Free Yoga on the Beach

Saturday July 4th, Paul Zipes will be holding a free yoga class on the beach at 5:30 am. Yogi’s will be found that morning, literally on the beach at Rick Seltzer Park, across from Mr. Surf’s Surf Shop. The class is free, but donations will be accepted. All donations will go to providing yoga mats to a U.S. military base in Iraq where soldiers requested them.

I’m just now getting back into yoga, and if you are a yogi, or an aspiring one, come out for a sampling of this area’s only stand-alone yoga studio.

PCBDaily Survey = $50 Gift Card to Beef 'O' Brady's

Take the pcbdaily.com survey for a chance to win a $50 gift card to Beef ‘O’ Bradys! We’re trying to figure out who you are and what you’re about, so we’ve come up with a quick 10 question survey that will help us to better understand our audience.

This survey is pretty “generic”, but in the future, we plan on releasing more specific surveys that may delve into greater detail of who you are and what you think about the content on pcbdaily and our sister sites.

From start to finish, this survey might take you 5 minutes and is only 10 questions.

Also, note that the details of this survey will be kept completely confidential.

Take the survey!

Official Rules:

You can only take the survey once. You must provide us with a valid first and last name and email address to be entered for a chance to win the $50 gift card to Beef ‘O’ Brady’s. When 100 people have taken the survey, we’ll literally line up the names in a spreadsheet, print them out, cut them up and put them into a hat. Upon being placed in a hat, we’ll draw one slip of paper whom which will have one a $50 gift card to Beef ‘O’ Brady’s. The winner will be notified by email that he/she has won and will be solely responsible for providing a valid postal address for us to mail the gift card to. If no valid address is provided within 15 days, another name will be drawn from the hat. If that second name drawn does not provide a valid address, we’ll continue to draw names until we find someone who does, forever. The survey will not be ended until 100 people have taken the survey, not before. The gift card was either purchased by pcbdaily.com or donated by Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, and is probably not exchangable for cash, but should help you have a great time and feel full when used. I can’t think of any other disclaimers, please don’t sue us.

Flowrider Weeks away from Opening!

Located off of Miracle Strip Loop in Panama City Beach, the new Flowrider attraction we’ve all been waiting for is coming closer to opening each day. Miracle Strip Loop is right across from Wal-Mart on the Beach and the Shubee Flowrider is in the center of the “loop.” The Flowrider is a stationary structure that is shaped with a smooth slope that provides the ideal surf conditions with a special board as water is thrusted over the shape.

Ok, so maybe “weeks” is a little of a stretch, but the projected open date should come end of June, depending on the weather.

Just late last week the concrete form was poored for the Flowrider structure. 12 feet tall at the back, the structure goes about 6 feet into the ground and will house the monstrous equipment that is responsible for pumping 75,000 gallons of water each and every minute over a shape that is said to form a perfect wave. The material is a “composite membrane riding surface” that is “soft and flexible like a trampoline,” padding your fall, should you feel the need to. I read the water travels over the surface at 25 to 35 mph.

Reading around, it would seem that the Flowrider puts surfers, skaters, snowboarders and skimmers on “equal” ground, er- water. The board is different than a skim or surf board, picture a larger skateboard, with no wheels or trucks and not as much curvature on the nose or tail.

The Flowrider being installed here will be a “double” Flowrider, with a capacity of 55,000 gallons.

The concrete form that will house the Flowrider requires a larger than usual cure time and should be ready next week sometime. When its ready, they’ll pour the rest of the concrete and the steel building should go up pretty quick.

No word on pricing yet, but I did hear talk of 24 hour marathon runs during peak high seasons and hints at some competitions. You can be sure that you’ll find all the updates here. This will definitely be a cool addition to our growing area.

Dunkin Donuts Falls Victim to Bay County Health Director

In a bold move, Bay County Health Director, Dr. Jason Newsom recently included shots fired directly at Dunkin Donuts in the rotation of the regular rotating messages on the digital billboard in front of the Bay County Health Department. The digital billboard flashes in rotation a number of “health-messages” that often chime in to the tune of “french fries = thunder thighs” or specifically what the Health Director came under fire about, “Dunkin Donuts = death”, and “Dunkin = diabetes”.

