Hi Gents
I had to travel a long way to get here but I can ensure anyone thinking about coming that it is more than well worth it.
Appologies if I get a bit long winded with this but I've got a lot of people to thank. Appologies if I've forgotten anyones name as that's never been one of my strong points.
Thanks to the builders for making me welcome. Guys like Don Morse, Mike Barkley, Keith and his wife, John Samuels, Jeff Gross, Clyde Thomas and the rest whose names didn't stick.
I got to have a good talk to a lot of vendors such as Todd Vivian, Bob McKamey and the rest of the Mudhole gang, All the guys from American Tackle that made me very welcome, JP Timberlake, Billy Vivona and Bill Ballou, Lance Dupre and his wife Rachel as well as Bill Stevens from Swampland, Debbie from Decal Connection, Scott Parsons from Roddancer, Jocquaim and the rest from Cork for Us, Bill Batson and the rest of the Batson team, the team from Get Bit Outdoors. Got to meet Mark Crouse who is is also a nice guy, does fabulous work and there is a bit more to him than meets the eye, a very talented gentleman.
Almost forgot a couple. Denny Kaneoka, from Seeker who is great and wanted to know why I didn't stop in LA. Said he would have picked me up from the airport, taken me on a tour of the Seeker factory and then back to the airport. That's unexpected. Also a great Aussie, even if he is a "canetoad"!!! Peter Williams who owns United Composites wanted to do a similar thing as Denny. I'd talked to him before but it was nice to meet up a long way from home.
Also I got to meet a vendor that I have been dealing with for a long time, Lily and Quentin Wang from Dbluefishing. They basically made the trip from New York just to meet me and that is really appreciated and they are super nice people who also have the American trait of being excellent at customer service. They got a lot from the Expo, made some good contacts and will become a sponsor of the forum shortly. They have some really nice products at competive prices.
Sincere appologies to anyone I missed.
Guys like Billy Vivona (and Tom and his crew), JP Timberlake, Don Morse and Mike Barkley went out of their way to help me out so that's also appreciated.
The reception was excellent. I won a prize from Tom for being the furtherest travelled. Also won a set of those fantastic grips made by Bill Ballou. When all the names went back into the hat I was astounded to win the Alps power wrapper!!! I've always been a hand turner and it would have cost a heap to post it back to Australia so I donated it back and someone else got lucky, found out later that heaps of guys would have bought it off me or swapped it for what they won, easy to be smart in hindsight. John Samuels was standing next to me, having a talk and he won the Renzetti prize so we must have been "in the right place at the right time". A big thanks to all the vendors that donated prizes as that made a nice touch to a great evening for a lot of people.
Lastly I've got to thank Tom Kirkman and his team for putting on a great show and for the effort they all made to make me welcome, it's greatly appreciated. Tom does a huge amount to promote rod building and definitely desrves all the credit he gets. A real nice guy to go with it. I'm going to High Point in a few days to annoy him a bit more. He's even going to pick me up from the bus station!!
Thanks to all for making it a great trip, it's appreciated and I'd love to come back again if possible. I can now put some faces to a lot of names I've met on the forum.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2013 05:08PM by Col Chaseling.

I had the Opportunity to chat with Col Chaseling as Tom was drawing names for the door prizes at the reception..He is a class act , super nice man that is a pleasure to talk to (Love the Accent)....It it awesome to be able to meet and put faces to names that we read here on this Forum...Tom as always "Great Job"

I am honored to have met you (and be the first you mentioned). You are a stand up guy and taught me lots of new Aussie slang. I also learned that Aussies do not drink Fosters, it's for the tourists....lol

______________________________________
Super Tight Lines......Don

Hi James and Don,
Thanks for the kind words, it's definitely appreciated. Got no idea where that Fosters thing came from. Don't know any Aussies that drink the stuff but there must be a few or it wouldn't have got anywhere!! Budweiser tastes a lot better, just finished a couple in the Marriott bar!

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2013 09:48PM by Col Chaseling.

"Tipping a Few" and spending some time with Col was one of the highlights of the weekend! Sort of like being trapped in a Crocodile Dundee movie. What a great guy!!!!

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!!

Hi Mike,
The pleassure was all mine. Your also a great gent. Didn't realise about the Paul Hogan thing. Definitely not that talented.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Col, we thoroughly enjoyed the time spent visiting with you and hope it won't be the last. We're very glad that you were able to make the show this year.

Lance

Lance

Thanks Lance,
Talking to you and Bill Stevens was great and your lucky to have a lady like Rachael by your side.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2013 10:20PM by Col Chaseling.

COL, GREAT MEETING YOU AND THANKS FOR MAKING THE LONG TRIP. sOUNDS LIKE YOU ENJOYED YOURSELF. sTAY WELL DOWN UNDER. BILL

Last year's Expo was GREAT. This year's Expo was GREATER! Really, really, really hope Tom decides to do it again in 2014.

I am sorry that I didn't get a chance to talk with you Col. I saw you about a dozen times and each time, there was a line to talk with you! You sir, are a rockstar! I am glad that you enjoyed the show and look forward to another visit from you soon!

Kevin Knox
ANGLER'S ENVY CUSTOM RODS
QUEEN ANNE, MD 21657
#_#_#_#_#
www.anglersenvy.com

Col, it was great to meet you and share a whole lotta laughs with you throughout the course of the weekend. Gotta make better plans for dinner though, lol. I have no idea what happened on Sunday, we all stepped outside with MArk and Johanna and you had disappeared. And the Saturday night fiasco with 28 people trying to get into jam packed restuarants - what a bonehead!! lmao.

Bill,
A pleasure to meet you, your grips are fanatastic and I'm lucky I won a set. Got to have a serious think about what I do with them.

Kevin,
Sincere appologies for not stopping for a chat, don't know what happened there as I wanted to have a look at your abalone and how you do it, too many people.

Billy,
Pleasure was mine to meet up and I think there's laughs wherever you are.
Appologies about dinner, Mark said he was going to the Crab place just down Fourth street and he would meet us there. Tom and his team plus several more were there and we had a good meal. Not a big place and it was fairly full. You could book the whole place and go close to filling it!! Don't worry about Saturday night, you didn't know how many you'd end up with and even if it was only ten we all wouldn't have got into the one place on Saturday night, everything was full, even the pizza place where we ate was almost full.

Thanks to all for making the trip something I'll never ever forget!!

Be terrific if Tom can continue to put it on as I would love to come back.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Col Chaseling Wrote:
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> Thanks to all for making the trip something I'll never ever forget!!

^^ This right here is what the show is about.

Hello Col

How goes it?

Had a great time and was glad to meet you at last, hope the rest of your vacation goes well and that you get to come back sometime soon.

Take it easy.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Hi Robert,
Appologies first as I forgot to mention you in the first post, was good to meet up. The weather here in Winston/Salem is cold, wet and miserable so I had a washing day. Hope it clears up tomorrow as there is stuff I planned on doing before going to High Point on Thursday.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Hi Col
It was an honor to meet one of the top Australian builders, I wished I had more time to chat with you but I was running around like a chicken with out a head, to answer questions to i dont know how many builders, but as you seen now life, I still can wrap some thing up with a blank and some threads. Say Hi to Mark Fisher for me and bring him next year.
Thank Mark Crouse - The Munich Rod Man

Hi Mark,
Don't now about being a top builder but I try. Will definitely say hi to Mark Fisher when we meet up later this year, now he is definitely a top builder and would love to make a trip to an Expo with him and a few more. Can we get a group concession with air travel and hotel rooms!!
Was a pleasure to meet you and have a bit of a chat.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia