Adna grad will head to world championship after state win in duck calling

Sep. 6—Most instruments from the childhood years get sold or packed away in attics.

Logan Boone's noisemaker of choice isn't most instruments.

He's a novice duck caller. And, as of an Aug. 5 Washington Waterfowl Association competition in Orting, Boone is a state champion.

For his performance in the state-sanctioned calling contest, Boone has punched a ticket to the World Duck Calling Championship, an annual event in Stuttgart, Arkansas, on the weekend following Thanksgiving.

A 2016 Adna High School graduate, Boone discovered a passion for waterfowl calling after first getting interested in hunting 10 years ago. When hunting seasons ended, Boone's desire to get outside didn't.

"I got so fascinated with birds that I slowly became an amateur photographer," Boone recalled. "And that branched out to calling to birds."

After partnering with Pacific Custom Calls, a Spokane-based company, Boone next took flight into the contest-calling world. Around 2014, he entered his first competition in Oregon and took first in the novice category. He was immediately hooked. He's entered in contests "all down the coast" since.

August's competition was his first state-sanctioned contest win. The championship earned him $1,000 to cover some travel expenses for the world competition.

Contest calling is judged on technique, and often sounds nothing like a duck, Boone said.

"To the public, it's the most off-the-wall kind of thing," Boone said, laughing. "It's complex and weird."

Judges can't see the contestants. In a random order, contest callers come up and play the same assigned pattern of sounds. At "Worlds," as he called it, in Arkansas, he will compete in several rounds against a few dozen callers.

This will be his first time competing in Worlds, which Boone said features callers from New Zealand and Canada, with the bulk of participants hailing from across the United States.

"It's pretty fascinating. If you were to look up the Worlds duck calling routine, you probably wouldn't want to sit down and listen to the rest of it," Boone said.

The competition is part of Stuttgart, Arkansas's annual "Wings Over the Prairie" festival. The town calls itself "the Duck Capital of the World," as the area's marshy rice fields attract migrating birds and hunters from far and wide.

Asked if he thought he would win it all, Boone gave a chuckle and a blunt, "No."

His goal is to last into round two.

In the meantime, he practices by taking video of himself calling and sending it to a mentor, who responds with suggestions. Boone only practices in a shop at work because he's "not allowed" to call at home, where he has a young daughter.

It takes significant, focused air pressure, he said. As a reed instrument, duck calls are comparable to the clarinet, but all the notes come from the caller.

"These guys are just flawless. They're phenomenal," he said. "I could. I could win, potentially, but I think it's a really long shot. I'd have to do my absolute best."

Learn more about the Worlds championship at https://www.stuttgartduckfest.com/duck-calling-championship.