In a letter to Dr. Jason Newsom, Commissioner Mike Thomas requested Dr. Newsom’s resignation citing that this was not the only time his messages were too edgy. No complaints had been made on the Dunkin Donuts message, but many complaints had been made in the past to County Commissioners.

The frankness of the messages exceeds the tolerance of many in the public, and although I can understand, sympathize and even endorse a consistent message conveying good health habits, I would think naming businesses directly would be counter-productive as to the purpose of the messaging to begin with. Surely there could be a better way to convey a healthy message other than to say “fries = thunder thighs“; try “apple = healthy heart“. Maybe conveying a positive message could be more productive and less criticized.

I don’t know Dr. Newsom, nor have I followed his actions as Bay County Public Health Director, but I would think it irresponsible as a public official to participate in slander on a business.

This particular incident fired up Commissioner Mike Thomas because of the use of the name Dunkin Donuts, which is slated to open in the next 30 days at Back Beach Road and the newly renamed R Jackson Blvd. Thomas cites that the use of a business name could put Bay County at risk of lawsuit. I think the message is short-sighted and irrisponsible and agree with Thomas that Dr. Newsom should have the sense to not single out a business in his “public-health” messages. I don’t know that I would call for his resignation, but this clearly shows a lack of capable discernment and emulates poor judgement.

On a side note, although I think donuts are delicious, they are terrible for you.

What do you think?

Edited 5/11/09: Dr. Jason Newsom offered his resignation Friday and is no longer the Director of Public Health for Bay County.

A Word from PCBDaily – Updates, etc.

I love using etc. to capture anything that could possibly come after a statement. It’s just so . . . all encompassing.

I just wanted to write a post to you the reader from me, the owner/publisher/editor/whatever-else-you-want-to-call-me to tell you some of the new things we have going on with PCBDaily.com and some of the things you can expect to see in the future.

Cebo!

We’ve been growing by leaps and bounds, expanding our content base and adding new features utilizing technologies that aren’t necessarily new, but really hot, non-the-less. Many of you have noticed Cebo writing for us, and we are greatly appreciative of your acceptance of him. He’s super awesome and a very welcome, long overdue addition to our staff. Welcome aboard Cebo! I guess that makes it official, even though you’ve been on the payroll for 4 weeks already. Has that much time flown by already? sheesh.

Sister (or brother?) Site, SeePCB

Cebo is helping me spread the news about Panama City Beach on PCBDaily.com and he’s also been hard at work on our sister site, SeePCB.com. SeePCB is an all new site that is filling in the gap that is left by PCBDaily. In other words, SeePCB is everything PCBDaily can’t be. PCBDaily is news as it relates to real estate, growth and tourism in Panama City Beach, and SeePCB discusses everything there is to do here. Whether you are a local or a tourist, you can read SeePCB to learn about everything there is to do in our awesome town. SeePCB is a blog, just like PCBDaily and we’ll publish regular content all the time, just like PCBDaily (try 30 to 40 new articles each month) and we’ll include great pictures, video and, of course, very awesome writing about all there is to do in Panama City Beach. So, if you have an attraction, event, or shop or restaurant you’d like us to feature, let us know and we’ll come on out and write all about it. And, if you want to know all about what its like to ride a flat bottom airboat through West Bay or dine at Shan Kishi, come on over and check it out.

Visit www.SeePCB.com to check it out.

All About Real Estate TV Show

Many of you have noticed our new internet TV show all about real estate in Panama City Beach, The Beach Show. This was an idea that I’d been mulling over for quite some time (since last fall when I lost my job, frankly) and I finally took the time to get it going. We worked on the concept for weeks before we finally nailed it, and turns out, we’ve really hit on something. We’ve been flooded with emails and phone calls of both buyers, agents, and friends with nothing but great things to say – Thank you! I’ve been buddies with Karen for a long time, and she’s always been great with finding very hot deals, so we decided to team up to bring you these hot deals every week, on video.

