The Walk 09....

A few weeks back, Amanda and I headed down to Panama City Beach with about 400 high school students from Buckhead and Brownsbridge Church. It was absolutely amazing. The students were awesome to hang with and God just lit my heart on fire...I took some video while I was down there and finally got around to editing it. This was my first shot at using iMovie so if you think it's lame tell me in a constructive manner so I don't get all boo bears since I'm such a sensitive dude.

Stoked to be Home...

Just got back from a long work trip...As you can see, several places were visited along the way. The purpose of the trip was to take a couple of engineers from our boat division in Japan to survey some dealers about some super secret kick tail new product...All in all, it was a successful trip. The two dudes from Japan were super cool. Didn't know a lot of english but I helped with that. They will go back with some Jonathon-Nese...
Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pics during the trip...
Here's a few though...
Johnathan Hillstrand from Deadliest Catch. We met him at a sushi place in Sarasota. Super cool guy. He sat down and rapped with us for about ten minutes. Said the new season that starts on April 15th is going to be off the chain...


Here's a few shots from fishing on Sat. in St. Petersburg. Great day. The guys had a blast and the fishing was pretty good too.
One of the several reds that we caught...

My boy Mochizuki...He was big dog that day...

The other guys we were fishing with


Saw a real cool band at the hotel we were staying at in Shreveport...Whiskey Folk Ramblers...Go check em' out here.

Really stoked to be home. This was the longest amount of time that Amanda and I have been apart since we've been married and it sucked. So thankful to be home...

Have a great Easter everyone...

Yachts, Wood and Holland...

One of the many cool things about my job is the fact that I get to be around boats...I love boats, I love being on boats and I love seeing how boats are built. I think it's so cool that talented individuals can create something so cool...

Well, the past couple of days, I've been in Holland, Michigan meeting with a group of designers talking about new boats to build in the coming years. Great stuff...Great people. And I'm really looking forward to what the future holds for the stuff we are talking about. It's been a long term project that I've been working on for the past three years and it's cool to see some of it starting to come to fruition...

So the guy that I'm up here with, knows a guy that knows a guy that is the head sales dude at Tiara Yachts...Tiara just so happens to be in Holland, Michigan. Of course we had to go check it out. Absolutely amazing is all I have to say. By far the biggest and most impressive boat manufacturing facility I've ever been to. They build boats that our bosses boss buys. That's why there are called yachts and not boats. That was yesterday...

Today, while at lunch with head guy of the design company we're talking to, I asked him about the wooden boat company that he's done some work for. He said it was right down the road and asked if we wanted to check it out...We were like, ahh yeah we want to see some wooden boats...

And what a treat it was...totally different from yesterday...Small place (maybe 5,00o square feet)...No fiberglass, about 10 employees that build all 20 of their boats per year by hand. It was incredible to watch these craftsman at work. The company is called Grand Craft and they make replica boats of the past. Wood used to be the material of choice when building boats but manufacturers got away from it and starting using fiberglass...These guys are keeping it real. Something crazy...It takes about 90 days, start to finish to build a 58' Yacht with triple engines and it takes these dudes about 8 months to finish a 26ft boat with twin engines. You guys probably could care less but it's really cool stuff...

Anyway, that's been my last couple of days and I wanted to share because I thought it was so cool...

This is the Tiara's plant...Employs a lot of people...

And this is an example of what they build...


This is a grand craft...36 ft. Commuter...

Another...23 ft. Sport...

Labor Day PC Trip

The parentals, Amanda and I headed down South to Panama City on Thursday after work...We are staying at some family friend's pad and it's been a blast...

We are about to bounce but I wanted to throw up a few pics before we headed back to the ATL...

We had to hit up the Lotto place right when we got out of Alabama into Florida. We're still poor...
This is some model we saw on the beach...Actually my mom...

On Saturday morning, the boys headed out to catch some meat for the evening. We got so lucky as the weather was phenom and the Gulf was like a lake...We slayed em'...

This is the scene on the way out to the first hole....Huge boil of Bonito...We had to stop and catch a few for bait...
This is Jacob getting absolutely schooled by one of those Bonito...He was a trooper and caught a bunch of fish...
Here's Pops with a nice Amberjack that smoked him for a little bit...
Jacob probably had the biggest snapper of the day with this bad boy...It was consumed on Sat. night inside of a tortilla with salsa...So good...
Here's my poor attempt to be like Jake...Not bad though...They all eat the same...
This was the night before on an evening cruise we took...
While we were fishing on Sat, the girls went and spent some money...
These are our hosts...

And these are the host's kids...
This was taken this morning...The house is off of St. Andrews Bay and the storm surge from Gustav covered the dock...Apparently it's still coming up...

I was there before Phelps...

Because I've been stupid lazy about blogs,,,I'd thought I write about China. For those that haven't noticed, the Olympics have been on for the past two weeks. It's pretty much ruined my life in a great way...I'm really ready to get some sleep though...

In March of 2003, I took a trip to Beijing for an International Marketing trip...It was my first trip outside the states, save Mexico...It is so crazy that the Olympics have finally come to fruition because when I was there I talked to several architects and planners that were from all over the world already getting ready to build new hotels and infrastructure.

