It all started when…

The concept for Pacific Puzzlers began in 2016 when two of its co-founders, Aly Krasny and Tony Son, were casually puzzling together and discovered a large discrepancy in their skill levels. Tony, who loves turning ANYTHING into a competition, suggested they compete to see how different their skill levels were. They mentioned the story to a few other puzzle loving friends and realized there was interest in the idea, so they planned the first event!

Each individual received the same 300-piece puzzle and tried to complete theirs the fastest! Aly came in first and Lindsey Vining, our third co-founder, was right on her tail in second! They continued this rivalry throughout a few more private events but eventually wanted to expand the competitor pool (and the competition space since Aly’s apartment could only hold so many people). At this point the three decided to see if they could turn public competitive puzzling into a popular activity and in February 2018, Pacific Puzzlers was created.

Fast forward to 2020

Lindsey and Tony were hosting the events prior to COVID 19 when newbie puzzlers, Kevin and Judi Finneran, went to an event … as spectators. After watching just two competitions the “Covid Lockdowns” were put into place and Tony and Lindsey could no longer run the events. Pacific Puzzlers was in jeopardy of shutting down. Lindsey put out a frantic notice on Facebook pleading for someone to take the helm. After a quick discussion, Judi stepped up and volunteered to take over.

The first event after the lockdown was April 20. 2021 at Rouleur Brewing Co. in Carlsbad. It was just a “meetup” and “puzzle swap” with no competition being held. It was just a way to bring the puzzlers together and let everyone know Pacific Puzzlers survived COVID.

On May 13, 2021, Pacific Puzzlers held its first revival competition at AleSmith Brewing in San Diego.

Today, over four (sometimes more) competitions are held each month with 15 - 17 teams competing. Two in the San Diego metropolitan area and two in North San Diego County. Most events sell out quickly with people asking to be put on the waiting list.

There is no doubt about it … jigsaw puzzling is alive and well in San Diego.