Awesome event for HEROES ON THE WATER

[Cbad]

Yesterday's event can only be described as awesome. The weather was beautiful, there were plenty of volunteers to assist our 38 heroes, the food was great, and the fish decided to show up in numbers too.
What more could you ask for?
One of our guests battled a nice sized Sting ray for almost 45 minutes that pushed him and his gear to the limit. From hearing him tell his story over lunch there is no doubt that he will be a future kayak angler.
Josh, one of our volunteers put the gentleman that he was mentoring on the fish big time. Every time I looked over he was pulling on one. He decided to keep one of his many for a photo and you can tell by his smile that he will be joining us for our next event.
And then there was Hero, he is the service dog for one of our guests. He did a great job helping to calm his owners jitters as she climbed aboard a kayak for the first time. Her and her husband planned on just slowly paddling their tandem around the bay since they thought that fishing from it at the same time might be a little too much for the first time kayakers.
With Hero standing on the bow they cautiously made their way out. They quickly got into the rhythm of paddling and started nervously but effortlessly gliding along. After stopping to rest and just enjoy their new surroundings Hero decided jump (or maybe fall) off the kayak. His owner seemed to find it pretty amusing as I circled the dog to try to get close enough to grab him as he swam in every direction except the one he should. I took off my sunglasses and hat and just as I was readying myself to jump in after him he swam to his owner's kayak allowing her husband to grab him and pull him safely aboard.
There was nothing but smiles and laughter as Hero shook water all over his owner. The tension of being on a kayak for the first time was gone.
Hero did his job!
A few minutes later my offer of a couple fishing rods and some bait was accepted. It wasn't long after that that I got to witness the big smile of someone who had just caught their first fish.

The above is just my experience of yesterday. I'm sure everyone who was there has their own great memories and stories.

Thank you to all of our heroes and volunteers who showed up to make this event as great as it was.

Thank you Nick and Tony for donating your fish! It was most appreciated.

If anyone has anymore pictures please post them up or email them to me so that I can add them to our Facebook page.

Thank you for your support and I'll see you all at our next event on May 2nd or hopefully sooner at the Mission Bay Classic tournament on April 18th.

Mike

[Iceman]

Mike,

I'll e mail you some photos tomorrow, feel good day fer sure. You guys rock!

[FISH11]

It was truly an awesome event. The smiles on all the faces says it all. Here a few pictures I took while shadowing the angler on his sleigh ride. I will try to edit a shorter version of the Go Pro video to post on here through U Tube. I made a 22 minute DVD of it to send the 3 guys that came together, each a copy. I'm just waiting for then to send me their mailing address. They have my e mail address and should be sending it to me.

[619-SWIM-DOG]

Nice job guys wish I could have stayed around and helped out. Looking forward to hitting the water on future events.

[GkT]

This is awesome. Made it down to OEX that day, just as you all were packing up. Wish I had made it down earlier to see some of the day. Got to meet "easyday" at the OEX shop as I was shopping for yaks. Nice to meet you man!

Hopefully by the next event I'll have a yak and some experience, I'd love to help out with this!

[ful-rac]

Awesome Mike!!!

Thanks to you and Matt, makobob, the other mike and the rest of the HOW team for taking the time to put on these events. Glad to see that my fish was put to good use...did you see the size of that piece of fish in that guys fish taco!!! Holy crap!!!

[tacmik]

Hey Tony. Sorry you couldn't make it but the fish was welcome and the participants put it away. Thanks for all you do and hope to see you at the tourney next month. Other Mike

[landwhale]

The excitement in the participants after catching their first fish and their questions about baits and techniques was awesome opened a new sport to them. Thanks Matt Bob Mike and Mike for all you do to give us this chance to open a new door to the participants.