Financial Advis
05-22-2006, 11:47 AM
Another SBO has come and gone and as always there is fun, controversy, grateful people, and issues. It was an amazing event just by the sheer size of the venue and the number of people participating. We had 233 people weigh fish in this year and over 300 registered for the tourney.
WEIGH IN LINE
I keep getting accolades for the weigh in and all the hard work I do but I think the thanks are misguided. I am just a fat guy with a loud voice that picks up fish. The work began several months ago with the initial planning. I have to thank Mike Weinard for assisting in coalescing the weigh in line and with programming. Rob Schmitz is the quiet guy that you never notice but he ran the main cpu in the back and wrote the program that allowed us to move fish through the line like we did. Think if we would have had to use paper then add it up and sort it and place the divers in order. IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE. We lost power when the beer truck ran over our power cord and Rob pulled the machines back up and saved the prior weigh in so we could continue. When that kind of stuff happens my panties get all bunched up and I freak out but Rob pulled it out. YAY ROB. Chris Hill will not only be a contender with tournaments as a shooter but also a weigh master. I kinda gave him a hard time in regards to the fact that everything has got to be above board and in no way can you deviate. He comported himself in a manner that will serve him now and later in life. John Herrera and Brett Wally kept the line moving as fast as I could pick up fish and throw them around. I really like the bin idea as it helped speed things up considerably. It might be a good idea for the southern open and St. Pete open for those things. The girls entering the data and handing out printed tickets are such a big help that it would be impossible to do what we did without them. The chaos that ensued with it getting louder and louder in there as people got more excited was almost deafening but they patiently waited for either Chris or myself to scream it out. Without Chris Grauer we could not have tied the comps together to talk to one cpu. Thank god he knows that stuff because it is way beyond me. Which brings me to a saying by Theodore Roosevelt….You do not have to be smart to accomplish things, just surround yourself with smart people. I had smart people, so don’t thank me, THANK THEM.
SPONSORS
We cannot have this tournament without them. So many give great prizes and help in sponsoring this event it boggles the mind. We had some huge prizes that are really unheard of in these kinds of events with some cashing out at 2000 to 2500 dollars. But to be in this event has nothing to do with the prize size. It is saying they are willing to help with hard earned dollars. Diving is such a niche market that I, as an investment advisor, would look at the books and tell them they are crazy for even trying. We cannot thank them enough for their contributions but we can help out. If a dive shop in your area was a sponsor, tell them thank you, then buy something and tell them thank you again. There were a lot of booths at the event but I never had a chance to speak to any of them but if you did I hope it was worthwhile. I am sure it was.
TEAM SPEARBOARD VOLUNTEERS
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You guys got the beer truck, cleaned up, Jason was the gatekeeper, and I can think of no worse job because you are stuck standing there and can not join the fun. The end and the cleanup must be hard as hell after a day of diving and coming to the weigh in. I just sat there and stared at a blue box in the end.
COMPETITORS
You are the reason we do this. It all boils down to the shooters in the end. We truly appreciate the fact that you chose to enter this competition. It was a tough time to be on the water because NOAA’s forecast was a teensy weensy smidge off. Basically we got our asses handed to us for over 4 hours while plowing into nasty seas. The Florida Middle Grounds and anyone who got there was one hell of a beating. The boys from South Carolina had perfect weather with winds gusting to 50 MILES an hour. Everywhere else seemed to have the same issues so at least it was an equal opportunity ass whipping. You guys got a lot of VERY nice fish to and it is always a fun time to see what different parts of the country bring in. Giant red snaps from Louisiana, big blacks from south Florida, Very large male hogs from the middlegrounds. I just have one issue, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU AINT GOT FIRST PLACE JACK JUST WEIGH THE TWENTY POUNDER. I AM SORE AS HELL TODAY. I also want to thank you for the fish donations. The food bank had 2 large bins in their truck at about 1200 to maybe 1500 pounds. They also had some fifty gallon drums. YOU FILLED THEM. It was not all jacks either there were blacks, gags, mango’s, trigs, of course big jacks, and I saw one large male hog. Most people seemed pretty happy with the tourney overall but some grumbling came through. We know you shot a mango, trig, and sheephead but we just don’t have Riffe speargun left over. We had 233 people take prizes and there were over 30 guns to name a few things. We try to make it as fair as we can but we cannot accommodate everyone. Free divers will not get a special rotation because it is unfair to compete against scuba, and besides, it looks like the free divers did pretty damn good to me.
