BowCast Blog

I had the opportunity last Friday to fly from Denver to Salt Lake City and catch up with Anthony on some of the event planning for the BowCast VIP Ticket to the FMP Premiere. As you all know, the world premiere of FMP's next movie - Proof - is on July 26, 2008. You can all be assured we have an amazing day of activities planned for all the folks signed up for the VIP ticket.

First off on Friday morning, Anthony and I drove up East Canyon to get familiar with the resort (where the day's activities on July 26th will be held). I have to say, this resort is absolultely beautiful! The resort owns over 10,000 acres in East Canyon, and I can say the "members" of this resort are a lucky bunch.

On the way up, Anthony and I snapped a few photos. For those of you in the SLC area, these views are pretty familiar to you all - but breathtaking nonetheless. The Wasatch Mountain Range is goregeous!

A rare photo of the boys actually together in the same state. Wasatch in the background.

Welcome sign for the East Canyon Resort

Most of our time was spent nailing down the logistics of the course. To give you all a preview, here is what you can expect from the 3D course we are going to shoot.

All the VIP's will be taxi'd up a small canyon about 1.5 miles from the main lodge. You'll leave your bow case in the car, and take your bow, arrows, and a day pack filled with snacks and water and load up on a "hay ride" style trailer that will get you from the lodge to the course. There you will be dropped off at "Base Camp". You'll get a chance to meet with some of the sponsors as well as test equipment out on the Base Camp range while waiting for the rest of the VIP's to arrive.

The course will be divided into 4 sections - Base Camp Range - and 3 sections of about 5-7 targets each that you will have the opportunity to shoot. At each of the 3 sections, members of the FMP team (Anthony, Launch, Robbie, Dave, South) will be there to greet you as well as shoot a hole or two with you. Once you are done with one section, a member of the event staff will escort your group to the next shooting area.

The terrain will be mostly rolling sage with some pretty impressive slope. Certain sections of the course will also meander through some trees and quakies - but in general, it's going to be hot and in the open. The FMP team will be setting up the course, so you can expect a great mix of easy to downright ridiculous shots. That shouldn't scare anyone away - this course is intended for any ability level - novice to experienced shooter. To give you some ideas of where the course will be, here are a few photos.

Aneal accessing the private area of the ranch where the 3D shoot will occur.

Base Camp - this is looking at the road shooters will head down to start the course.

Most likely this will be station #2 on the 3D course.

Anthony and I drove back down from East Canyon abuzz with excitement about what we just saw and how much fun we are all going to have shooting this course. The folks at East Canyon resort were AWESOME and are very excited to be holding an archery event. After we all shoot the 3D course, Anthony will and members of Team FMP will be holding a shooting seminar at Base Camp, and then we will all head back down to the lodge for lunch. We're going to have another seminar from Evolved Habitats surrounding "Herd Management" which will include some cool give-aways. To make sure we have enought time to relax before the movie and the after-party, we'll call it a day and give everyone a few hours to get cleaned up, rest, and prepare for the World Premiere of Proof.

We stopped by Utah Archery Center when we got back down in town to visit with G. For those of you who live in Salt Lake City and frequent the Utah Archery Center, make sure you hunt G down and tell him "Thank You!". G will be providing all the 3D targets for the course! We reviewed some targets with G, figured out what vitals needed to be replaced as well as what new targets we wanted ordered. It's starting to get into the busy season at the shop, so we hung for a few, then headed over to Brewvies to check out the venue that FMP has setup for the premiere.

I can't think of a better place to showcase the World Premiere of a hard core archery hunting movie than Brewvies. Folks can get there early, buy their ticket, come in, shoot pool, have a cocktail and get ready for the movie and raffle afterwards. It is a really cool place.

And the BowCast VIP party will be held right next door following the premiere. We have rented out the entire bar for the party, and will have a special section of the bar reserved for BowCast VIP ticket holders where we'll have another VIP only raffle. We'll be showcasing FMP movies (past and present) on a couple of big screens. This is our time to relax, have a good time, hunt down folks we have wanted to talk with on the FMP or BowCast team, and just celebrate our sport. We'll rock the joint until 1:00 AM when we'll call it a day...a very good day at that!

Outside in the parking lot, I got a chance to check out Shawn "Launch" Monsen's new ride as well as equip it with a some "after market" BowCast sticker accessories. I have been short all my life, but had a new realization standing next to Shawn's jacked up ride as well as the giant deer slayer himself. Damn that dude is tall.....he should be in the NBA, not chasing animals around with a bow! (or at the very least, he should be in the NBA and chasing animals around in the off season with a bow!).

Pimpin' Shawn's Ride.

Aneal and Larry Bird...er..Shawn Monsen posing for the camera.

Once we were done with our business of planning all the logistics for the big day, it was out to dinner with the entire FMP team (minus South who was probably in the middle of nowhere somewhere in the Pacific North West). We were also joined by a young man named David and his father Tom. Anthony tells me David was the first "hardcore" fan of FMP almost 5 years ago. The reason that is so impressive is David is 16 years old. I have never met a more knowledgeable and quite frankly motivated young man as it relates to archery hunting. David and his Dad were great company as they relayed their shed hunting stories from the winter, showed us the pictures of some amazing mule deer (amazing meaning 200+ inch) they captured during recent scout trips, as well some of the hunts they have planned for the upcoming big game seasons. After Anthony headed to bed, David and I stayed up until 1:30 AM talking about hunts, why we like the Realtree Roadtrips series, who we think is the coolest professional hunter, and what we both plan on working on at the range in the upcoming weeks.

Dave and Tom - it was a pleasure meeting both of you and hanging out. And thank you to the entire FMP team for spending an evening with me. Good stuff....and it's only getting better!

For those archery hunters in SLC who have not signed up for the BowCast VIP ticket, I will simply say you are missing out on a great day of events. For those of you BowCasters who live outside of Salt Lake City (like me), I would seriously consider making the trip.....the day's worth of activities will surely equate to the value of a plane ticket and a hotel for the night. You can get more info at www.BowCastVIP.com .

If any of you have any specific questions about the day's events of the BowCast VIP ticket to the FMP Premiere, feel free to post a comment to this blog entry.

I am out!

Aneal