So, here’s the scoop: every Wednesday at 9 am, we air The Beach Show at www.TheBeachShow.com. Each week, we feature three properties that are the hottest deals listed on Panama City Beach. Many times, over the last couple of weeks, the deals were so hot that they were sold by the end of the week, not necessarily from our efforts, but because they were so hot. So, that’s why it’s important to call right away if you see something you like.

If you are an agent and you want us to feature one of your properties, we’re totally willing to look at it, but we can make no guarantees that it will make the cut. I’ve been asked many times to spell out how it qualifies, but I can’t give a definitive answer; each property is looked at differently. The only thing I can say is that it has to be such a great deal that it won’t last long. Many questions are answered on our About page, you should check it out.

Visit www.TheBeachShow.com.

Oh, and just on a side note, a little tip would be to subscribe to our YouTube page, you’ll be notified as soon as a new video is posted. We shoot Tuesday, and I cut the movie Tuesday night, and typically try and have it to start uploading right before I go to bed. We do everything in HD, so it takes about 2 hours to upload, but if you are a late (or early) bird, you could get the scoop before everyone else!

Visit www.youtube.com/thebeachshow

Totally Social, dude. Wow, this could be a long section.

If you are a Facebook junkie, or spend too much time Tweeting, then you probably know all about how all this works. If not, read on. In an effort to spread the word in different mediums and be sure that everyone can access our content in ways they feel comfortable, we’ve tied everything together and made it to where we can give updates on the run. First off, we’ve got PCBDaily (and all our other sites, for that matter) tied right into Twitter. Whenever we publish a new article, our Twitter account is notified, and Tweeted the article title and a link back to it. At this point, all of the “Twits” that are following us, can be notified on their mobile devices, or by email (depending on how they have their notifications settings configured) of new content being posted to the site. Many people ask me what Twitter is for, and I actually have a difficult time in explaining how everyone can use it, although I can pretty well explain why I like it. I would, however, recommend watching this video.

I love Twitter because I can send in Tweets from my cell phone whenever I have something small to say or need to give a quick update that wouldn’t warrant a whole blog post. Many times, you can follow the things we’re up to throughout the day. TDC meeting? We tweet it. Photo shoot? We tweet it. Meeting with Governor Crist? We tweet it. Get the picture?

Visit www.Twitter.com/pcbdaily

Many of you are my friends on Facebook. If you are not, then you should sign up and join in on the fun. I have my Facebook page all set up so that whenever I send in a new tweet, my Facebook status is updated with the message. I get comments all the time of people thanking me for keeping them informed right through Facebook. I also upload all our videos to Facebook and link off to our Flickr photo gallery.

There are three things to look at on Facebook. We have my main profile page, and we have a Fan Page for PCBDaily and The Beach Show. We’re building the one for SeePCB.

Visit Jason Koertge’s Facebook Profile Page.

Visit PCBDaily’s Facebook Fan Page.

Visit The Beach Show’s Facebook Fan Page.

We’ve just recently changed our policy on video hosting sites. For the last year or so, we’ve been using Vimeo. We switched because, frankly, I got tired of all the garbage that would come up after one of my videos that I embedded in PCBDaily would finish playing, plus, the quality was very crappy and they didn’t take HD. Well, times have changed, so we have too! YouTube not only will let us upload HD, but the HD videos also look as good there as they did with Vimeo! Plus, they’ve given the user more control over what plays after each video.

We also have another motive for the change. With all the videos we are publishing through The Beach Show, PCBDaily and the video show we’re going to run through SeePCB, we hope to flood out all the videos that might have a less-than-favorable protrayal of Panama City Beach. Right now, when you search Panama City Beach in YouTube, most of the videos that come up are from spring breakers drinking copious amounts of alcohol and doing who know’s what. Some of you may like that, but for the rest of you, we going to try and even out the ratio. Should be fun.

Visit www.YouTube.com/pcbdaily

Pictures, pictures, pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, we want to be sure that there is no short supply of pictures of Panama City Beach. And, to be sure that we have them hosted on one of the most searched and indexed photo sharing sites our there, we upload everything to Flickr, Yahoo’s photo sharing mecca. Everything is tagged and sorted in their own photo sets. Each set is named beginning with the date, then what it’s all about. Right now, we have over 1200 pictures and growing.