THOUGHTS OR IDEAS
We are always open to suggestions as to how and where to improve. If it is something that can be incorporated we are always willing to listen or read a p.m. and we will get back to you.
Thank you for being there.
Chris
gl n gh
WEIGH IN LINE
I keep getting accolades for the weigh in and all the hard work I do but I think the thanks are misguided. I am just a fat guy with a loud voice that picks up fish. The work began several months ago with the initial planning. I have to thank Mike Weinard for assisting in coalescing the weigh in line and with programming. Rob Schmitz is the quiet guy that you never notice but he ran the main cpu in the back and wrote the program that allowed us to move fish through the line like we did. Think if we would have had to use paper then add it up and sort it and place the divers in order. IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE. We lost power when the beer truck ran over our power cord and Rob pulled the machines back up and saved the prior weigh in so we could continue. When that kind of stuff happens my panties get all bunched up and I freak out but Rob pulled it out. YAY ROB. Chris Hill will not only be a contender with tournaments as a shooter but also a weigh master. I kinda gave him a hard time in regards to the fact that everything has got to be above board and in no way can you deviate. He comported himself in a manner that will serve him now and later in life. John Herrera and Brett Wally kept the line moving as fast as I could pick up fish and throw them around. I really like the bin idea as it helped speed things up considerably. It might be a good idea for the southern open and St. Pete open for those things. The girls entering the data and handing out printed tickets are such a big help that it would be impossible to do what we did without them. The chaos that ensued with it getting louder and louder in there as people got more excited was almost deafening but they patiently waited for either Chris or myself to scream it out. Without Chris Grauer we could not have tied the comps together to talk to one cpu. Thank god he knows that stuff because it is way beyond me. Which brings me to a saying by Theodore Roosevelt….You do not have to be smart to accomplish things, just surround yourself with smart people. I had smart people, so don’t thank me, THANK THEM.
SPONSORS
We cannot have this tournament without them. So many give great prizes and help in sponsoring this event it boggles the mind. We had some huge prizes that are really unheard of in these kinds of events with some cashing out at 2000 to 2500 dollars. But to be in this event has nothing to do with the prize size. It is saying they are willing to help with hard earned dollars. Diving is such a niche market that I, as an investment advisor, would look at the books and tell them they are crazy for even trying. We cannot thank them enough for their contributions but we can help out. If a dive shop in your area was a sponsor, tell them thank you, then buy something and tell them thank you again. There were a lot of booths at the event but I never had a chance to speak to any of them but if you did I hope it was worthwhile. I am sure it was.
TEAM SPEARBOARD VOLUNTEERS
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You guys got the beer truck, cleaned up, Jason was the gatekeeper, and I can think of no worse job because you are stuck standing there and can not join the fun. The end and the cleanup must be hard as hell after a day of diving and coming to the weigh in. I just sat there and stared at a blue box in the end.
COMPETITORS
You are the reason we do this. It all boils down to the shooters in the end. We truly appreciate the fact that you chose to enter this competition. It was a tough time to be on the water because NOAA’s forecast was a teensy weensy smidge off. Basically we got our asses handed to us for over 4 hours while plowing into nasty seas. The Florida Middle Grounds and anyone who got there was one hell of a beating. The boys from South Carolina had perfect weather with winds gusting to 50 MILES an hour. Everywhere else seemed to have the same issues so at least it was an equal opportunity ass whipping. You guys got a lot of VERY nice fish to and it is always a fun time to see what different parts of the country bring in. Giant red snaps from Louisiana, big blacks from south Florida, Very large male hogs from the middlegrounds. I just have one issue, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU AINT GOT FIRST PLACE JACK JUST WEIGH THE TWENTY POUNDER. I AM SORE AS HELL TODAY. I also want to thank you for the fish donations. The food bank had 2 large bins in their truck at about 1200 to maybe 1500 pounds. They also had some fifty gallon drums. YOU FILLED THEM. It was not all jacks either there were blacks, gags, mango’s, trigs, of course big jacks, and I saw one large male hog. Most people seemed pretty happy with the tourney overall but some grumbling came through. We know you shot a mango, trig, and sheephead but we just don’t have Riffe speargun left over. We had 233 people take prizes and there were over 30 guns to name a few things. We try to make it as fair as we can but we cannot accommodate everyone. Free divers will not get a special rotation because it is unfair to compete against scuba, and besides, it looks like the free divers did pretty damn good to me.
THOUGHTS OR IDEAS
We are always open to suggestions as to how and where to improve. If it is something that can be incorporated we are always willing to listen or read a p.m. and we will get back to you.
Thank you for being there.
Chris
gl n gh