What a great time The NERBs had a the show. Everything about it was awesome. THere were a TON of custom rods all over the show on display, our booth featured 86 rods alone. There were new booths and companies displaying products for the first time at the ICRBE, and familiar vendors to the show with new products. Terhe were a lot of items on sale at every corner of the show - not crappy flea market garbage can junk, actual deals on great blanks, grips, thread - great show for someone looking to stock up on QUALITY products at show discount prices.

More importantly - the people at the show are just awesome. We shared so many laughs at the booth with everyone, and even Tom got in on the NERBs fun with a epic proportion goof on Rodmaker subscriber and contributor, and all around good guy Wayne Diduch. My seminar on Advanced Shading went really well, I thank all of teh 75 builders that filled teh seats up for attending and giving me positive feedback. I know Nuno was nervous after doing his first seminar, but I gave him some tips that helped inspire him for his second. GREAT guy!!! Serious a lot of fun and laughs with him, a true ambassador to the craft and art of building rods. Bill Ballou and his grips - looked AWESOME! He is also responsible for keeping us lubed up with some Apple Pie! Morris was busy at his booth all weekend doing seminars and taking time out to answer questions one on one. Tom even set up a demo booth for Justina who is a full time rod wrapper for St Croix rods, averaging about 35-40 rods per day. She had a huge crowd of 30+ builders surrounding her as she let them in on some of her secrets for wrapping so quickly and efficiently.

I wish I could spend more time with these guys at the show but we're always so busy. The mutual respect we have for each other I think is awesome for teh craft, for builders to see all of use laughing, joking, hugging, admiring each other, and showing a great deal of respect for each other - sets an example for others not only how to build rods, but how to treat others and keep THE ART going.

We've already started making plans for next year, getting a larger booth which will be laid out a little bit better so there's more room for us to eat lunch and display our work. I can't thank everyone enough for stopped by and saying Hi, so many familiar faces and big smiles all weekend, what a great time. Can't wait to do it again next year!

It was great to see you Billy in person after all of the advice you have given to me in the past. Your advice is blunt and I appreciate it even if it rubs some folks the wrong way they just need to get over it. For someone that has such high quality unique work you are very humble about it.

There not many groups that have so many willing to share info and offer encouragement like rod building.Hopefully I can help others out in the future to give back to it.

Thanks Tom for another great show!

As usual. a GREAT SHOW. I am so lucky to live just 30 minutes away. The guys in all the booths were answering questions for anyone that stopped by. Whether it was guide placement at Fuji or blanks from Rod Geeks, or Batson , guides for sale at Get Bit and supplies at Mudhole. I think I might be able to throw "Bait and eight" alot farther now that Tommy Farmer set me straight. Get the DVD...... American Tackle shrink wrapping lures in great patterns . The show just keeps getting better each year. I believe "they " could answer any question or problem you have in rod building. Already looking forward to next year.

THanks for coming over and introducing yourself David! I honestly do not care if I make the best or worse looking rods. I do the best I can, I enjoy it, and I really love teaching my skills to others and helping them enjoy at art as much as I do.

Wish I could have made it!! Sounds like it was a great show!!

I agree the Expo was great, had a lot of fun talking to friends, builders and vendors. It was also nice meet Billy in person. Trouble was I bought way too much stuff, but with the deals available I could not help myself.
Norm

I helped out with Don at the American Tackle Booth, and it was really great to see all the folks walking around looking at the many great products and demonstrations going on. It seemed like Tom had some kind of work shop going all the time. It was like being a kid in a candy store. Wood, Cork, and Foam grips were being turned out, and Foam and Carbon grip demos given. It seemed that anyone with a question was either given a question, or led to someone who could help answer their question, and not just answered their question "yes" or "no", but with thoughtful discussion, and advice. Ideas were swapped all over the place. My Michigan Rod Builders were there, as were the NERBS and Southern Rod Builders, and it was amazing to here where some of the folks came in from. The most impressive moment for me was to see one of the Grand Prize winners give his prize to a young man who was probably only in his early teens. Thanks again Tom, and all those who helped organize and volunteered to help pull off another great program.

I was driven there and enjoyed it myself , i was able to scrape some money together and buy a Rodgeeks blank for $45.00 . I shook the hand of the brilliant Stephen Pratt of CTS and salivated at the rods displayed . I would of liked to purchase everything on the floor but thats not possible for me and i'm grateful i ended up with a blank and a thread burnishing tool , oh and a few stickers .


Forgot to add that i mentioned my man Herb Ladenheim (Not really my man per say) well you know what i mean and i said Herb is an A-1 distributor and treats the CTS customers as well as you can treat a customer . Stephen agreed with me that Herb is awesome so i'm glad , would of been awkward if Stephen didn't care for Herb but that wasn't the case ..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2018 12:28AM by herb canter.

Randy, that was John Powell who donated his grand prize rod wrapper to the youngest builder in the audience.