Visit www.Flickr.com/pcbdaily

Visit www.Flickr.com/seepcb – 207 pictures already, and growing every day!

It’s all about the Mobile

The mobile population is growing, fast. In order to keep up, we’ve got a whole new addition to the PCBDaily offering – our very own mobile site. If you want to visit PCBDaily.com from your cell phone, just type in the normal URL, http://www.pcbdaily.com and our super smart site will automatically detect that you are on a mobile browser and redirect you to the mobile version of PCBDaily. The mobile site is optimized so that you don’t have to wait for images to load, giving you all the plain text your eyes can muster reading.

Oh, and by the way, all of the social sites can be found in the sidebars of all of our sites (or will be soon).

Thunder Beach Will Be Huge. Thanks Myrtle Beach

If you’ve been aching to don that new leather vest and harness boots, ache no more. On April 30^th Panama City Beach shall rumble, heralding the return of the Thunder Beach Spring Rally. From end to end, families, riders, celebrities, artists and some of the most spectacular bikes in the world will cover the beach.

Regarded by many as the “most biker friendly free rally in the United States”, the Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally is always a big event. But this year’s event may be the best and biggest Panama City Beach has ever experienced and Myrtle Beach may have a lot to do with it.

As many of you know, Myrtle Beach is Panama City Beach’s largest competition when it comes to bikers and rallies. But by the looks of recent law changes, they might be getting out of the business. Recently, a 3 million dollar property tax increase was passed in Myrtle Beach to fund anti-rally efforts. That’s not the half of it. Myrtle Beach has also added new laws declaring unpermitted rallies and events to be public nuisances, created a midnight curfew, closed bars at 2 am, required all motorcyclists to wear helmets (not a requirement under state law), towing and impounding all motorcycles that do not meet noise standards, checkpoints where motorcycles will be monitored for noise, and traffic diversion such as barriers and closed streets. So what does all this mean? Basically, it means a bigger rally for Panama City Beach, and I’m sure the local businesses will take it.

“We’re definitely expecting huge turnout this year.” Says Corky McCollum, A Thunder Beach Productions coordinator. “We’ve got bigger events, more venues and the total numbers of vendors have increased considerably.”

The schedule for bike week is substantial and the venues cover the entire beach. The list of venues include, Shoppes at Edgewater, Club La Vela, Sandpiper Beacon, Boardwalk Beach Resort, Sharky’s, Pier Park, Rockit Lanes and Frank Brown Park.

And the events this year are family-friendly. There will be demos all over the beach particularly the Harley Davidson Drill Team at Pier Park. They’ll be teaching and doing all sorts of stunts. If that doesn’t make you want to jump into your chaps, at Club La Vela, Speed Channel’s Jay Barbieri, host of American Thunder, will be hosting a televised “Build Off” allowing two bikers to pick any parts from their accessory demo rig to amp-up their bikes. Suckerpunch Sally, an old-school bike manufacturer will be giving away one of its beautiful custom bikes during a VIP party at Ebro Greyhound Park. At Frank Brown Park X-game enthusiasts can witness firsthand the amazing jumps seen on television as stunt bikers hit ramps and the “Ball of Death”. Live bands will be playing at all the venues. Everyone is welcome to come out to enjoy the events and, if nothing else, gawk at some amazing bikes.

Without doubt, the Thunder Beach Spring Rally is expected to be a success. So I guess, if things go as planned, we should all head to Hallmark, get a nice big thank you card and send it to Myrtle Beach. I’ll be the first to sign it.

Business Expo at Edgwater Draws Big Crowds

Job seekers and business owners alike came from all over teh Panama City Beach area to brush shoulders and talk about the future. Businesses in attednance ranged from Neves Media and ViaMedia to Musgrove Flowershop and Beach Scene.

“The economy is bad and I’m just looking for a job,” said one attendee. Although most businesses in attendance weren’t there to “hire”, many locals came hopeful for an opportunity to again bring home the bacon.

“Do you know why everyone here is just here for the free stuff,” one local busines asked me. “Is it more than usual,” I asked. Their answer was without hesitation, yes.

