As many of you may have guessed, I am currently not in TB. I can't tell you how sorry I was to have missed the Hook 'n Line Tournament this year as I love this tournament!!

Does anyone have any info on the winners or any photos to share?

Longing to hear . . .

Are you telling me that Kory doesn't know? : )

I am even more surprised BREDS chose not to use TB.net to announce the winners, sponsors, or anything else. Don't they run this tournament or am I mistaken?

Why is anybody surprised that BREDS would not use TB.net to announce or advertise anything? Given the bashing BREDS takes. This bulletin board is not the be all and end all of Treasure Beach. It is simply part of a larger website that was created way back as a community development tool. Yes we all love to read it. But it is only a snapshot of life in TB. Much more of real life in the various villages that make up TB is not reflected whatsoever on this bulletin board. And most people in those villages have no access to computers (unless they make a special effort to go to an internet cafe) and many can neither read nor write to literacy levels that would make them interested in TB.net. So don't be surprised. BREDS is under no obligation to use this board regardless of how much we would like them to communicate with us.

Observer, you're right that BREDS (or anyone else for that matter) is under no obligation to post on this site.

However, for an organization which does fundraising outreach to the very demographic which does read visit here regularly (ie: foreigners and ex-pat Jamaicans) it does seem like a lost opportunity for BREDS to communicate with them on a semi-regular basis.

MISS U REBECCA
IF
U THERE WERE THERE I NO THERE WILL BE PICTURES

Observer YOU are so right. For a long time I did not read anything so truthful. Maybe Breds thought that if he post something as important as that TBnet would'nt post it. Lots of time I have written stuff (nothing bad)and it was not posted. I know if this is posted lots of people is going to make comments, but I really dont care.

The Hook 'n Line Tournament has been publicized on this site for years. The best I can recall, TB.net has provided funds toward the prizes that were awarded. TB.net has also publicized the other sponsors, giving them free publicity for being civic minded. TB.net has always announced the winners, and they have always shown photos of the winners.

There have also been a lot of good things said about Breds on this site.

If Breds chooses not to use this site I think it will be to their detriment. Many of the people who read it are exactly the people they want to donate to them. Whether or not they've always been treated kindly is not the point; people express their views (both pro and con) on this site. Breds had the option to respond to any questions or complaints and they chose not to do that. I think if they would have countered or answered whatever people said about them, it would have stopped things almost dead in their tracks. Instead they chose to ignore what was said, and this only made things worse. It's kind of like a politician always saying "No Comment". If Breds would take the time and interest to respond to things, people would stop hounding them. It's a matter of common courtesy. I believe they have gotten a lot of people angry by ignoring them.

Can you imagine what people would think of a leader who decided not to give an interview to any newspaper or TV station or radio station who was critical of him? Eventually he would never be interviewed anywhere. All leaders are subject to criticism and all leaders are criticized - no matter how excellent they are. Leaders step up to the plate and politely explain themselves. How else are people supposed to understand what they have in their heads?

Dont worry about it guys you didn't miss much, in fact the past years were better, and the persons behind this event needs to be more creative,you can't have two boats in a race, I see Tufton every year at this tournament can't he get some sponsor and get some proper prizes involved, or carry even a "clown" with him to entertain the kids, [edited by TB.Net], but the bottom line is they need to step the game up....

Ah ha. A light bulb just went off in my head. I may be 100% wrong but hear me out. We know the majority of people who live in Treasure Beach do not have very easy access to computers or can't even read well enough if they did have computer access, so most of them do not read TB.net. The readers of TB.net can all read and all have access to computers. Now I am guessing most of the TB.net readers are visitors or people from TB living abroad or other people not living in TB. But if they weren't very interested in TB they would not be reading this. So - and this is the light bulb in my head moment, when all the readers of TB.net are in TB and talk to the residents, the residents are often pretty unaware of the discussions that happen here. The residents do not, as an example, understand what all the fuss is when it comes to things like sea turtles or beach rubbish or the canal or the sports park or the airstrip. This then makes for some kind of "divide" between the residents and all the people who read TB.net even though both groups REALLY care about TB. This is because the very people who live in the community don't seem "tuned in" to what's going on right in their own community. I'm thinking this will end up getting a lot of the visitors upset and it may cut down on contributions to organizations they would donate to because they think the residents don't care about a lot of important issues.