It was a blast of a trip and would definitely love to go back one day...



I've got several things to write about and i will eventually, just not now...

JB's Last Cast

Finally,,,I know, I know...I've been weak on this deal but here ya go...I'll try to get an album up with all the pics up sometime this week as there are a bunch of good ones...

Pretty much the first question I got from my buddies when Amanda and I got engaged was not when the wedding was or where it was at, it was "When and where are the bachelor party?" Of course, I could have chose a Vegas or beach type location but from the get go I knew where I wanted to throw this shin-dig...Buras, LA...I highly doubt most people have never even heard of Buras...So I've attached the below pic (Green arrow)...60 miles south or New Orleans...A couple years ago, a small storm called Katrina made land fall here...Yup, that's right Buras, Louisiana...

And the reason for choosing Buras you ask??? Fishing and great food...

I have to say that I have the bestest of friends on this planet. They manned up, took some time off of work, dropped a few dollars and made the trip...16 of them made it. And I'm thinkin' that most of them did.

Todd G. did an awesome job putting a lot of this together. Both of us leveraged our relationships in the marine industry and put together an insane captains bag together for all the guys...Most have been 15 shirts in total along with a bunch of other gear. I'm sure I'll see some of it on eBay pretty soon...

Of course, there are tons of stories to tell but I don't have time to tell all...I've attached several pics that might sum up the weekend though. I'll tell a brief quip with each...In no particular order because I'm lazy and tired right now...

My buddy Frenchie (Left) was crowned winner of the biggest speckle trout for the weekend...His prize...A shirt of me presented by my pops (right). Let's just say there were 7 dudes wearing those shirts from LAX (CA) to Louisiana. Apparently, they got a few questions. You have to admit, I used to be a studly little dude...
My pops (right) was crowned big winner of the weekend for the redfish with the most spots (10)...See next pic. His prize...A free pair of Costa Del Mar sunglasses presented by big bad Joe Mercurio. Great job pops...
Pops and me...Freakin' great...I hadn't been fishing with my dad in a really long time (that's gonna change though) and it was great. We went out with Ben J. on Sat. and absolutely smoked the reds. Thanks pops for generating my 'Y' chromosome. Greatly appreciated.

Rob (right) won for biggest red for the weekend. His prize...A bottle of Patron. He shared. It was consumed soon after that.
My buddy Frenchie and Rob got along well. But Rob piped up a tad too much therefore bringing the wrath of Frenchie...I think Frenchie may cruise from Texas to the wedding just so he can hang out with Rob more...
100 lbs of Crawfish...Absolutely ridiculous. So good. On a dare, my pops bit the head off a live one. There were only a few laughs watching that go down. If you've never had boiled crawfish before. Please do one day.
Todd and I decided that it would be a great idea to bring a cardboard cut out of Joe Merc down to the event. It was. One, my dad didn't realize who the cut out was until Friday night. And two, Rob violated the cut out and made everyone laugh...Pictured...Frenchie (left), Cardboard Joe (Center) and Capt. Ben Jarrett (Right)

The fishing was incredibly tough because of the high and dirty water of the Mississippi. Fortunately, we had a guide one day and Shags (left) caught some nice fish...Nice hat bro...
This is T-Mike...He's my Cajun friend from Thibodeaux, LA - pronounce (tib-a-dough). He took out Rob, Jeremy and I first day. Can't wait to see him in So Cal in June throwin' down once again with all the homeboys...
The gang minus a couple gents who had to turn it in a tad early because of the festivities the night before. Of course there's always gotta be a dude who flips off the camera...Thanks Travis...
In case you were wondering what Redfish look like once they've gutted and cleaned...Here ya go...I ate redfish three times this week. Those are called halfshells on the left and saltwater quail on the right. The halfshells coupled with Italian bread crumbs and a sauce which I'm not at liberty to disclose will knock you down and slap your mamma...Ask Amanda and the 6 other dudes in my small group who got to sample this week...
Seriously, it was a freakin' blast in the bayou last weekend. I love my friends. There's talk of a yearly trip like this...They are addicted now...

Big thanks to all the sponsors that donated gear to the cause...you've clothed my friends for at least a couple of weeks. And a huge huge thanks to Ryan Lambert of Cajun Fishing Adventures (www.cajunfishingadventures.com) for putting up with all my buddies for the weekend...

56 days to go my friends...See you in the OC shortly...

Out of Office...

Amanda and I leave for our respective bachelor/ette parties tomorrow...I'm headed south below I-10 to the great state of Louisiana and Amanda is off to So Cal.

I will be here for the next few nights...

Eating a couple of these...


Trying and hopefully catching a few of these...
And hangin' with these guys...And a few more...

Cell phone only works for Amanda, so holler back Monday...

Random stuff while in Hotel Room....

I'm in Panama City...

Continuing my boat builder journey with my new Japanese friends. Century Boats

Nothing really cool to report on.

