"World's Best Tinters" Named

The International Window Film Conference and Tint-Off™, sponsored by USGlass' sister publication, WINDOW FILM magazine, was held last week at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, finishing with the crowning of the "World's Best Tinters." The event brought in record numbers this year, with a total of 43 competitive window film installers donning the red shirts of competition on Saturday, March 4.

Gene Whitmer, head installer at Sun Shades and Graphic Inc. in Columbia, S.C. walked away with the $2000 grand prize for winning the Architectural Film Tint-Off. Whitmer out-tinted Kyle Moody of The Tint Shop in Milledgeville, Ga., by three points on a double-hung window to win the competition. The Architectural Film Tint-Off, which was launched last year, brought in eight competitors, one of which was a returning competitor.

On the auto film side of things, Les Helton, owner and operator of Performance Window Tinting Inc. in Carrollton, Ga., took the title and the $5000 grand prize when he bested the other for finalists in tinting the backlite of a 2006 VW Beetle, considered the hardest car on the market to tint. Helton, along with second-place finisher George Reyna, of Tint Masters, third-place finisher Andres De La Riva with Perfect Window Tint, both from Costa Mesa, Calif., and fourth place finisher Franz Hyland, owner of Shades Custom Tint in Hewitt, Texas, faced competition from one another-and more so from the VW Backlite.