Just about anything could be seen on the show floor. A man, who after blowing up a 6 foot baloon, stuffed himself inside it, stuck only his head out and presumed to dance around. Girls where spotted wearing anything from brown bags, boxes and even bikinis, spelling of sun tan lotion – everyone goaled at promoting their business.

“We had around 2,000 people come through Business Expo yesterday. 103 businesses exhibited, which is 25% up from our last Expo in 2007 (Superheroes). Everyone loved it, from the Green Room which showcased the “green” side of Bay County with recycling, green and sustainable practices, nature, and eco-excursions, to the booths and costumes decked out with “The Nature of Business” theme, to the Green Entertainment (Todd Herendeen and his band) to Edgewater’s “Global Cooler” martinis! Most of the Exhibitors gave away prizes including massive gift baskets, facials and cosmetic procedures, several months of free storage units, T-shirts, teddy bears, portraits, kayak and canoe trips, and even a Hobie kayak! The event was deemed a huge success and everyone had a really good time.” – Marta Rose

I was talking to Noel at Cyber Sytes and he was telling me these events are big for them because it gives them another opportunity to promote business to business and network with other local business owners. Hmm, looks like PCBDaily should’ve had a booth there. Maybe next year?

Please Help the Shaun Adams Foundation

Talking to Kirk Lancaster today, he was telling me of Shaun Adams and his journey to improve the transportation for the elderly and developmentally challenged of Bay County. Sidewalk sales, door to door promotions of the sale of their foundation, raising money selling coupon books, all to raise money to help those who are limited or unable to help themselves.

On the main page of their web site, a coupon can be printed for 1 day of free transportation to employment or doctor’s appointment.

Right now, Kirk is trying to raise $4,900 for a new-old wheelchair accessable van for the Shaun Adams Foundation. The van is located in Birmingham, AL, is a 1995 model and has a wheelchair lift in the back valued by it self at over $3,000.

PCBDaily.com has committed 20 pledges in the amount of $98.

Please, if you can, pledge some money to help the Shaun Adams foundation buy a new van.

Click here to pledge.

Friday at the Beach – Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association

On Friday, April 17, 2009 the Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce will hold its monthly Friday at the Beach breakfast at Edgewater Beach Resort, from 7:30 to 9:00 AM. The event’s featured speaker is Carol B. Dover, President-CEO of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association.

Dover has been President-CEO of the 10,000+ member Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association since July 1995. She is a professional association manager, lobbyist, former government insider, FSU Dedman School of Hospitality graduate, and a working mother of three. In 1989, Dover was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff, Executive Office of the Governor of Florida, serving under the Martinez administration. In this role she served as the governor’s spokesperson and represented his administration before the Florida Legislature.

Dover’s other professional accomplishments include the Department of Business and Professional Regulation Director of the Division of Hotels and Restaurants; the first woman to serve as Chief of the Bureau of Fire Prevention, State Fire Marshall’s Office; and President-CEO of the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association. As the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association President-CEO, Dover works to protect the diverse interests of Florida’s hospitality industry by representing the industry before the Florida Legislature and lobbying against unfair government regulation.

Silent Auction Benefitting Relay for Life

This Friday, April 10th at 6pm, there will be a silent auction to benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life at the Martini Bar at Uncle Ernie’s BayFront Grill and Brew House. Attendees will be expected to keep their lips zipped as the auction is of the silent variety.

Auction-goers will be able to enjoy food, drinks and not-so-quiet music. Stuff on the auction block includes items from Serenity Spa, Los Antijitos (I love that place), Signal Hill Golf Club, The Wine Dog (I don’t drink, but our good friend Burnie Thompson swears by this place), Jubilee Deep Sea Fishing Charters, and many more with items like 2 tickets on the Betsy Ann Riverboat, 2-person fishing expedition, massage gift basket with gift certificate to the spa, gift certificates from Andy’s Flour Power, Los Antijitos, Flamingo Joes, Liza’s Kitchen and more.

There is no cost for admission and all proceeds from the auction go directly to the American Cancer Society.

Should you have any questions, feel free to contact Lori Hale at 850 774 2624 – and be sure to tell them you read about it on pcbdaily.com!