PNWMAS NW Frag Fest October 2018

[badxgillen]

Well folks, it has been a while since I have done a photo recap for the club, but here I am finding a bit of time to get these pics in order and to see if I can recollect the events of this last weekend. As you may know the PNWMAS Officers and BOD have been working hard to bring you another awesome club event, and for October we brought you our second Annual Frag Festival!!

This was no easy task, Many, many hands played part in realization of this coral expo. Going beyond the usual reach of our club officers and Board Of Directors, we all accomplished this endeavor and made it a Complete Success!

Jim, AKA Gumby, was key to establishing our position at the same venue as last year, the Clinton and Gloria South West Washington Boys and Girls club Clubhouse. The establishment was stellar for this event facilitating our raffle room, vendor room, and the guest speakers. Kudos Man, virtual fist bump from Bert here.

Lexinverts and I got up at 3:30 and left from Corvallis early morning as usual to try and make it to the opening 6:AM setup. Fortunately Gumby, Cherany, and Roy had beaten us there and were already on the job of getting the raffle room in order as well as the vendor floor. 

Another shout out to Jim and his wife, they made us a little break table which was SO nice, especially for those folks who had traveled so early so far without a bite to eat. Let me at that jelly donut!!!

Just look at this spread! Can you imagine how happy the volunteers and vendor were when they layed eyes on this feast!? Underneath all those delectable donuts is a plethora of tasty muffins and right after this shot Lexinverts promptly made pitcher after pitcher of hot morning coffee. It amazes me how considerate all of the people on our team are. I only brought a camera, towels, totes and break down equipment...And Yours Truly.

Our amazing vendors and sponsors donated a nice array of col reef related swag for the entrance free table, there were still being things added after I took this picture, so COOL! I love memorabilia!

I have to also back up just a tad and give a shout out to Jim's son who, as the talented artist he is, made us a custom 3 foot PNWMAS door sign. HAIL YES!!!! It looked amazing, unfortunately in the shot I took here the angle doesn't do it justice, when looking at the sign dead on it is vivid, colorful, and opaque. f I could hang it on my wall at home I would.

Ex Prez Stylaster and Stacy P. doing their thing figuring out raffle logistics and other tedious pre-Frag Fest plans. Stacey and Joanne do the bulk of communications between PNWMAS and the Washington crew who had managed the Bob Moore Frag Swap. Very cool to have them on board when we need some experienced help. Never take for granted the people who helped you make it on your road to success. The PNWMAS Crew considers you one of ours for sure.

And speaking of success!!! I had one of my main comrades here withe me for setup, none other than Andy B Aka Lexinveerts. When this guy is on your team he really puts the work in. We were moving bucket after bucket, tote after totes, and aquarium after aquarium into the vendor room, I am used to this back breaking work hence my trade of business but Andy went above and beyond and tackled so much it was nothing short of commendable. Thank You Andy B!!! Hope your still not sore from the madness, I know I was.

I shared his stern yet relaxed look in the eyes, being a teacher this cat can keep it cool... And I Dig the hat, Costa Rica RULES!!!!

As I mentioned before FlashyFins/Cherany was on top of our organization and coordination for this frag fest...Not to mention she made a spectacular mermaid.

Another shout out to our Norther Trio! With special thanks and recognition to our good friend Gumby! Center left...And while we are at it, another whats up to Stylater the EX Prez, far left, and Stacey P to the far right.

Also have to give props to the folks who stood by and handled the door traffic, we had folks trying to roll in at 9:00 AM until after 3. Much appreciated that you could all stand guard while we all were able to play our part or simply attend the speaker, so selfless of you.

Once the vendors started to roll in it was non-stop, vans and trucks just kept coming in and our awesome crew helped unload the vehicles.

 

Once on the floor the comradery was amazing, it gives me a funny feeling inside to sit back and watch vendors in direct competition still lend a hand in helping each other setup. Between Jim, Andy, Steve, and I it was a "breeze"  A HEAVY Breeze. On the left you can see one of our vendors, Unrivaled Reefs, and to the right, Salt Water City!

Here you can see Saltwater City getting ready and Unrivaled Reefs being as friendly as a neighbor can be. These guys  were very cool.

AWWWW SCHLERACTINIA!!!! I love this shirt, and I feel it...Bob Moore Represent!!! And here we are, PNWMAS, To Bring It To Another Year!!! For those of you who were not here, this year, let me break it down for you...In Our Right Corner, weighing in at 200 and 65 frags...

Tampico Coral Farms! A normally wholesale business showed up and WoWed us with some take-home corals for the regular hobbyist. To the left of that was one of our all time favorites the Premium Aquarium! Housing nothing but the best of the best, you know how they roll. AND Left of the TPA, our other home run hitter Golden Basket Corals! If this corner trio doesn't get you excited then I don't know what will!

