POULSBO — As far as traditions go, Olympic Outdoor Center’s Dock Boy Olympics doesn’t rank among the most stuffy.

For many years, the event’s prize has been a metal ashtray that was converted into a medallion — “A big ashtray-necklace kind of thing, a mockery of a medal,” one contestant calls it.

And while staff members of the business try hard to compete at the various events, from the kayak slalom to the dreaded kayak deathwalk, the loudest applause seems to come when one competitor or another plunges into Liberty Bay.

The Olympics, which tests employees on their kayak-based skills, will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at the center’s kayak dock. Several staff members will compete and spectators are encouraged to watch from above.

The event got its informal start six or seven years ago, said OOC owner John Kuntz.

“It was just a competition to see who would be the dock boy king,” Kuntz said.

The evening features four events: the kayak slalom, where contestants paddle through support pilings, with the fastest time winning; the kayak roundup, another timed event, where several kayaks are pushed into the bay and the contestants must round them up like unruly cattle; the kayak deathwalk, where employees run — or, in some cases, stumble — across a fan of floating kayaks; and the kayak drop, where contestants are pushed into the water while sitting in a kayak, and receive points for style and entry.

“It’s a blast, a nice end-of-the-summer thing we’ve got going,” said Olympic Outdoor Center employee Connor Inslee,

Inslee, who has been instructing in the kids’ summer camp, said, “It’s bragging rights more than anything for next summer.”

Kuntz said the event draws between six and 10 contestants each summer.

He’s looking forward to it.

“It’ll be entertaining, as usual,” he said.