B.C. man wins hotly contested Stick of the Year contest with piece of driftwood from Cowichan Valley

A piece of driftwood from Vancouver Island has narrowly won the title of "Stick of the Year" in an inaugural contest that saw thousands of votes cast for competitors from around the world.

To earn the accolade, the sword-like piece of wood had to beat sticks from Portugal, the Dominican Republic and Germany, among other countries.

But Marcus Barrick, a Duncan, B.C.-based musician and author, believed in the power of the stick he found while walking through the woods.

"This thing's like the most majestic piece of driftwood I've ever seen," he said in his official submission video for the contest, moving it through the air while calling it an "ancient energy sword."

"Clearly hosts a ton of energy and just handles so nicely."

He won't say exactly where the stick came from, but disclosed it was found in a river bed in the Cowichan Valley, around 60 kilometres northwest of Victoria.

"I like to scramble through rivers and rocks. It was kind of low water season so I just found that stick perched up on a rock," he told CHEK News. 

The contest was hosted by Official Stick Reviews, an Instagram, TikTok and YouTube account that allows stick enthusiasts to share their favourite wooden finds with thousands of "Stick Nation" enthusiasts.

The winner was announced by Grammy-nominated musician Noah Kahan, a self-described "stick lover, stick aficionado" whose breakthrough hit was called Stick Season.

"Your stick is fantastic," Kahan said after naming Barrick the winner.

But the result was close: Barrick received 51.2 per cent of the final vote, just ahead of a club-like stick from Poland. According to Official Stick Reviews, the Canadian stick had a healthy lead until a major Polish Instagram account posted about the contest, leading to a surge of votes for the runner-up, some of which came in after polling had closed.

T-shirts are now being made with an image of the winning stick on them and Barrick is going to receive a championship belt, according to Official Stick Reviews.

As for the stick itself, it's currently mounted on Barrick's wall and he has no plans to give it away.

"I'm not interested in the monetary aspect of it," he told CHEK News, saying he hopes the contest winner will get more people to pay attention to the importance of forests and wilderness, "especially here in B.C."