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The journey to Austria: Training for a global competition

IFD - The journey to Austria
January 19, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.

By Emma Peterson.

Hear how the three teams competing for the U.S. at IFD’s World Championship of Young Roofer prepared!

In November 2024, the International Federation for the Roofing Trades (IFD) hosted their 29th World Championship of Young Roofer and 72nd IFD Congress in Innsbruck, Austria. And, for the first time, the U.S. sent a team to this prestigious event! The Coffee Shops crew was their live to watch all the action as the best young roofers from around the world showed off their skills. It was incredible to watch, but the story of these teams goes far beyond the three days of competition. To get the full scoop, Megan Ellsworth sat down with Gary Howes, Steve Little and R.J. Radobenko for an episode of Roofing Road Trips® about the journey to Austria.

It started months before the competition and came with many challenges. Steve, who works at KPost Roofing and Waterproofing and brought the U.S.’s TPO specialists, explained, “Candidly, we freaked out a little bit at the beginning because the materials are different. The materials are different, the tools are different, it was all just a total change of thought process.”

Gary, who is the chief operating officer at the Durable Slate Company and brought the group to compete in steep slope, explained a bit of what they were faced with, saying, “The host country picks the types of materials from certain manufacturers and they also help guide the installation standards. So we worked with a natural clay tile roof installation from a German based clay tile manufacturer and another product called Eternit, which is a synthetic cementuous based roofing shingle.” Not only does this product act differently than the clay tiles we use in the U.S. (European clay is generally softer than U.S.), but the tools the teams needed to use were also different. Gary explained, “They use a different hand tool. So we had to order that and get it shipped over, get it expedited, because time was crucial.”

Because of all this, training was crucial. Steve shared a bit of what the training schedule looked like, saying, “We did two practice sessions a week. We had one of our trainers in the roofing apprenticeship program that teaches at one of the ABC schools come out. He trained and mentored the guys and traveled with them to the competition.” R.J., the CEO of Global Roofing Group, Global Wall Panel Group and Global Waterproofing Group, explained what those training sessions looked like, sharing, “On the metal side, we went back to the basics. For example, the difference between metric system and imperial (inches versus centimeters). That's a huge difference for how we measure things in the United States versus Europe.” There were also terminology challenges, as some roofing-specific words are different across the pond (i.e. barges versus turnips!). But the U.S. team took all those challenges head on, and we can’t be prouder of how they represented the country on the global stage of IFD’s Championship of Young Roofer.  

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn... You can also watch our full coverage of the IFD competition on YouTube!

Learn more about KPost Roofing & Waterproofing in their Coffee Shop Directory or visit kpostcompany.com.

About Emma

Emma Peterson is a writer at The Coffee Shops and AskARoofer™. Raised in the dreary and fantastical Pacific Northwest, she graduated in 2024 from Pacific University in Oregon with a degree in creative writing and minors in graphic design and Chinese language. Between overthinking everything a little bit, including this bio, she enjoys watching movies with friends, attending concerts and trying to cook new recipes.



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