Well... I have an idea...More Corals?..

Two new comers to the North West Frag Swap were KMM Corals and Ship Wreck Corals! So Cool, we were very happy to have you here amongst our previous attendees. Great new corals and a great new attitude! Looking forward to what you have for us next year.

Left of Ship Wreck Corals was one of our old school sponsors from the north, Barrier Reef. Here you can see Natalia doing what she does best just slanging corals.

On the opposing side was a few more outstanding coral salesmen with their fine wares.

Who do we have here!? The SeaHorse Aquarium Supply!!!! Packed and Stacked, ready for action. Really nice to see them here this year. Clean and Crisp for sure.

Paul Hamby working his magic. He has been attending since the Bob Moore events and was one of our only hobbyist tables. Bad To The Bone!!!

All in all this event was straight hoppin'!!!

Corals to the Left.

And Corals to the Right

So if you didn't hear...

We had one outstanding raffle planned this year, with many obvious thanks to our PNWMAS Club and vendors, but a special thanks needs to go out to Cuttle Fish and Corals who went above and beyond in attaining us some the treasure trove of prizes we had, Thank you So Much Jeff!!!

 Freaking Molokos certificate Yeah!!!! Fishoutofwater takes that home for the win. Love the Shirt and love the Enthusiasm, WHOOO!!!!

ZorroReef went in and nabbed the ATO! Never hurts to have a reliable back up, after stability, redundancy is the name of the game.

Badxgillen used those gift certificates right quick! One for The Premium Aquarium and one for the Barrier Reef! Aw Yeah! There is no saving this for later, it is Coral in  the TANK!

Not only did our Ex President Emerald her win the Barrier Reef certificate, but she also took home the Santa Monica Algae Scrubber...Way To Go Kim!!! Emerald here also assisted in getting our guest speaker to become a reality, no easy task. Lots of coordination, communicating, and driving.Thank You Kim!!!

Here is our other Ex President and one of the people who helped spear head this whole Frag Fest part 2, Roy, Aka Stylaster. You can see he was lucky enough to take home a Stumptown corals certificate so he could get his Acropora Fix. StumpTown attended last year but was a little too busy to make round our way this time of year in 2018. Always next year though right!? And Thank You Roy, we all appreciate your participation in this  years events.

The Avast certificate was in good hands once the Clark got a hold of it. Another player in the whole PNWMAS Frag Fest Scene. The Chief and Clark are our current site Admins and they worked tirelessly to uphold the tech side of he clubsite and the FragFest site....Way to go Clark, AVAST Acrylic!

AWWW $H!!!,it is DSBlack taking away the Prime LED!!! You can tell he is Stoked! Let us know how it turns out yeah.

Here Ron is predicting another win, he did very well in the raffle arena getting a number of his tickets pulled, going for the gold!

I Know! our all like, Styllaster Again!?... Well this is actually River City Corals win, Roy was just kind and honest enough to hold the tickets for the prize as well as claim it for the person. Way to go Brian, and way to go Roy! Apex for the WIN!!!

 

Colby unexpectedly dropped in and left us with some Piscine Aquatics raffle prizes as well as a ton of samples. Thank You Colby, look forward to seeing you next year, let me know when you have some of those projects ironed out.

Maybe next year we can have some dry goods booths for some of our sponsors who do not deal in livestock, Daniel here is the brains behind the Reefi Labs.

After all the Fun, and after getting up at 3:30 to try to get to Washington by 6:00 then closing down the event by 5 to make the trip back home... As many of the rest of you know, it then came time to acclimate, dip, and place corals into their appropriate places. What we won't do for the hobby yeah!?

I do have to make another round of applause for those who made this spectacular even a reality.

Our Deserving Officers and Board of Directors- Stylaster, FlashyFins, Albertareef, LexInverts, JeremyEvans, Badxgillen, KKnight, Emerald, The Clark, Chief, Paratore, Youcallmeny, and Lewisfisherman.

Our Washington Sisters and Brothers-- Stacy Pziezak, Jim/Gumby, and family,

And some of our hardcore PNWMAS Crew- OptimusPrime, Steve, ReeferMadness, and many I am forgetting in the mix. All your help was appreciated!

And as usual, last but not least, the people who all make this all really possible...The PNWMAS Club, to without it, would not be possible..

THANK YOU ALL,

YOU PEOPLE ROCK,

REEF ON!!!!

 

And for your viewing pleasure, I have a ton more pics on their way, especially on the guest speaker Mr Saltwater.

