SouthWest Florida Summer Ski Fest 2010

[tj]

JULY 23, 24 AND 25.....I'm getting a late start with this but we have 30 rooms already booked for the weekend. I wasn't sure with the economy and the oil spill in the gulf how the turnout would be but with the booked rooms already it's looking good.
    Look forward to another great weekend of skiing and friendship. Todd promised to go a little faster this year through maze of mangrove trails.   
  Remember there is a 3 day cancellation policy so you can book now and cancel if needed before the 3 day period without any cost. The hotel management did also tell me that in case of something like an oil slick sliding in overnight thursday the 3 day policy will be overlooked and no charges will be applied for anyone who decides to cancel. Lucky for us on the west coast of Florida the gulf flow current is way far out for oil to make it's way here. We will be hosting a lot of east coast tourists since the current will take the slick right up close to the beaches according to the news broadcasts here. Lets hope it all just disappears soon.    ......For lots of info on our gathering please just google " southwest florida summer ski fest " and read what previous attendees had to say and what we have posted on the rides. This is one laid back weekend ski party. I could copy and past like I have in previous years but my joints are killing me from digging up sprinkler pipes today. go to "  www.loverskey.com  " for our host hotel info. Thanks, TJ **********  more info to come as gathered....

[tj]

For info and talk please go here-

http://www.pwctoday.com/f111/southwest-florida-summer-ski-fest-2010-a-255598.html#post2444219

[tj]

Has your club been contacted by the Coast Guard for any of your get togethers?  Why would the Tamps CG contact Lovers Key about Ski fest? Kinda strange don't you think? Looking forward to seeing all of you once again. Tj

[tj]

I spoke with the local CG in Ft Myers and a LT. Jessica Crandal with the waterways management division of the Tampa/St Pete's Coast Guard today.
They were concerned that out get together was bigger than it is. They were making sure that there would not be any waterway problems for any watercraft. Jessica had mentioned an incident where there was a Peace River swim/crossing where the group actually closed the river to boat traffic without the proper authority or safety precautions pissing off a lot of boaters and others. Not a smart move! I'm sure the alligators didn't mind all those swimmers....... Everything is fine as long as we have no crazies making waves! They are monitoring local blogs and forums from what I was told.   See ya'all real soon!

[mirror]

We will be there for Saturday only, but hope to see everyone there. I posted it in the Who's riding section as a ride.

[tj]

Hello Ken, hope to see you Sat. lets see what the weather is gonna do.

[tj]

The tropical storm has passed us and now were back to typical Florida rainy season weather from what they just said on the news.We did 24 miles of riding yesterday and another 30 +/- today before the rain put a temp. hold on our fun. the parking lot is already packed. 18 to 20 ski's on this mornings run.

[tj]

It turned out to be another great weekend for us all. The storm rolled out as fast as it rolled in and we had terrific sunny skies for most of the wekend. My RXP's supercharger went down only after having 26 hours on the clock. A lot of us got warnings and a few got tickets from the what seemed to be an over abundant number of water PO PO. Our tax dollars were truly wasted this past weekend on the PO PO harassment on the water. They had the one PO PO boat sitting across the channel from the resort watching with binoculars for an hour or two until one group took off for a ride. He fired up his motors and headed for an interception point to start his harassment for the day. I guess they don't care that we as a group try to obey the local rules and ride very safely and bring many, many, many thousands of dollars of our hard earned vacation dollars into the local economy. The local business are struggling hard enough to survive and the local law enforcement are sealing the deal for us to take our recession helping dollars elsewhere.
Thanks again to all who came and had a great time like I did again. We had quite a large turnout of NEW people this year again. Somehow the word keeps spreading even though I cut back the advertising/chatter down to next to nothing compared to past years.
Next years family ski gathering (SWFSSF) will most likely be by invitation only. Details will not be publicized on the web since I know the PO PO (local water enforcement) monitor our sites now. So please send me your e-mails along with a pic of you standing next to your ski, wife, kids, dogs with your names and address so I can put you on the list to be notified. Also please include where you stayed, room # so I can keep any undercover PO PO from getting our info. LOL
They must be really bored since a lot of the local residence have moved away, due to the depression that we are in, and have not been out on the water to keep them busy.
With the stories that were relayed to me about the questioning methods, speed traps, and threats that were made by the PO PO on the water, like following someone and basing their speed on a GPS while traveling behind them. I truly believe they were severely pissed that we were not breaking any laws and they called out the forces for no reason so they were trying to make up stuff to justify them wasting our tax dollars. I really wish I had a law background to confront the higher ups of the many dept's that were out on the water trying to mess up our GREAT weekend of fun. We succeeded in not letting them put a big damper on our gathering.
There was also a small squabble going on between a few condo/board members and the Resort management team. The Board members over stepped their bounds by removing the steps and locking the gate from the pool to the beach which we all use everyday, all day. They, the board few, are looking to turn Lovers Key Resort into their private retirement community, which can not be done due to their original contracts signed when they purchased. Again, the management who we all deal with love us all and had nothing to do with the step removal. FYI ---> If you rent a condo at Lovers Key Resort from a private owner or any other rental agency except the front desk, you do not receive the perks that you get when renting directly from the front desk.
We actually had one of those owners involved with the removal of the steps skiing with us and pumping me for info to use against the management team. I caught on to him and his wife early and put and end to it. It wouldn't surprise me if the few Board members didn't have something to do with notifying the local water PO PO to our gathering. I'm going to find out their condo unit #'s and we'll make sure we do not rent out those units next year....... Thanks for your time and hope to see you next year, where? when? TBD

[mirror]

TJ,

Thanks for the honest write up of this years event. That is why the event just keeps going, you don't sugar coat anything. I wasn't going to write up my experience of our day online but since you have already I can. I will include a picture as soon as I can.

Carrie and I arrived around 10am and rode straight to the resort. We met up with a few people but unfortunately we missed the main group. With great luck Dean and Barbara (thank you so much) were going out for a ride and Dean volunteered to show us the route through the mangroves. We had a great ride with only 5 skis so it was nice to be able to show Justin (my son) the mangrove tour without a large crowd. We did most of the route and ended up at Hendry creek where we stopped at the end for a while like always. On the way out of the creek we were going to do a few more mangrove areas. We passed up Brian, Amy and their friends on the way out and right behind them was a jetski, yep water po po. He stopped us all and was pretty angry since the first almost a mile of the creek is a manatee zone from April to November. He was going to definitely write us a ticket since as he explained he had warned a lot of skis the day before. We explained we had just arrived and didn't really read the signs correctly since most manatee zones near Tampa are for winter months not summer months. He did decide to give a written warning but put an idea in our heads that they were really going to crack down now and this was our last warning for life.

After probably over a half hour we made it back to the resort and met some of the people from past years which was nice. During lunch at Flippers we were watching the po po and they were eveywhere. In the past 5 years at this event I might see 2 cops inside the bay and usually they just tell you to slow down and that is it as long as you weren't acting stupid. They raced around seeming to want to intimidate and they did. We did a short ride but felt so uncomfortable that we headed straight back to the resort and then loaded up around 3:30 and headed home. A long drive for a short day but at least Justin did get to check out the mangrove ride.

There are plenty of places to ride besides the bay area so we will be back but if you change locations I wouldn't blame you. The few owners are trying to ruin things for all. The resort management couldn't be nicer and Flippers is a nice restaurant being short changed by short sighted owners.

Well it was nice seeing those of you that I did get to see so hopefully I will see you all again next year.

[Ski Dude]

Sounds like it is time to move this event to another area.  There are just toooooo many speed zones and restricted areas here.

[tj]

it was ok that the fishing boats were speeding through but when the ski's went out the po  po were close behind watching closely.

[Bozz]

That is too bad TJ, we have always been very mindful of the area and rules while skiing at Lovers Key.  Its been a couple years since I made it, but had hoped to get back there at some point for your event! 

Like others have said, maybe its time to find a new place to hold the event.