DROPKNEE SESSIONS COLLABORATING WITH SILVER QUINN PRODUCTIONS

DROPKNEE SESSIONS COLLABORATING WITH SILVER QUINN PRODUCTIONS

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 supported by a robust business model and adhering to strict budgets.

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 ability 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 iconic Port Macquarie-based event has been in operation since 2002 and has hosted riders 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 flourish, progress and offerand rider satisfaction, Clayton had to be business savvy and create a model that he could follow to ensure its survival. Factoring in costings, payments and professional standards that covered the whole event months in advance to months afterhas 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.

Approaching it’s 20th anniversary next year, DKS has demonstrated it has a sound business model in place in addition to the creation of an environment that the riders value and can buy in to. The past few years have been so successful that the ‘sold out’ sign has been put up in record time - this year’s event was filled up just 2 days after its announcement, for example.

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.

VIDEO CONTENT CREATOR

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,” commented Steve. “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 event is more than just that - it is a coming together of the community that provides excitement 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”.

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