Hole lotta fun But for custom cornhole game-board crafter, it’s becoming serious business By: David Sanderson Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, May. 19, 2023

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This article was published 19/05/2023 (841 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STE. ANNE — The World Police & Fire Games are coming to Winnipeg this summer. Sixty sports are scheduled to be contested. Few will be more intriguing than cornhole, an activity that requires participants to toss weighted bags at a raised, angled board from a distance of roughly eight metres, in an attempt to land the bags on the rectangular board or, better still, inside a hole cut into the top of it.

The Games’ cornhole competition is set for the RBC Convention Centre, beginning Aug. 4. Among the interested observers will be Steve Olson, a resident of Ste. Anne who was tasked with constructing all of the cornhole boards that are going to be utilized during the two-day tournament.

Last summer, Olson, the founder of the Royal Canadian Cornhole Company, built a customized board for a Winnipeg police officer, the surface of which boasted an image of the Winnipeg Police Service logo. The board was a hit with everybody who spotted it, including the person who’d been put in charge of organizing cornhole at this summer’s Games.

“I’d heard of the Police & Fire Games, but had no idea (cornhole) was an official event until they told me,” Olson says, seated in the dining room of the Ste. Anne home he shares with his wife/business partner Alicia, and their two daughters, ages 15 and 12.

“I made them a board last summer that they used to promote the Games by taking it to Tinker Town, Blue Bomber games… all over the place, really. It was a compliment that they used one of my boards for that purpose, but to have them at the Games themselves? That’s a real feather in my cap.”

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Like a lot of people, Olson and his family were looking for ways to keep themselves occupied, when they were stuck at home for the most part in 2020 and 2021 owing to you-know-what.

Because they have a sizable property, Olson, who was already comfortable around a circular saw, decided to fashion a few backyard games out of wood. Oversized versions of tic-tac-toe and Connect Four proved enjoyable but the activity that received the most attention — not only from his kids, but from neighbours as well, who’d peer over the fence to see what they were up to — was cornhole.

Before long, others in Ste. Anne were asking if he could build them a cornhole board, too. That caused Olson to go down a “deep rabbit hole,” to ensure what he was producing matched the specifications of the game as defined by the American Cornhole Association, an Ohio-based organization that oversees tournaments and league play south of the border.

“For instance, I learned that regulation boards are two feet by four feet, that the hole should be six inches in diameter and that it should be centred nine inches from the top (of the board). And that the board itself should rest at an angle of approximately 12 degrees,” he says, scrolling through his phone to show off one of his early models, which he deems primitive by his present-day standards.

He also discovered there are a fair number of individuals in Canada and the United States who were building cornhole games on a strictly hobby basis. That matched what he was up to, only as demand for his services grew, his approach began to change.

“From what I could tell, there seemed to be a lot of people making games in basically the same style, using the same exact blueprint,” he continues. “What I started to think was, maybe if I offered different features that would set my games apart — like adding handles, to make them easy to transport, or by customizing them, by including a softball team’s crest or family coat of arms, or doing vinyl wraps like you see on a car — I might be able to turn this into a successful business.”

Olson founded what was originally called Royal Games in the spring of 2022. His intention was to sell a variety of backyard games. From the get-go, cornhole was his runaway bestseller, so he changed his moniker to Royal Canadian Cornhole Company over the winter, so there would be no mistaking what he was up to.

Since February, it’s been all cornhole, all the time. He also sells accessories such as cornhole-style bottle openers and sets of cornhole bags, the latter of which are sewn by his wife and, true to the game’s roots, are filled with dried corn kernels.

“I tell people to be very careful about storing the bags because, well, you know… mice,” he says with a chuckle.

Olson’s No. 1 customer is South West Cornhole, a Winnipeg league that uses Royal Canadian Cornhole Company boards for its weekly matches at the Henderson Royal Canadian Legion #215.

Sean Odell joined the Cornhole Canada-sanctioned league, which runs from September to May, last fall. He immediately noticed a difference between Olson’s boards and what he had grown used to.

“I bought my boards off Amazon, and most of the boards I play on at the lake are ones people built for themselves,” Odell says, who took up cornhole, which he refers to as a game, though many of his counterparts consider it a sport, three years ago.

“Steve makes a nice set of boards; the quality of the construction is well done. If you cheap out on the top layer you can get bouncy boards, which his are not,” he adds. “Also, cheaper boards have sharp edges. He rounds his off, which is great because it reduces the chances of your bags snagging. At the cost of bags — my go-to bags were $90 for four — you don’t want that happening.”

Odell, together with a few other league members, intends to volunteer his services for the cornhole segment of this summer’s World Police & Fire Games. Though he hasn’t been told what his exact duties will be, one thing is certain: he plans to keep a close eye on the proceedings, if only to pick up a few tips.

He points out that the American Cornhole League world championships are slated for this summer in South Carolina, where over US$700,000 in prize money will be up for grabs. There’s even talk of cornhole becoming an Olympic event somewhere down the road. Get proficient enough at the game and there’s no telling where it might lead, he says.

To date, Olson has shipped cornhole games, which come as a set of two and are built out of cabinet-quality plywood that he clear-coats to guard against the elements, as far away as Ottawa. While he occasionally kicks himself for not coming up with the idea at the very beginning of COVID-19, when everybody was seemingly in the market for home-entertainment options, and when the price of wood hadn’t yet gone through the roof, he is pleased with how his first year in business has gone.

“This summer, I’m hoping to attend markets and expos throughout the province, where I can set up a couple of boards and let people who’ve never played before get a feel for the game,” he says, noting he may enlist his tech-savvy daughters to produce a few TikTok videos, to boot. Past that, he would love to establish a retail presence of sorts, perhaps by selling boards and bags on a consignment basis in shops located in summer hot spots such as Kenora, Clear Lake or the Grand Beach area.

There is one problem associated with the Royal Canadian Cornhole Company’s steady growth, mind you. The busier things get, the less room he and his wife have to shelter their vehicles, he says, leading a visitor from the house to his tidily kept workshop.

“It started off with me tarping off a third of the garage to store my wood and tools, and still having enough room for the car,” he says, standing near a sign reading “Steve’s Garage, est. 2020. Open for good music, good beer & good friends.”

“Priorities are ever-shifting, however, and we’ve been parking on the driveway for a solid two months now, which may or may not be a point of contention in the household, come next winter.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca