B.C.'s best windshield installer looks to shatter glass ceiling at global contest
Credit to Author: Harrison Mooney| Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2019 03:07:54 +0000
Windshields can crack under pressure. Same goes for the people who replace them.
Adam Hill, a technician at Speedy Glass Marine Drive in North Vancouver, has been installing windshields for 12 years. He’s a veteran of the industry. But in 2018, at the Best of Belron national event in Montreal, a bi-annual, international competition hosted by Speedy’s parent company, Belron, to find the “best windshield installer in the world,” he let the pressure get to him.
Hill, 32, had entered the regional competition on a whim, expecting very little. But then he was crowned the best technician in the province, qualifying for the nationals in Montreal, where he soon realized he was in over his head, like a hardtop driver.
“It was just a bigger competition than I expected,” Hill said. Who knew that windshield installation was such serious business?
His competition, it turned out.
“Some people took it a little bit more seriously than I did,” Hill explained. “I didn’t know what to expect walking into it. They literally park the cars on the red carpet for you — hundreds of people there watching you and cheering you on. I made a couple small mistakes that I don’t normally make, having everybody there watching me — I just wasn’t expecting the internal pressure.”
Not only did Hill crack under the pressure in Montreal — so, too, did the driver’s side window has was attempting to replace, shattering his hopes of being crowned Canada’s best technician.
“Replacing the door glass in a vehicle is a little bit of a challenge because we have to clean up every little bit of glass that breaks in the car, and it hides,” he said. “That got to me last time. I got the whole door put back together, I closed it to check it, and I heard glass rattle down.”
But now Hill gets a shot at redemption after once again winning the B.C. competition last week in Langley, which earns him a trip to the national competition in Quebec. A win there will send him, along with 30 other champion technicians, to the 11th Best of Belron global event in Spain, held June 3-4 of next year at the Fira Barcelona.
No Canadian technician has ever won the international competition, though a colleague of Hill’s came close a few years ago. Vancouverite Ryan Cox, who worked briefly with Hill, won second place at the 2016 Best of Belron international event in Portugal.
Hill believes he can crack that glass ceiling (and then install a replacement, naturally). He’s nervous, he said, because he’s taking the event much more seriously now, and he’s ready to use the pressure to his advantage, rather than buckling under the weight of it.
“This time, having done so well last time around, I put more pressure on myself personally and just I felt it a little bit,” he said. My hands were shaking during the competition this time. I guess I dealt with it and used it to my advantage.”
Hill said he also knows what to expect this time around, which should help him.
“You’ve got to have the process down pat,” Hill explained. “They’re massive processes. The repair is 77 steps and the windshield replacement is 125 steps. You basically have to do them all, in order, under a certain amount of time and your quality of work has to be absolutely perfect.”
It all sounds incredibly complicated.
“It’s just a level of detail there that you don’t think about until you speak with someone,” Hill said. “Who would have thought there’d be 125 steps to replacing a windshield, and even some of those steps have 30 steps involved in them. Ultimately, it’s even more than that.”
In addition to being tested on how to repair and replace a windshield, technicians at Best of Belron have to show proficiency in replacing side glass, as well as remove and refit a rear window, re-calibration of advanced driver-assistance systems, and communications with customers.
“This competition, which is all about teamwork, collaboration and excellence, demonstrates how complex windshield replacement and repairing processes are and shows how Belron makes technicians’ expertise a top business priority,” said Ralph Holsker, President and CEO of Belron Canada. “The level of participation for Best of Belron has increased significantly in recent years, which shows a great form of commitment.”
It’s a big challenge, but it’s incredibly rewarding, Hill said, because it opens up new opportunities for his career. Furthermore, the world champion of windshield installation also comes with a year’s worth of salary.
“If I win,” Hill said, “I’m staying in Spain! I’m going on vacation and who knows when I’ll be back.”
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