[albertareef]

Thanks for the excellent recap and pics Bert - almost as good as being there. So bummed to have not been able to stay for the event after all the prep work. Life eh?  Hope everyone enjoyed themselves, scored some great coral and perhaps made a few new salt water friends in the process. Thanks to all the officers, board members, volunteers, sponsors and vendors for putting together such an awesome event in support iof such a great program - Tanks for Teachers!

Time to start planning for next year 👍

[Flashy Fins]

Love the recap, Bert! It was quite an adventure, and I’m proud of the job everyone did. Way to go, PNWMAS! 

[TheClark]

Reads like a book, full of great pictures.  Thanks for all you did sir and for memorializing the awesomeness @badxgillen

It hit me pretty hard realizing all the effort that goes into these.  Allot of good people in our hobby.  Thanks all!

 

[Emerald525]

Thanks Bert for posting the pictures every month. Your commentary makes it feel like I’m there when I miss a meeting. Thanks everyone for all your hard work , early hours !  

It is nice to see and meet people all over the community and have people pitch in where they can! 

[Gumby]

Great job Robert!  Thank you everyone. It was a great successful team effort.

[Optimusprime3605]

Awesome as always, Bert!

Of course, I had a blast at the frag fest! No brainer there, lol. It was great to see familiar faces, as well as new faces. Mr. Saltwater had some great info regarding the GBR, as well.

I picked up a a few items from some of our vendors and also, won a few raffle items, to boot. Heck, I even saw a real-live mermaid@flashyfins happy to see that she didn't look like the ones in the documentaries on TV[emoji41].

Anywho, it seems to me that our frag fests have been, so far, a great success and I only look forward to more successful fests in the future.

Thanks to all who were a part of putting together another successful event.

Here are a few pics of friends, what I acquired and won...

Last of the CUC (clean up crew)

Hangin' loose with the Salt-man

The almighty@badxgillen!

Fity dolla cert from Paradise Corals

Hundo cert from Unrivaled Reefs and a t-shirt

Benereef package w/ remote controlled submersible LED puck!

I picked up quite a few corals, which I'll post up later, but I'll leave this one for yall... Enjoy!!!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Optimusprime3605
spacing

[fishoutawater]

Great pics, you all did a spectacular job!

[SuncrestReef]

3 hours ago, Optimusprime3605 said:

I picked up quite a few corals, which I'll post up later, but I'll leave this one for yall... Enjoy!!!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 

Wow, I love this one!

[badxgillen]

That is my "break the treaty?" look! Or is it the "Genie in the lamp" persona!? Actually,,I think it is the "PNWMAS IN THE HOUSE" SHOUT!!!

 So nice of you to add these pics in to the mix, it was most certainly a team effort. No one man could have accomplished this alone...A Woman on the other hand, now that's a different story! Thanks again Cherany, Kim, Jim, Roy, Karen, Jeff, Andy, Jeremy, Sean, Chief, The Clark, Greg, Stacey, Holy, Paratore, Optimus Prime, Steve, and all the rest I left out, so sorry... You know how forgetful I can be,.

And Dodge!, really happy that custom crate went to a loyal member, it is some kilter memorabilia. And keep me in line for a frag of that last acro you pictured in this thread....You gotta have a back up of that for sure.

[Optimusprime3605]

Wow, I love this one!

Thank you, as do I...

Not photoshopped, either, for you naysayers. Just a little gel filter over cell phone lens, is all.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Optimusprime3605]

That is my "break the treaty?" look! Or is it the "Genie in the lamp" persona!? Actually,,I think it is the "PNWMAS IN THE HOUSE" SHOUT!!!
 So nice of you to add these pics in to the mix, it was most certainly a team effort. No one man could have accomplished this alone...A Woman on the other hand, now that's a different story! Thanks again Cherany, Kim, Jim, Roy, Karen, Jeff, Andy, Jeremy, Sean, Chief, The Clark, Greg, Stacey, Holy, Paratore, Optimus Prime, Steve, and all the rest I left out, so sorry... You know how forgetful I can be,.
And Dodge!, really happy that custom crate went to a loyal member, it is some kilter memorabilia. And keep me in line for a frag of that last acro you pictured in this thread....You gotta have a back up of that for sure.

...And keep me in line for a frag of that last acro you pictured in this thread....You gotta have a back up of that for sure.

I gotchu brada!
You're on the WD list...

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Carla]

Thanks for the update and I am glad things went well. I wish I could have made it tho, looks like it was a ton of fun

 

[albertareef]

3 hours ago, Carla said:

Thanks for the update and I am glad things went well. I wish I could have made it tho, looks like it was a ton of fun

 

Hope to see you next year Carla. 

[WaterIsLove]

So bummed I missed this by such a short window! It looked awesome!