The Best Bus visits Lynn University for a historic collegiate event!
Posted: Monday, November 12, 2007
Lynn University
Knightboarding Club
Launch Party
Article by Dr. Chad Barr, Professor of Sports Administration
On the same day that Lynn University celebrated their Founder’s Day, a group of students became the first to launch a new collegiate club of its kind called the “Knightboarding Club”, affectionately named after the school mascot, the “Fighting Knight”. The university currently offers traditional club sports but the addition of this unique extra curricular program opens up new opportunities for the subculture of students who enjoy wind, water, and extreme sports.
Many students, from varying educational programs and athletic interests, showed much excitement by joining the club. Some students have played traditional sports for years and have been looking for something new and challenging. “Growing up, soccer was my life. In high school, I spent countless hours practicing and now I am ready for something new!” offers Katie Stockness, a Sports Management major. Other students are eager to broaden their watersport’s activities. “I love to wakeboard and surf. This club is a dream come true for me!” says Winn Elliot, a Lynn University Communications major.
The Launch Party celebrates Lynn’s partnership with SuperFly Kiteboarding, a South Florida Kiteboarding retailer, SuperFly Kiteboarding and BEST Kiteboarding, the world leading kiteboarding manufacturer. BEST is a proud sponsor of the program and has graciously donated equipment to the Knightboarding Club so that each of the students will have the opportunity to use while they learn kiteboarding fundamentals.
In addition to kite instruction, the Knightboarding Club is planning on hosting one of the first intercollegiate kiteboarding competitions ever right here in South Florida! The Sunshine State conference rival, Eckerd College, has been trailblazing new avenues for the sport and Lynn University is prepared to support the promotion of kiteboarding as a competitive collegiate sport. “We currently have three experienced riders in the club and many other members have a history of board sports. I expect us to be very competitive in every event that we participate in.” as Brandon Briggs, an International Business major and BEST Kiteboarding representative, assures us.
In all, there were over thirty new members who joined the Knightboarding Club during the Launch Party. Based on the initial interest level, the list is expected to expand. Now their only challenge will be finding enough space on the beach!
Knightboarding's Offical Launch Party!
Article by Keri Gold, Event Coordinator, BEST Kiteboarding
Dr. Chad Barr’s news article on Lynn University’s new Knightboarding Club was very informative. Thank you very much, Dr. Barr, for helping us construct an article that will appeal to all readers. Especially to all of the proud Lynn parents whose children have decided to participate in the new collegiate club and to help promote kiteboarding awareness! They will be, in fact, considered the Knightboarding Club’s pioneers one day by their student successors!
Now I, on the other hand, have no obligation to impress the student’s parent or a need to convince anyone that their money is being well spent on their child’s education. I do not need to write a recap that will keep the twinkle in their parent’s eye gleaming for year’s to come.
No, that’s not my job. My job, as the Event Coordinator, is to make sure that when BEST Kiteboarding rolls into town, well in this case, rolls into college, that there is fun to be had by everyone!
Here's how the story unfolds through my perspective...
Lynn University
Knightboarding Club
Launch Party
When Superfly Kiteboarding and Lynn University asked BEST Kiteboarding if we would be interesting in sponsoring their new kite club, we immediately accepted the opportunity! We knew working in conjunction with Lynn University would be a win-win situation for us. Not only would we be supporting a local institution but this was an excellent opportunity to promote our brand throughout collegiate community!
Registration began at 10 am. A few students, who had joined Knightboarding two week’s prior to the Launch party, volunteered their time to help promote the club and to register new participants. We were also on hand to help draw interest towards the event.
The students set up a club registration table outside the The Count and Countess de Hoernle Sports and Cultural Center.
We parked the BEST bus, which is always a curiosity magnet, nearby.
A plethora of kites were pumped up for display.
Thanks to Brandon’s portable air compressor; a total of 10 kites ranging from 3m to 16m were pumped up in record time! The kites were then displayed strategically on the campus’ lawn.
To make a final visual statement, we distributed BEST stickers and applied our world famous fish tattoos to all.
Why does our fish logo always seem to end up there ?! (See picture below)
Since Knightboarding is the first collegiate club of its kind in South Florida, we sent “Scuba Steve”, BEST’s videographer, to Lynn to capture every moment of this historic collegiate event!
The event was originally planned for the week prior but it was postponed one week due to rainy weather. However, the rescheduled date, Wednesday, November 7th turned out to be a beautiful day with blue skies and a temperature of around 80 degrees.
Trainer kites were supplied during short lessons for the students who joined the club. The Lynn University soccer field was used as the demonstration area.
Although, it was an epic day for picture perfect skies and warm weather, the wind was, unfortunately, nonexistent.
We tried and tried to launch a kite. But it wasn’t working for us.
Then suddenly, a brief period of light wind came. It lasted long enough for students to take turns flying a couple of BEST’s 3m Trainer kites.
It was sometime around 12:30 pm when we finally accepted the fact that we weren’t going to get any wind, which was ok because we needed to return to the registration site anyway.
Clusters of inquisitive students stopped by to see what was going on.
Dr. Barr ordered pizza for us to eat. A college event isn’t complete without pizza, of course!
A few of the students wanted to take an inside tour of the Bus. I took them in, showed them around, and offered them some goodies from our promotional goody box.
Here's what they found…
Caution Best Girls! It looks like you may have some competition!
After all of that excitement, two students from the Broadcasting Department came by to interview Dr. Barr, who is the prodigy that organized Knightboarding’s premier.
The piece should turn out quite interesting not because of what Dr. Barr had to say (sorry Chad it I’m sure it was captivating) but because of the humor that lies within the cameras view.
I’m not sure if Dr. Barr was aware of what was going on behind him or if anyone ever told him about Brandon stealing the show. But I guess he’ll figure it out soon enough!
Registration came to an end around 2 pm. In retrospect, I can confidently say that the Knightboarding Launch Party was a huge success! More than 30 students joined the club and many more had been introduced to the sport for the very first time!
On this day, Knightboarding became a part of history by introducing a new sport and its culture to their fellow students and by helping keep the kiteboarding momentum accelerating as the fastest growing sport in the world!
Parents, you should be proud ;)
|