Norm, great to meet you as well! Put all those materials that you shouldn't of purchased to good use and make some kickass rods

From a new guy.

I’ve only been in the game for about 5-6 months. As this was my first “expo” I can say I never met a stranger at the show. Every question I had was addressed and answered, no matter how trivial it was.

Heck I even got to take pictures for Billy. I think their all of the back of his head while he showed folks tips and tricks. AND... I’m glad I wasn’t tasked with cleaning up after the grip/wood turning classes. All of the classes I attended were informative and professional, even Billy in his blue bath rode! One other thing, if you get Billy’s book, read the first 11 pages before you show up. If not, once you ask a question that’s covered, prepare to have your “stones”busted!

One Request I have, Is it possible to have two TV’s in the class rooms? TV’s were a great idea, maybe one on either side of the demonstration. (Of course, I know it’s also a money thing.)

Now, if I could just memorize all of Batson and Fuji’s identifiers for their guides...

Tom, everything was extremely easy to navigate, from hotels to the Convention center. Thank you for putting on a great show.

Mike, that is pretty funny! There is no shortage of ball busting with The NERBs. Were you wearing the blue shirt on Saturday? If so it was nice to meet you, I appreciate you hanging out at the booth as much as you did, we had a ton of fun! And tehre is no way my seminar was professional! lmao. IT was chocked full of info, sprinkled in with jokes and ball busting...adn Shamwow haha. I'm glad oyu came and enjoyed yourself.

I apologize for teh camera and mic not being as good as it should have bene at my seminar. I should have gone in there and practiced. I did my best to show up prepared with visuals, and I tried to walk around and let people see what I was talking about. I hope that you picked up some inspiration adn information that will help you in your rods in teh near future.

This was my first Expo. It will not be my last. Met a lot of good people, made some new friends and picked up some tips and tricks.

Billy, you are a hoot. Glad to have met you, and hope to see you again, even if you did try to throw me out of the restaurant.

I'm ready for the next Expo. Hat's off to Mr Kirkman. This was well worth the time and money, in my opinion.

Gary - Scott and Patty told me they had a friend coming to the show and wanted to come to dinner Friday. I originally had no room, but people cancelled, so I said OK sure. YOu didn't come Friday night. Showtime, I met you and a ton of other people, you spent a lot of time at the booth hanging out learning, having fun. Then the reception, you won the tee shirt, I was so happy that someone who spent time at teh booth won it!! THen you show up at the restuarant and all that happened.

It was at that point that I was like holy crap what are teh odds, that this is the guy that PAtty and Scott wanted me to meet. It is really cool looking back on it.
Then Sunday you come to get a shirt that fit, and you tell me the coloring book story! lmao. I love stuff like that. So you traded a shirt for a book with a really unique and personalized signature! Awesome, little things like this make the show. YOu can buy a guide or a blank and save 46 cents and use that as justification to go to teh show. BUt the stories like thi and meeting people and getting to know them a little bit, is waht makes this show priceless. BOth for me as part of the show, and for those attending.

Too bad there is not any Expo's planned for the west coast. Maybe there is not that much interest, but there are some builders and suppliers out this way.

Bill

Fred Hall Show is the West Coast show. There were a couple of WC Shows in 2008 and 09 in Orange County Fairgrounds.

William Bauer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Too bad there is not any Expo's planned for the
> west coast. Maybe there is not that much interest,
> but there are some builders and suppliers out this
> way.
>
> Bill

No localized region can support an event as large as the Expo. There is no great density of rod builders in any specific region. You have to draw builders from all over the Country to make it work and 70% of the rod builders live east of the Mississippi River. The Expo is within a single day's drive of most of those builders. The instant that the majority of your needed attendees have to fly in, you're sunk. Lots of rod builders on the West coast, but not enough to make something like this work. Got to pull people from all 50 states and mostly from those east of the Mississippi.

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

I was at the first WC Show in 2008 with a booth. It was a great event. I know Ron Walter flew in from Wisconsin, and Sean Endres from NY with me. I don't remember anyone coming from anywhere other than SoCal to that show outside of vendors. Teh ICRBE I've been going to since '05 except for 2 years, and there are people who drive in from FLorida, TExas, Minnesota and MAine and everywhere in between. Every show. Not like a few people either, I'd guess that about 30% of the show travels more than 5 or 6 hours to get to the ICRBE.

60% travel more than 5 or 6 hours to get here. There just isn't anywhere in the country where you have enough rod builders in a local region to support a large rod building event. We all have to remember that the custom rod building industry and craft remains comparatively small against something like the general fishing tackle market.

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

Hey Billy. Wasn't that 1st WC show in '07? It was neat meeting you and Sean. You guys brought some awesome rods!

I drove 12 hours to get there. I would not drive to the west coast to do so. And, there's a reason 70% of rod builders live east of the Mississippi.

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