Dear Friends,

I am proud to invite you to read the interview Tom Kirkman kindly agreed to give:

[www.jerkbait.pl]
(English language version)

The site that is trouly honoured to publish the interview is www.jerkbait.pl - European forum related exclusively to spinning, baitcasting and trolling fishing and tackle. There is also a "rodbuilder's and lurebuilder's corner" at the forum as jerkbait.pl promotes rodbuilding and lurebuilding.
Although the board it is not in English I hope you can get some fun browsing gallery [jerkbait.pl] , [jerkbait.pl] or articles at homepage [www.jerkbait.pl]

I have found the interview with Tom very inspiring and very interesting and I am sure that you will as well. I would like to thank Tom again that he agreed for this interview.

I would also like to thank Tom, and you guys, for this board - www.rodbuilding.org - I think you are all doing just awesome, awesome job.








Best regards,
Pavel



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2007 02:54AM by Pawel Tymendorf.

Excellent!

That was a great artical and and wonderfull interview, Tom.

Mark Syck

SYCKO Custom Rods
There Are No Limits To The Imagination

Pawel,

It's good to finally have a face to a great man. Thank you Pawel for bringing this interview to our attention.

Anthony Lee

I'm happy to have been able to help. But the "great man" stuff really doesn't go over too well with me. I do appreciate it but it's a bit out of line from my own personal perspective. This is just custom rod building. Nothing more.

And remember that RodMaker has mostly been a vehicle to showcase the talents and methods of other very fine craftsmen, not me.

..........

have seen tom's pic.. now to see anthony!

-
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day..
Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke!

Outstanding!!!!!

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Very nice, Pawel and kudos to Tom for participating. Wish I had been able to attend the show and could connect some names/faces in the pictures.

Tom Kirkman Wrote:
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> This is just custom rod building. Nothing more.

That's a classic line, lol. It's certainly the truth too, there is just so much more to people outside of "just custom rod building"....which is why I really, really enjoy meeting so many people at teh SHows as tehy get to know me, an I get to know them on a human being level as opposed to some clown who wraps thread around a tube.

Tom is right! We are building fishing rods, not doing brain surgery or building a moon rocket. People seam to get carried away when they find out they can do something besides their every day job and create something that is admired by others. The more education a rodbuilder has seems to lead them to give expanations that are so far over most of our heads that we don't comprehend what they are trying to say. Who cares if X3246 viberates more than Y6324 at 800 yards. I sure don't and if you try to use that kind of language to a customer you will lose the sale, guaranteed. Jesse

But you may help another rod builder who is into that sort of thing and what he does with the information may benefit all rod builders down the road.

I wasn't trying to downplay the efforts of anyone who is trying to push the envelope or rod building techniques, just mentioning that I don't deserve the accolades. It's just not a big deal.

.............

Jesse,
I feel differently than you do. I do not believe that less understanding is better. If you think that you can build a better performing rod without knowing how the choices you make affect the rods performance then I think that you are fooling yourself and maybe the customer as well.

OK, Tom, I have seen you downplay your roll before but as far as we all are concerned, you deserve every accolade you get because you
are very, very good at what you do. We all recognize that and applaud you. You run a first class magazine and rod builders convention and we all dont give you enough credit for all that you do behind the scenes we cant see. Sometimes, we just need to say Thanks.

Tom,

At my local website, I have a catch phrase which says,"Home is where the fishes (hearts) are", and rodbuilding.org can be truly called "Home" to many rod builders around the world. You have played a huge part over the last few years to move the industry to where it is. You are more than just a rod builder.

Anthony Lee

Where are you located Pawel? I'm a typical pathetically mono-lingual American, but find it interesting trying to make out what I can from different languages. Your site looks great, but I confess I'm helpless on the language.

Marty Martin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where are you located Pawel? I'm a typical
> pathetically mono-lingual American, but find it
> interesting trying to make out what I can from
> different languages. Your site looks great, but I
> confess I'm helpless on the language.

Poland. The language is Polish. We think about English version as well, as many of our users speak/write in English so English-speaking users could easily accomodate, I think.




Best regards,
Pavel

I think at least some clients expect expertise and knowledge from a rodbuilder, especially when they offer their money in return. I think that rodbuilding is not about "selling" rods but about constructing the rods with understanding of the rod features and so on. I believe there is a difference between "business" and "craft".




Best regards,
Pavel



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2007 01:51AM by Pawel Tymendorf.

Fortunately, a few guys are willing to push the envelope. This is true in most things - a few pave the wave for everybody else. And thank goodness that they do or we'd still be riding horses to work and walking down to the creek to get a bucket of water each morning.

Nothing wrong with not wanting to be involved at the highest level of interest or understanding, but we all benefit from the few who are.

..............

Very nice interview. Thoroughly enjoyed the read.

Anyone else surprised by Tom's age? I imagined you to to be an elderstatesman in the 60s given your impact on the industry.....:) LOL - only 47. Well, good to know that this site, the mag, and the show will be in good hand for many many years yet.

Mo