SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - Spear Wars Key Largo Open Moved to November 8 & 9, 2008

[SpearMax]

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The dates for the Key Largo Blue Storm Open (KLO) tournament are hereby moved from September to November 8 & 9, 2008. There are a few reasons for this move as follows:

1.) Hurricane Season - I have reconsidered that September may be too risky a month for us to have this tournament every year. The attached graphs show historical hurricane and Tropical Storm activity. November is a better month for lower probability of such activity.

[SpearMax]

2.) Air Conditioned Venue - The Palm Beach Open was a big success as evidenced by the positive threads in this section:

http://www.spearboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=182

Over and over again, I am hearing from attendees and expo sponsors that the fully air conditioned venue made a big difference. Therefore, we are working on moving the KLO venue to a fully air conditioned venue like the Hilton Key Largo Resort. Here is a partial view image of their waterview ballroom.

[SpearMax]

I apologise for this change, but in the long run, I believe this will be the best move for the tournament series. Eventually, the series has the potential to grow into the world's largest spearfishing event. Making investments and wise decisions now will help achieve that goal. We have already built up a tremendous prize table for this next Key Largo Open event and the change to a fully air conditioned venue should make it more pleasant for everyone. Below is a calendar of dates for planning purposes. Thank You for your continuing interest and participation. Tony

[GUNRUNNER]

Man, that just bumped my team out of the tournament. We had reservations for that weekend and have chartered Mobile Diver out of Key West. We cant cancel, not to mention how hard it is for us to get off work. I hope it works out for the best. Jason

[Gradyman]

Man, that just bumped my team out of the tournament. We had reservations for that weekend and have chartered Mobile Diver out of Key West. We cant cancel, not to mention how hard it is for us to get off work. I hope it works out for the best. Jason


Hardships for our team too...we may be out as well.

[Mobile Diver]

Man, that just bumped my team out of the tournament. We had reservations for that weekend and have chartered Mobile Diver out of Key West. We cant cancel, not to mention how hard it is for us to get off work. I hope it works out for the best. Jason

Jason,

I will work with you any way I can so you can still do this.

[GUNRUNNER]

Jason,

I will work with you any way I can so you can still do this.

Thanks, I will give you a call.

[loose_cannon]

Tony,

You're quoting the wrong data. While there's no question hurricane activity peaks in September, there's also no question that it's a relatively calm month otherwise. Novemeber, on the other hand, has the highest average winds out of any month of the year. It always blows in November and it's usually out of the north. Statistically, you stand a far greater chance of having the event blown out in November than September.

Perhaps what you should have based your decision on is the NDBC historical wind data from the Fowey Rocks or Molasses Reef stations? Ten years of data collection should never be ignored. See below.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z200/loose_cannon_offshore/FWYF1_ws.jpg

[keezdiver]

i'm 50/50 on this.

while the weather is generally better in sept, the fish are generally a bit harder to find.

opposite for november.


as for weather, you also have to consider that not everyone is gonna be hunting the keys. a blowout for the keys may be mirror calm in the MGs or Carolina coast.

happened 2 yrs ago at the SBO i think, it was literally glass flat in the keys. but they had 6-8ft waves in the MGs. and the Carolina guys have been blown out more than that.



at the same time, pushing this tourny off will allow the JLB Open to be more of a success i hope.

[loose_cannon]

You are correct about the fish being easier to find in November. Nevertheless, I think using hurricanes as the sole determinant of weather is not looking at the big picture as it pertains to diving/fishing. It doesn't really matter where you are located as the wind is primarily driven by cold fronts and is region-wide. One can look at any weather buoy or weather station's historical data on the east coast or in the gulf and they are all the same. It confirms what every one of us that ventures offshore already knows; it's windy in November.

As a boat owner, I'm less likely to make the financial and planning commitments for a November tournament than a September tournament. Just sayin'.

[blueh2oboy]

Mmmmm. Oh well looks like I'll be missing out on this one too. Dammit. I was really looking forward to participating. November is a tough month for weather windows.
Any chance of changing it back?
We can't change our plans either so we are diving that weekend no matter. Hope everyone has a good dive then anyways.
CK

[GUNRUNNER]

Looks like the move was a good decision.

[ocean_hunter]

So is the tourney still set for november ?

[SpearMax]

There seems to be some confusion about this event. I am getting questions on where to find the registration and rules details. The information about next weekend's tournament (Saturday November 8 and Sunday November 9) is on the front page of Spearboard.com in a special section called Blue Storm at this link:

http://www.spearboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=36

You can also go to www.spearwars.com for details and the on-line sign-up.

The recent announcement thread with all the great photos of the venue is right here:

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=72085