PLUMSTED – There was plenty of warmth felt during a cold day in the township with the 4th Annual Fire & Ice Show held at the New Egypt Flea Market.
It was a chilly Saturday morning for the two-day event that featured a variety of ice sculptures, demonstrations, food vendors and – to keep things warm – strategically placed camp fires around the iconic grounds of the township’s 65-year-old flea market. There was face painting, a fairy hair event in the auction house, blacksmith demonstrations, Howling Woods Farm photo opportunities, and axe throwing. The ice sculptures were lit up at night.
“This is the fourth year and it just keeps getting bigger and better,” said Aaron Heller, whose family has owned the flea market for generations.
Little two-year-old Grayson Vlice of Manahawkin enjoyed sitting in an ice sculpture car. His family decided to travel to the western corner of Ocean County for the event and to browse around a bit during the chilly morning.
“Larry Watkins is the sculptor,” Talba Warner said. “He does wood carvings.” Some of those carvings were seen on the grounds of the flea market.
“We have seven that have been done right now,” Heller noted concerning the ice sculptures that were housed in tents around the flea market. “Every hour he will carve one while on the back of a truck out here.”
“That will start at noon,” Warner added.
Heller added, “he has four or five guys helping him out.” Among them was Mike Stone, Tom Oldwurtel and Dave Bobal.
Watkins, of Seaside Heights was busy coordinating the event, moving materials to where they needed to be and enjoying the work being done by his fellow ice carvers. “We started with the Bikini Boys. Tommy and Dave live out there.”
Bikini Boys (Watkins, Oldewurtel and Bobal) are the artists behind numerous works of beach-based art, including the infamous and contest-winning 2017 sand sculpture of Chris Christie at Island Beach State Park. They teamed up to combat beach boredom through sand sculpting and at the time, and had no idea it would attract so much attention.
Stone was outside at his stand, Woodcraft by Mike Stone during the Fire & Ice Festival. The woodcrafter remarked, “I was here for this two years ago. I couldn’t make it last year. We spent all last week carving the ice house and we have tents set up with five or six sculptures in each. We have to keep them out of the sun as it crystalizes the ice,” Stone added.
“I’ve been doing the wood carving for a long time. I used to teach wood shop. I retired a few years ago and I started this again and Larry asked me if I’d help out.”
“We were hoping it would be a little colder today. Two years ago, it was brutally cold.”
Oldwurtel was busy inside a tent creating an ice dragon with a chainsaw.
Watkins said his fellow Bikini Boys live on the same street in Seaside Heights and have entertained themselves with their kids’ abandoned sand toys for years. It was Bobal’s idea to compete. Coney Island, three years ago, was the first official contest for The Bikini Boys.
“We’ve known each other for 10 years, “ Oldewurtel said.
“We started back in 2015. I moved down here from upstate New York where I did commercial diving. I came down in 2012 when SuperStorm Sandy hit. I was one of the divers that worked on removing the (Jet Star) rollercoaster from the ocean (in Seaside Heights) after the storm. I had to survey underwater all the debris and mark it,” Watkins said.
In his quest to find an apartment in the borough he went door to door “no one would answer the door except him (Oldewurtel). “I asked what day is garbage day and he said come on in. I came on in and we became best friends. He did sand art before me, way before me and we started doing in 2014 when Sandy was just getting over.”
“We did the ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ carrying a girl in a bikini, and we won first place,” Oldewurtel added. He noted that Larry still seemed surprised by the win.
“We did some ice shows and carving and it has been nonstop. Tommy is a retired mailman,” Watkins added.
“He started with the wood carving years ago. They wanted to do a fire and ice festival here so he started doing ice carvings,” Oldewurtel said.
When asked about how long, approximately, a sculpture like Oldewurtel’s dragon takes to carve, Oldewurtle said, “it depends on who you talk to.”
Oldewurtel said, “this took 10 blocks of ice and it will take me a week but it would take him, (Watkins) two hours because he’s been doing it for years.”
Watkins said the blocks weigh 330 pounds apiece. Some require more time to carve the eyes and teeth and to add lighting behind it.
The wood/ice carver was recently honored for his work that can be seen on Main Street in New Egypt as a tribute to the military. “That was for the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force. Six eagles. I donated it and it’s in the parking lot on Main Street. I am busy every day doing something,” Watkins said.
“I even did one for President (Donald) Trump that featured a flag and the Liberty Bell two years ago that is at his house in Bedminster. I also did one for the 100th anniversary of the state police which began in 1921 and I did it in 2021 that was a flying eagle for them at their Trenton headquarters.”
Larry also keeps busy with his Larry’s Wood & Tree Carvings business and utilizes the property on the grounds of the flea market where a lot of his work can be seen.
