| Every
year in early March, the Wisconsin Waterski Federation hosts a waterski
convention, which has been known as ThinkTank.
This year, they decided to change the name to The Wisconsin Waterski
Expo & Convention. The name has changed, but the purpose of the
event has stayed the same. It's a convention that is set up to
attract water skiers from around the
country to get together to share ideas, plan out the
coming season, and get instruction from top pros that are invited to the
convention to conduct classes ranging from how to build pyramids,
barefoot waterski, wakeboard and hydrofoil. It's the show that gets everyone pumped
and ready for the upcoming season.
2009 marks our fifth year of
attending this event. This year was special in the barefoot
community because they were inducting Peter Fleck into the Wisconsin
Waterski Hall of Fame. Peter grew up in Wisconsin and came up
through show skiing.
The Expo kicks off each year in the
big auditorium. They start off with a contest for the skiers.
In the past, they've always done a Doubles Act competition, but this
year, they decided to change things up a bit and host an event titled:
They invited
skiers to get up on stage and showcase their talents. It was
very entertaining to watch. Voting was done by the audience,
live via cell phone text messaging. The girls were the
only ones willing to get up and strut their stuff. We expect
more entries next year due to the success of this year.
One of our main reasons for
attending the Expo each year is to participate in the Friday evening
fashion show. We bring all the new Eagle Sports products for the
upcoming season. It's a good way to let the skiers get an up-close
look at our products and give us feedback on what they think about the
new designs. This year, we had Peter Fleck, Paul Macdonald, and Geno
Yauchler helping us out with the show. Paul was modeling the new
Team Canada suit as well as the new RSPro2, available at Ron Scarpa
Watersports. We also had Footer of the Year Runner Up (Carter
Schmitz) on hand to model he new Junior Size Eagle Renegade, available
at BarefootCentral.com.
After the fashion show, Dave Mueller and I met up with Carter
Schmitz and Jacob Weber to give them each the prizes Andre & Zane De
Villiers donated to the 2nd and 3rd Place winners of the BFC Footer
of the Year contest
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Click Here
to watch video of Carter receiving his prizes and award |
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Click Here
to watch video of Jacob receiving his prizes and award |
As you walk through the halls of
the host hotel at the Expo, you run into skiers from all aspects of
water skiing. Dave Mueller took some time out to interview Paul
Macdonald about his return to Eagle Sports and challenged him to attend
Footstock.
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Click Here
to watch video of Dave's interview with Paul Macdonald |
Another reason for us attending
the Expo is to help promote FOOTSTOCK. Footstock is the largest,
and most popular of all Figure-8 tournaments. We've been
sponsoring the event since 2004 and come to Wisconsin each year to show
videos from the event and answer any questions skiers may have.
Dave always makes a point to interview skiers and ask them for their
predictions on who they think is going to win Footstock this year.
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WHO WILL WIN FOOTSTOCK THIS YEAR?
Click Here
to watch video of Dave's
Footstock interviews |
Anyone who visited the BFC/Footstock
book got to watch the high res versions of the BFC videos. We've
re-mastered all 33 videos that span back to 2004 and put them into a
2-DVD collection.
|
Mike Seipel & Peter Fleck discuss the BFC videos and the
talent they are seeing today
Click Here
to watch video of Dave's
Footstock interviews |
 |
Movie Director Bill Scharpf
was at the Expo again this year to promote the release of
H2O Extreme. He hopes to have it in movie theatres this
spring
Click Here
H2O Extreme
Movie Trailor |
Last year, we
introduced the Showski Challenge video contest and that we would
announce the winners of the 2008 contest at ThinkTank (Expo) this
year. We had some great entries, which made if very tough to
choose a winner.
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 |
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1st Place - Doing it
Old School
2nd Place - Mina Lake Militia
3rd Place - Little Crow Thunder
Click Here
for video of BFC
Showski Challenge
Award Presentation by
Chuck Gleason & Chris Copeland
Stay
tuned for information about the 2009 Showski Challenge
Same Format - Same Prizes - Same Fun |
Each year, after a
long day at the Expo, we invite members of our promo and factory
teams, as well as key people that help out at events throughout the
year, to join us in a nice dinner. It's a time to relax, catch
up with each other, and enjoy some great food together.
As you walk through
the halls of the Expo, you never know who you'll bump into. As we
were headed to the bar after dinner, we ran into the Heller family.
We did have a few questions for one particular Heller.
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Click Here
for video of our question to the Heller's |
Thanks to everyone that helped make
our trip to the Wisconsin Waterski Expo & Convention a success.
Special thanks to Scott & Karen Reed, Renee Erickson, Peter Fleck,
Gino Yauchler, Paul Macdonald, Bill Scharpf of H2OExtreme, Chris
Copeland, and Dave Mueller.
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