It's Spring Break down here so I'm holed up in a La Quinta because everything else was booked. I don't like La Quinta. I like Holiday Inn Express. Good breakfast.

I'm ready to be home in my bed for a few nights.

I'm ready to eat at my house.

I hate missing small group.

I hate not hanging out with Amanda.

Working out and eating decent while traveling is virtually impossible. I brought my workout clothes but they have remained in my bag.

The seafood down here is way better than Atlanta though. Had a crab cake sandwich this afternoon for lunch that would make you slap yo' momma.

That's it...I'm out...Lets hang out this weekend...

Oh What a Week...

Again, I want to wish everyone Happy Easter and hope everyone had a great day. I'm winding down the day here getting ready to take off again tomorrow to Panama City...But before I do, I wanted to tell a few stories from my travels last week...

A few months back, my bosses asked me if I could chauffeur a Japanese visitor who wanted to see our three boat companies. So last week we saw two of the three...Along with my new friend from Japan came another guy that just moved here from Japan to get some exposure to our companies.

Last Sunday night, I met the gents (Neil and TK - American nicknames) at the ATL for our flight to Springfield. Our flight got pushed back an hour so we headed to Chili's for a little grub. When we got back to the gate, Delta decided the flight was pulled back up and we were hosed on the flight. Last flight to Springfield. Great first impression huh??? Fortunately, there was a flight going to NW Arkansas that we could make but would have to drive to Springfield. Had to do it...So we booked through the airport and made it...After getting the rental car situated, we headed to Springfield. We were supposed to go all the way to Lebanon, MO where our boat builder resides but of course I can't pack light and checked my bag which was now in Springfield...So here's drive No. 1...Late night, early morning to get back at airport...

From there, we went to our boat builder (G3) in Lebanon. I love going to our boat builders because I have great respect for people that can build things. Watching things being bent, shaped and welded into a finished product is freakin' awesome to me. Great couple days of hanging out with the guys at G3. My guests were stoked on the processes in place and gave thumbs up...

Here's a shot of a guy that is laying down a perfect bead down on a pontoon log...I can't do this and probably never could, so this guy in my book is freakin' awesome...

On Tuesday, when we were done at the plant, we had a few hours to kill before our flight and decided it was necessary to go to Bass Pro in Springfield. For those of you that enjoy the outdoors have most likely at least heard of Bass Pro Shops. They are "The" place to get outdoor toys...Well, the Springfield location is the Mecca of all things outdoors as it is the original. It's huge, it's ridiculous, it's beautiful....

After a few hours in Bass Pro, I thought it may be a good idea to make sure our flight was on time since it had been raining all day and I heard there was going to be rain in Dallas as well. Good thing I did...Canceled flight...Re-booked for the next day...Boo bears...I really didn't feel like sitting around for the rest of the day in Springfield so I asked the boys if they were cool to drive down to Kilgore. They were all about it. More driving...

After switching up rental cars at the airport we made our quest down to Kilgore. Not a bad drive. Some conversation in broken English. Lots of rain...And one 200 yard puddle that caught me off guard that made everyone in the car scream like girls. It was funny after the fact but I thought the Ford Taurus was going to be scuba diving...Finally made it into Kilgore around 1:30am. Tired, but glad to be there...

I always love coming to Skeeter. Once again, I have great respect for the people that build the product. I also enjoy talking with all my old friends from my Skeeter days. Great stuff. Productive two days with my Japanese guests. I introduced them to Tex Mex and had to explain that the "J" doesn't get pronounced in jalapeño or fajitas...That was an interesting conversation...

Thursday night, I headed over to Tyler to see my buddies Austin, Lee and Travers. Watch some B-Ball and was gowned early...

Woke up at 4am on Friday to fish the Good Friday Skeeter Employee Tournament. This is an annual tournament for Skeeter employees that they let us fish in. There was all sorts of smack talk leading up to the tourney. I showed them...I was paired up with Terry Pitman (TP) and Dorian...5 Fish 11.54 lbs. Winners!!!! Each taking home $130...Boo yah suckas....Great day, got sunburned...

Here's a photo at take off in the morning...Had about 20 boats in the tourney with 50 or so anglers...It was a blast...

The winning team and our catch...Ahhh yeah....

After the tourney, Neil, TK and I had to head to Dallas for a next morning flight. I took a little back road way to introduce my new friends to crawfish...I had seen this place the day before and was cravin' some craw-diddies. Just a little road side place that needed to be patronized...

5 lbs. Crawfish
1 lb. Shrimp
6 Potatoes
4 Pieces of Corn
Burnt Lips

Here's TK and I showing off a couple of the diddies...They were good. I can't wait for more in a couple of weeks at the bachelor party...

After spending the night in Dallas, we were back into the ATL on Sat. afternoon. Good week. Long week. Although there was a language barrier, we managed. Both parties showed patience throughout the week. I realized how much slang I use. It was cool to teach some of it to my new friends...TK now knows what "This Sucks" means when you're sitting in traffic...

Sorry for the long post...I need to do a better job of keeping ya'll posted throughout the week. I'll try harder...Off to bed. Early flight to Panama City tomorrow morning...