Travel Travel Travel

Well, I've been on the road quite a bit lately. I started off with flying to Florida and driving from city to city all over the state for a whole week. I got a lot accomplished, met with many dealers, made new friends and drove straight past many wonderful places I have only dreamed of visiting. I think that was the most painful part of the whole trip. Disney World, Dinosaur World, Busch Gardens, numerous museums, Daytona Beach (okay, I stopped for a quick peek), and many other places too many to mention. At least I know where everything is now, right?



Needless to say we now have a lot more exposure for our brand in Florida. I'm glad I made the trip. One thing I noticed about Floridians is that for the most part, everyone was so friendly. That includes when they are on the road. My hypothesis is that this is due to the "common disaster" syndrome. This is the syndrome where people who share the experience of a major disaster grow tightly together and sweating the little things isn't such a big deal. I guess after you've been through a few devastating hurricanes everything else is gravy.

So after Florida I spent a very short weekend with my family and then Marcin and I drove from Austin to Madison Wisconsin. From there we visited dealers and worked our way down to Chicago in time to set up a booth at the Chicago Triathlon. We picked up several new dealers on this trip of which two bought product from us to sell at the expo. This turned out well for everyone. We did not have to drive back with much stuff after the event and they learned how well our products sell!

Timing is everthing. When we reached the Chicago Hilton (where the expo was held) we unloaded our trialer in the loading area. No sooner did we get our stuff off the sidewalk and into the building did a major storm packing winds of up to 80 mph hit the windy city. That was close! I feel bad for those who were in the middle of unloading at that time. BTW, did you know that Chicago is not necessarily known as the windy city because of the wind? If you are at all interested in the history of this, you can read about it here.

I took Marcin to a Polish restaraunt my family goes to when in Chicago to help him get a little taste of home. The While Eagle is the biggest place you have ever seen! They have a huge banquet hall for weddings and other big Polish family events (I've only been there for family gatherings after funerals) as my relatives are all buried across the street. Don't let that turn you off though. The desserts are wonderful and the plates are bountiful! When we had our food brought to us we thought they had the wrong table. The amount of food we got was clearly enough for 4-5 people. Needless to say, we did our best and then rolled ourselves out the door and to the nearest hotel for some serious full belly snooze time.

So now we have a week rest (yeah, right!) in Austin, attend the Austin Triathlon on the weekend of September 2nd, and then Marcin leaves to visit our factories overseas one more time before Interbike the following Tuesday. Eunice will leave on Thursday to set up at the Ironman Wisconsin that Thursday and I will leave Friday for the L.A. Triathlon. Looks like I'll be spending the following week travelling California and meeting dealers, celebrating my birthday (Wednesday, Sept. 12th) and then possible setting up at the Malibu Triathlon that next weekend.

That should pretty much do it for travels this year...not! We have Interbike to attend at the end of September and then a couple of events in October including the U.S. Open Triathlon in Dallas
and then possibly the Escape from Bermuda Triathlon.

Cheers!

Competitor Texas Voting

James Bonney before winning the 2007 IMAZ swim.

It's that time again kids! It's time to vote for your favorite Texas athletes, sports stores, races, coaches and more. One of the categories is Clifbar Male Swimmer of the Year. My vote is for James Bonney. After all, he's one of the fastest swimmers in the triathlon world! Won't you please join me in voting for him?

Boulder Peak Tri

It's been just over a week since Marcin and I returned from the Boulder Peak Tri in Colorado. Man, what an event! Despite the location and awesome scenery the weather was a bit warm. It's okay though, it was a dry heat. Marcin and I are used to 95-100 degrees with 80-100% humidity here in Austin so we weren't as beat down as many of the locals.

We set up with Nick from our first dealer in the area to pick us up, 3xFast. Nick's a great guy with a relatively new store in Loveland and a huge passion for triathlons. Suprisingly there are very few stores that carry much triathlon gear, that is for the popularity of this sport in Colorado. Needless to say our brand and products hit the rocky mountain high! We sold tons of product and made a bunch of new friends (and a few dealers). Tim at Colorado Multisport in Boulder is picking up some of our products too. He tried out our Rocket Wetsuit and loved it so much he wanted to use it again the next day for the race!

We also met some people from Inside Inc. who write for Inside Triathlon Magazine. Blake Ottersberg, Lars Finanger and Tech Editor Jimmy Archer came by our booth and really made us feel welcome. Jimmy is looking forward to testing out our Rocket Wetsuit personally. It's coming as soon as possible Jimmy!

Our buddy Sean Lambert from Rol Wheels was kind enough to host our visit, give us a bike tour of the amazing bike route around and through the city of Denver, and most importantly of all, give us access to watch the Tour de France on the tele! Thanks a bunch Sean! You are a gentleman and a scholar. Oh, and you also make one hell of a product. Yes, I ride the Rol SL wheelset. I have for about a year and they are absolutely fantastic! Fast, light AND strong!

Our visit to Colorado would not have been complete without making it by the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Above is a picture of their swim training facility. We may just have a new product for them soon. Hmmm, did I say too much? I hope I don't get sacked for that. Actually, you'll never guess. Just stay tuned.

Cheers!