Welcome to The Davey Derby Website

Summer Update #2

Hi everyone, We are in final stages of preparations of what we hope to be our most successful derby yet.

The Mortgage Centre-Duncan has once again teamed up with Monti’s Boat sales to provide the Davey Derby prize table with what will be the top prize in this, our 10th year. It is the Cadillac of Kickers, an 8 H.P-high thrust-4 stroke Yamaha outboard with power trim and electric start!

Next is a Lowrance HD-8 sounder/chartplotter which has been kindly donated by Andritz Refining Technologies.

Followed by Scotty Downriggers, an Ace line-Hauler prawn trap puller, a Bradley stainless steel-6 rack smoker, Islander reels, weekend get-aways, Maui Jim Sunglasses, rods, reels, tackle, tackle boxes, boating safety equipment, camping gear....the list goes on and on.

We hope you all can make it out for the weekend of July 30th to August 1st when we will once again gather together for a great time of fishing and friendship while raising money for salmon enhancement and those less fortunate.

Don’t forget to pack some extra loonies and toonies for our raffles we run for The Cowichan and Victoria Hospital Foundation and the San Juan Enhancement Society.

For those of you who will be fishing with your kids, we will have a 16 and under category which will feature a great prize for the lucky winner.

See you there!

Audie

Summer 2010 update;

Hello everyone. Things are shaping up well for this years’ event. Tickets are now on sales at the noted locations on our Entry Info page. Our hosts, The Port Renfrew Marina, have expanded their camping sites to make room for the expected influx of Davey Derby entrants and together with our great sponsors, we are amassing yet another fantastic prize table.

We all will be celebrating our 10th year of helping those less fortunate. Who would have began to foresee the success we have all shared in this endeavor? Ten years ago we were just a small group of guys getting together with the idea of both raising a glass and some money in the memory of a dear friend. One fish was caught the entire weekend, but we all had a great time and enjoyed the company. When it was all over we knew we had latched on to a good idea. We then decided to continue with the event and do it all over the following year with the same goal in mind, to raise money for Dave’s young family.

The second and third years of our existence became more and more popular, with a larger turnout of entrants each year. The word had got around the mill that this was shaping up to be a real fun event and personally, I was thrilled that our efforts were beginning to show significant results in terms of dollars raised. By the time we had done the Davey Derby for 3 years, the Nicholson family had dealt with the harsh reality of both losing their husband and father as well as the family breadwinner.

At that time we had our “Annual General Membership Meeting” around the campfire. These meetings had generally consisted of hurling friendly jabs and insults across the campground at one another.. just generally poking fun at each other and telling big fishing lies. But it was then that we had decided by way of a unanimous vote (the first time ever we had managed to gain a consensus!) that we would continue this fundraiser with the idea of reaching out to help others less fortunate.

We were very lucky to have had great support from businesses that dealt with the mill we worked at. Dragging all the prizes out from the back of the Marina office for our awards ceremony had garnered quite a bit of attention.

People from outside the mill enquired about joining the fun and the Davey Derby as we all know it had morphed into a new stage. With more and more people joining us we were able to go outside the mill to acquire sponsorships and here we are today. We had over 300 entrants last year.

To help us celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have hired Mr. Rob Hadley to entertain us at the Long House on Saturday July 31st... day 2 of this years’ event. Rob is a hypnotist from Vancouver who has done his show outdoors many times before. He is very excited about coming out to do this as and Port Renfrew was one of the first places he visited when he first moved out from England. He runs a thriving Hypnotherapy Clinic in Vancouver and also has his own T.V. Show.

One thing about the folks who participate in the Davey Derby is that they all love to laugh and have a great time and I thought a hypnotist would be better than a Karaoke Contest. (yuk)

So now we will have to figure out who will be volunteering to go up on the stage (graciously supplied by Island Scaffold Services) and get hypnotized. The show itself will be “PG” rated so we hope to see lots of kids take part. But to get the adults up may be a different story, so as a start I am suggesting that anyone in the derby who had not yet weighed in a fish over 25 pounds must volunteer. If you can think of any other category we can use to determine volunteers, please let me know at audie@daveyderby.ca

Stay tuned for further updates...

Thanks
Audie