Organizing a wake competition

I live on a lake that has a restaurant with new owners. They've busy remodeling the place, and i thought how great it would be to hold a wake competition there. I will have to come up with an outline to present to the owner, and hopefully get to use the facility. My question is, would it be better to have the competion in the late afternoon/evening, advanced and outlaw division, and end the event with hanging out at the restaurant into the wee hours of the night. Or have the typical morning event.

Also, if you've done this before, have you contacted any of the major wakeboard companies for event sponsorship, like product for prizes, etc.

http://www.wakeworld.com/getarticle.asp?articleid=254

Doug, If your intent is to promote the restaurant then have it finish in the afternoon, you will have to figure out about how many riders you expect to draw to determine when to start it. For prizes go to local shops, make sure you promote them through out the day. Also talk to your Outlaw riders about contacting their sponsers for give aways. I don't think you well have much luck going direct to major Wake companys for a one time only grass roots event. Good luck, it's a lot of work.

Doug, you need to work out sanctioning, that’s probably the most important thing you need to do. A sanctioned event will provide needed insurance. You can sanction with USA Water Ski, WWA, or INT, possibly other organizations too. Last year Hyperlight had a program to sanction events. I sanctioned an event in Columbus this year with USA Water Ski. See the USA Water Ski Grass Root Event information on the following web site: http://usawaterski.org/pages/Grassroots/HostEvents.htm .

You also need to firm up your venue, what permissions do you need from any organization (city, owners group, state, US Army Corps of Engineers…) associated with the lake. Firm up your connection to the restaurant too. For my event in Columbus I had to file a marine event permit with the city. The city had a number of requirements I had to meet including providing $1M insurance naming the city as an additional insured. I also had to provide additional insured for the boat manufacturer/dealer sponsor. Each additional insured cost the event $50.

Starting a USA Water Ski Grass Roots event from scratch can be challenging. USA Water Ski has specific requirements for trained event staff including Safety Coordinator, Trained Drivers, and Judging. Read through the material at the USA Water Ski web site. That should give you an idea of what you will need to do.

I’m not too far away, in a pinch I could be your safety coordinator but I’ve planned a number of events for next year and have a pretty full schedule. If I could make it up to support your event it would be more interesting for me if we could find a way to add a wakesurfing competition or wakesurfing clinic to your event. I can probably bring prize wakesurf boards for a wakesurf competition.

For sponsorship I’d first I’d contact my local boat dealerships.

The event I ran last year was my first. I had help from a lot of freinds and familiy, running the event was a lot of work; for me it was a lot of fun, so much that I'm running or helping with more events next year.

If you want to go forward with an event email me, see my profile for my email address. Good Luck.

OK, I've gotten some info from US Waterski and WWA. I also had an opportunity to talk to the owner of the restaurant. So far, so good. If anyone else has advice, I'm all ears. I am going to form an outline to present to possible sponsers. Once the restaurant is near completion I'll take pics. I'll include this in the outline. Is there any pro/con on picking a sanctioning organization?