What is Body Boarding?
You'd probably be thinking that it's something that your kids do between the flags on a hot summer's day right? Most people would probably not think of the sport of Bodyboarding as a business with a business model or being run with strict budgets either.
In fact, most would probably not even know what Bodyboarding is. Commonly known as the poor cousin of surfing, Bodyboarding has been ever so slowly making its presence felt not only locally but on an international scale since the late 80's.
What is Dropknee in Body Boarding?
Well, the best way to describe Dropknee is you grab a wetsuit, flippers and a 42' piece of purposely shaped foam (bodyboard) and you try to ride waves with one knee on the back of the board with the other foot on the front (like the wedding proposal stance).
Doing this at such a high skill level requires immense balance, knowledge and skill and that is what the riders bring to this event.
Dropknee Sessions
There is a specialised event called Dropknee Sessions on the pristine beaches of the Mid North Coast, NSW Australia. The Port Macquarie based event has been in operation since 2002 and has hosted riders at its iconic event from around the globe. Focused solely on the discipline called Dropknee, this event gives riders that practice that allows them to showcase how skillful their riding ability is.
Local Port Macquarie bodyboarder Clayton Pickworth is the brains behind Dropknee Sessions, which he initially created in 2001 after close talks with many of the national tour competitors.
At that stage of the bodyboard touring events, Dropknee riders were constantly being left behind at events and being put out in the more 'unfavorable' conditions of the events. So, as all great Aussie inventions happen over a few beers and a long conversation, Clayton came up with the idea of hosting a Dropknee Only event that allowed the riders to showcase their skills and abilities in the best possible conditions available along with their choice of how the heat draw for the event would run.
The success of this event stemmed right from the get go with the inaugural DKS event being hosted at Port Macquarie's Town Beach in December 2002. The event sold out and hosted riders from around the country including Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria. As the years went by DKS built such a reputation that the reach of riders started coming from around the globe. In no mean feat, DKS hosted riders from New Zealand, Hawaii, Canary Islands, Peru, Chile, Europe, South Africa, Japan and even Israel!
So for the event to survive and offer progressions and rider satisfaction, Clayton had to be business savvy and create a model for this sport he could follow to ensure its survival. Costings, payments and professional standards that covered the whole event from months in advance to months after the fact, has enabled DKS to be viable and allowed Clayton to plan for the future.
That planning soon created a team of individuals from local and interstate areas that all play a vital role in being artistic and inventive in many areas of events management, from ground breaking design and screen printing, website development, killer artwork dedicated just to the event and more which created the DKS Collective.
Coming up to it's 20th anniversary next year, creating such an environment for its riders, DKS has not only a good business model but created an aura that the riders value and can buy in to. The past few years have been so prevalent that the 'sold out' sign has been put up in record time, this year's event was filled in just over 2 days of its announcement.
Selling out so far ahead of time also allows event planning, ordering, media engagement, online socials and video production to be organised and completed well ahead of schedule.
Since 2019 Silver Quinn Productions (SQP) has been onboard with DKS and has been the Content Creator for the event.
Steve has been instrumental in driving the marketing of the event with video and working with photographers to post across Social Media Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Website.
SQP has been great in building emotion that could be conjured when partnering this with music, voice over, silence or candid conversation. “There is something so special about capturing a moment that is real and raw,”. Further to this, “Enabling businesses to create key motion messages for that platform and showcase their unique offering to target audiences, is something that SQP does best”. We have found that the DKS is more than just an event but a coming together of the community and is exciting for competitors from around the world.
As a content creator Silver Quinn Productions has the ability to shoot all the angles for sports video with camera angles from the shore, sky and even in the water so it has been exciting for the competitors and the event organisers to see exciting video content.
"We have been so lucky to have Steve onboard with our event as Silver Quinn Productions has been nominated for Creative Services Business of the Year 2021 which we believe there is no one better.", says Clayton.
So where to from here for Clayton and the team?
"Just keep going, it’s that simple. Keep to the core of the event but at the same time inventing and moving into the future". "I think if events move too far out of their realm, they will lose their audience and their most important people of all, their customers, in this case, that's our riders and I certainly don't want that".
Contacts
Silver Quinn Productions
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SilverQuinnProductions
Instagram: www.instagram.com/silverquinnproductions/
Website: www.silverquinnproductions.com
DKS
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dksessions
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dksessions/
Website: www.dksessions.com
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