecting the theme of “hopes and dreams.” The statue stood about 100 inches tall and eight feet wide.
In the next day’s “speed carving” event, Kendall had two hours and one block of ice to create a sculpture. Temperatures in the 50s and a requirement that the sculpture stand for two days required a careful balance of “pushing the limit and making something that looks daring versus making something that is very stable and solid,” he added.
Kendall started ice carving when he studied to be a chef and has been carving for 16 years. He won the national ice carving championship in 2008 and won a bronze medal during the 2006 Torino Cultural Olympiad.
This and other work can be viewed at www.doubleacarving.com.
Birkey’s Ken Smith and other local businesses helped Kendall by sponsoring his trip to the competition.