So now my question is how can we be sure the residents learn about what is going on. This would not be from any special viewpoint. It would be more of the facts - This is the situation. Here is what people are saying that's against it. Here's what people are saying that's for it. Most important - Here's what you can do if you are as interested in your community as you say you are.

RESULTS were:
1st.place.."El Tazar"..(Palo, Da Costa ) with a 40# catch, prize was a outboard engine.
2nd. place.."El Tazar" ..(Palo,Da Costa) with a 31# catch, prize was 9 rolls of wire & life jacket.
3rd.place.."Justice"..(Jayson,Septy,Junior) with a 22# catch, prize was 5 rolls of wire & life jacket.
4th.place.."Hook & Line"..(Noel Blair,Saka) with a 20# catch, prize was 2 rolls of wire & a plaque.

Boat race won by "Justice" (Jayson)..prize was 2 rolls of wire. The turn out was very good (best to date ) and most entries to date.

Guys, it's time to stop obsessing about Jason/ BREDS. Every issue that relates to this organisation or this individual can't be of such great moment!
Support the causes which BREDS promotes if you wish or don't support them if you feel otherwise.
There are lots of opportunities to organise your own events for the community's benefit, if you wish to do so as well.
Quite frankly, it will make no difference to my life who won the latest Hook 'n Line tournament. I'd just say congrats to the winner/ winners and move on.
Enough already!

So who won and what did they win?

Thanks so much Seaside for this report. I've also been hearing from several folks that it was lots of fun.

What makes this event so special for me is both this and the Christmas Eve party at the Kingfisher Plaza are the two events which bring so many Treasure Beach folks all together. It is a great day spent seaside hanging and catching up with lots of friends.

Did the sand castle competition happen? Would love to hear the results of that.

It was a lovely fun day as always, but have to say it wasnt as good as last year. I think this was because of the sea being so rough and some of the fishermen didnt go out, so there wasnt the competition and excitment as there was last year. Andrew said there were waves as big as the tallest tree! But there was lots of lovely food, cold beers, friends and my man looking after me! What more could you want? Oh to be there now, miss you all so much.

I was in TB this year for the tournament, my first time being able to attend. (Rebecca, that was how I 'discovered' that you aren't in TB right now ... I was looking all over for you and your camera on the beach!)

I got to see a lot of people I've met on past trips and had hoped to run into, had some good food and heard some good music. I got to see some of the fish that were brought in. I mostly had a great time.

I say "mostly" because, although it was nice to see so many people, not everything was great. I was disappointed with what seemed like a lack of organization of the event. There was a lot of waiting around without any helpful announcements from the organizers to let us know what was going on. And then when the boat races began, there was no announcement, no caller telling us who was in each race, etc.

I was quite surprised that the same team was allowed to win two prizes. I commend the El Tazar team on their spectacular catches, but I would have thought a more fair prize distribution would have been to have the 40# catch take first place and leave the second place prize for another team. A friend explained that it was the fishermen themselves who decided to have the prizes awarded this way, but it still seemed unfair to me.

I was also disturbed and disappointed by the number of aggressive men I had to deal with. I have always gotten more attention than I expect when I'm in TB, but I've never had any man behave toward me in a way that made me uneasy or frightened. Five different ment left me with those feelings at the tournament, however. That really troubles me. One of my women friends tried to assure me that any man who was bothering me must come from out of town. I can't speak for all five, but I know that two of them are TB natives, so I wasn't really calmed by her assurances.

A few of my friends told me that this year's tournament had a different vibe, wasn't as fun as previous years. I have nothing to compare my experience to. I had a good time, but I'm not sure I would go out of my way to arrange my travel plans to be in TB for the tournament.

I have never been in TB for a Hook 'n Line Tournament so the remarks here have me a bit puzzled. Is this a boat race or is it to see who catches the biggest fish or what? Can people from anywhere enter? Does it cost to enter? Why have past tournaments been better?