Florida Events: Attention Seven

[kent]

I originally posted this in the "winter fest" thread, but the point of the post was not to detract from a nice event in Islamorada, but rather to try to deter what we saw last season with "conflicting" events. Read on:

RE: Winter Fest Event in Islamorada

Dear Seven,

The event sounds like fun. It sure would have been nice to avoid the same weekend that we have an event at Crandon. As you know, this is only about 1.5 hrs. away.

I'm looking forward to coming down to support your events like I've always done in the past. I do however hope that you will be scheduling them this year with the best intentions of providing a fun atmosphere that encourages increased participation rather than simply dumping events on top of already of scheduled events run by your competitors. I seem to remember that last year you ran into several scheduling "conflicts" even on the relatively small island of Islamorada. I can't imagine that the kite community is so large there that you were unaware of other proposed events.

All of us need to take special care to add to our kite community and not take from it. At best running an event is a break even for an organizer. To allow organizers to get the most out of their efforts, avoiding scheduling conflicts is a must. The kite community is far better served by having more events to attend rather than conflicted events that make participants have to choose. This only results in less benefit for the organizers / sponsors and smaller events in general. The net result is that sponsors won't participate again and participants are turned off by an event with limited participation.


At any rate, our event at Crandon is only Saturday anyway and the wind doesn't look great yet. We will run the SUP's no matter what, but if it's good in Islamorada on Sunday we might head that way.

For those want to meet Andre Phillip, Damien Leroy, John Modica, and World Champion Snow Kiter Kevin Steen, they will be at Crandon Beach Park this Saturday, November 15th. The event is free, but regular Crandon fees apply.

[b-rad]

Hey kent,

I see your concern and always try to avoid event schedule conflicts...

I, personally, have been out of the loop because M'Leigha just had our twin boys the other day so the trivials of daily life have faded once again for me...

Our team, on the other hand, has been blowing up down here; extremely motivated and really taking the whole concept of kiteboarding lessons and guided riding to the next level. They are super stoked for the revival of kickers and rails beaten down by relentless hurricane scares.

We had originaly wanted to organize a November event (good month right?) and do it around the incredible full moon party at Morada Bay and do a full moon night ride out of Whale Harbor as many of us have done in the past. When we heard of your Bimini event on the same weekend we were planning, we decided to cancel our plans as to not conflict for the reasons you mentioned above. Then...

When we heard your Bimini event was cancelled (bummer because it sounded cool) we decided to reorganize our moon ride. Then...

I saw your post a week ago about the event this weekend and told my crew to get on the forum and check things out...(they arent forum junkies) well, they did and I guess they decided they wanted to throw an event even though you had a race and sup day planned... and isn't there an event also planned a couple hours west of you this weekend too? have you talked to those guys?

Look man...we want to work together too...we want everyone to get along too...but there are going to be some conflicts when organizer's plans change without notice (or with notice). If we waited to see what everyone else had planned, we would never do an event. We ALL need to work together to not have conflicts...not just Seven, but Seven's competition too... And, btw, I don't see you all up there at Crandon as competition, but as ambassadors for our sport, promoting what we do down here too!! Our competition is non-wind days...

Kent, I still love you man...we are just a bunch of kiters down here trying our best to keep politics out of kiting even though it's getting harder and harder every year...we just wat to ride and have fun...

if it 's windy next weekend too, we'll be riding then too...you guys are always welcome to come down like old times. Ride On.

[ricki]

Hey guys,

It is great the wind is back. Been lots of good days in recent weeks. There is a long tradition of outstanding South Florida events going back many years. Considering we haven't had any since last season, now we have two first events and on the same weekend. I would ask that event organizers see what is scheduled and try to work things out to where riders will be able to attend most of them if they want within reasonable limits. As far as I can recall there aren't any other open events on tap for the next month or so. There really is no reason to overlap schedules at this early stage unless forced by circumstances. btw, I believe participation in the event in Tampa is limited to registered college students.

Kent started putting something together for this time slot several months ago, when the Bahamas event was forced to be cancelled, he came up with this local event a few weeks ago. Brad, your event for this weekend was announced yesterday, correct?

So, for future unique events, lets try to work things out among organizers in advance, ok? That should improve not only rider participation but also sponsor involvement in these trying economic times. When I am notified of events I try to put them up on the Calendar and in other parts of the site to try to avoid just this sort of problem. You guys put so much work into these events it is only fair to you that as many guys as can make it participate, right?

Congratulations Brad, is that two and three? Your family is growing!

[kent]

it's all good. yes brad, i have been in contact with Neil regarding the event in st. pete. it just would have been nice to head down your way next weekend as there was an open weekend, free of the other 2 events being held this weekend.

getting the season off on the right foot and creating a strong and fun recreational event circuit is very important for the continued success of our sport. i just wanted it noted that we saw a lot of this from your team last year and it did none of us any favors. i hope that the "keys issues" are behind us going into our windy season.

thanks for all of your past effort in running fun events. i'm looking forward to coming down for anything you do as long as i don't have to clone myself to do it. thanks brad. good luck this weekend.

kent

[b-rad]

Originally Posted by kent

i just wanted it noted that we saw a lot of this from your team last year and it did none of us any favors. i hope that the "keys issues" are behind us going into our windy season.

bs bro...the "keys issues" you are talking about are not from my team...I planned one downwinder to run "on call" last year...that's the only thing I "planned". I don't know what you are considering an event...a bunch of riders coming down for the weekend or a heavy 10k giveaway...but I haven't really done anything since the last invitational... born here, raised here, doing my thing since 1999...so any "issues" newcomers might have down here are their own... you are right, it is kind of small down here, but hey, there's nobody in key largo, we could put up another shop in marathon, howabout big pine and homestead why were at it? The world did get a little smaller down here this year...should I modify my long term plans to accomodate the competition? Hell, maybe Seven should open up a shop in Miami, you guys got room up there???

I kind of think we should have tons of events going on all the time! Why can't Neil, you and me all do one at the same time if it's just a local get-together? Good for the sport right? If its windy pump em up! The problem is that we all work for different companies. Your get-together this weekend looks to me like a cabrinha thing... Now if it's an Islamorada Invitational style week-long event with lots of cash prizes, entry fees, tv, etc...sure, we should all get together on those to make them big and get some more fuel tv time. Shoot man, when Gary M told me he was looking for a winch for the Bimini thing, I told him I had one for you to take! I'm on board bro, I just can't take the claims you make about me "dumping" events on the competition because that's not true. Not sure what info you have been fed from down here but not true...sounds like somebody whining to me...

our "thing" this weekend was no big deal man, and we didn't mean to hurt anyone...just a handfull of peeps having fun...

[kent]

ok, my bad. sorry. i must have misunderstood the situtation down there. sounds like it's all worked out. good luck with the weekend.

[TritonKiteboarding]

College kids and wind should be tearing up saint pete, wakestyle, freestyle, boarder-x, winches, rails, kickers, girls, stoke, free beer, live reggae, no drama
CKA Stop #2 hosted by Eckerd College and Triton Kiteboarding (Late Registration Friday night, must be a current college student with ID to back it up) call 727 453 9577 for info

[neil xrated]

Hi Guys,
Unfortuneatly I can not make Crandon this weekend as I am running the CKA event isn St Pete but Alex and others will be down there to represent and will have a quiver of REV's and Fuels. Hope the wind is with you.
Cheers Neil

[b-rad]

hey neil, i hear your stoked for the invitational this year...excited about the website huh?...like old times...