Here's our home island for the event, Bimini. Look at all that blue water!
Boarding at Ft. Lauderdale. ASI flew almost 100 people over in these nine passenger turboprop Chieftain aircraft in a couple of days. There was about 24 flights, it was quite a logistical feat! The flights were handled capably by Pioneer Air Service out of FLL.
Loaded up and flying about 50 nm across the Straits of Florida to South Bimini in only 25 minutes.
Heading over to Bimini, less than 50 nm from Ft. Lauderdale. So close but a world away.
Our home for the next several days, the Bimini Sands Resort and Marina
We're on the ground and Paula and Becky with ASI are at the airport meeting folks and seeing them on the way to the hotel. They left very little to chance in managing transport of folks or much else in the great conference.
Mike from the Kitehouse and Maui the water wonder dog welcome folks to the Bimini Sands
A look at the Bimini Sands Resort, lots of boat slips and large condo units for rental.
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Tim hangs out with some of the 18 ASI staff that made this event possible. There's Damo, Steve and Bryan. Bryan tackled a lions share of the organizing important aspects of the event.
Wind is up, guys are riding so lets hit it.
The beach and launch area at the Bimini Sands Beach Club
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Gear HQ for Bimini Kiteboarding right at the launch
The Bimini Sands Beach Club is a remarkable place. There is a massive sand beach by Bahamian standards, about 500 ft. long by around 175 ft. at the widest. Beaches are usually far narrower in the islands. It is bounded by shallow water to the east. It works for around east to south to west to north winds covering much of the year. Other launches including running down the flats of Bimini sounds or off the north end of North Bimini work for northeasterly winds.
That object in the distance is the wreck of the concrete ship, the "Sapona" about three miles off on the flats. The ship was a former rumrunner/nightclub/brothel that was blown ashore in a hurricane in 1925. The Army Air Corp used it for bombing and strafing practice in WWII. It is a fun wreck to dive. Kent also took us over there to do some spelunking and jumping off the wreck. It was an interesting time, video in preparation, up soon!
The Bimini Kiteboarding launch is EXCELLENT! Sheltered shallow water over the flats with clear blue waters just next door in the Florida Straits. With westerly winds some nice waves set up too.
I headed over to Turtle Rocks to the south. The wreck of the Sapona didn't look that far away and with Turtle Rocks as a lee shore to lay up on just in case I tacked out for a look.
A look abeam at the ship. I first saw her when I was 16 years old, there is less of the ship out there today to be sure.
Back at the beach drinks with Pete Cabrinha, Kent and a bunch of other watermen at the Mackey Bar. We are able to not only try out some great new gear, we could also interact with Pete and numerous world class watermen on a daily basis.
Over to the beach along Alice Town on North Bimini for some conch salad, tunes and sunset.
Look what laid up a short way to the south along the iron shore.
The sun is easing down.
The wreck of the Gallant Lady seems to be rapidly dissolving in place in less than a decade.
We had a cloud pass over that dumped some rain for a few minutes. Some got a bit wet but enthusiasm was not damped in the least!
Mr. Charles Robins of Bahamas Tourism stops by the event to see that things are going well. The food and service on this trip were quite good and a credit to the businesses and hard working Bahamians that make these enterprises a reality. I asked several others about this and they were in agreement with this view.
We then walked down Queens Highway to the newly reopened Big Game Club for dinner. The Big Game is now a Guy Harvey Outpost Resort & Marina.
From: http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish ... 2285.shtml
The pool deck was all decorated for us at the Big Game.
Todd Greaux, brand manager for Cabrinha and Kent Marinkovic make opening comments to the dealers at the Big Game Club.
Kent Marinkovic's mother, Bryan and Paula dig in
Paula and Todd undertake an SUP water fight in the pool of the Big Game Club
Our host, Neil Pryde over from operations in Hong Kong. A quiet unassuming man, he is quite a powerhouse with his combined interests among Cabrinha, Neil Pryde and JP Australia targeted to gross $100 Million USD worldwide in 2010! This in a time of recession, I think he has something to teach us. Speaking of which ...
Mr. Pryde has been at it for 40 years and even put together a book recently about the ride titled "Will to Win". I interviewed Mr. Pryde about his book on video and plan to put that online with a review of the book here soon.
Near the end of the evening, for some of us, a sportsfisherman tied off some cleaned wahoo to bring in some sharks. Quite a crowd gathered to watch a few individuals come in to much the fish. You can get some good sized bulls patrolling the docks and back in the day the "harbor master", a large hammerhead.
So, that is just a quick look at the first day of over four! There is a ton of excellent still shots and video from this singular event from dozens of people on the Internet. Lots more action and images to come, stay tuned ...
FKA, Inc.
transcribed by:
Rick Iossi
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It looks absolutely amazing! I would love to go there!!