The Thunder Rolls: Thunder Beach Schedule

Thunder beach weekend has arrived on Panama City Beach. Already the streets are lined with amazing bikes, the venues packed with vendors and leather-clad customers and all over the beach the excitement is palpable. This is the weekend to get out and enjoy the scene. On stages at seven different venues artists are performing live music, free bike demos are available and X-game-style bike stunts are blowing people away. Thunder Beach Productions has put together a weekend that should keep the thunder rolling. Here is a list of the weekend’s events.

Boardwalk Beach Resort
9400 South Thomas Drive
Panama City Beach, Florida 32407
Thursday September 30, 2008

Friday : May 1, 2009 Location: Boardwalk Beach Resort
Time:
9am ? until	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
1pm	“Sizzle” ? Lingerie Show
1pm	Full Throttle Magazine’s Freaky at The Tiki Party
4pm	“Show Me Your Tat?s” ? Tattoo Contest
6pm	Miss Thunder Beach Pageant Finale
6pm to 9pm	Live Entertainment GRIP

Saturday May 2, 2009 Location: Boardwalk Beach Resort
Time:
9am ? until	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
1pm	“Sizzle” ? Lingerie Show
1pm-5pm	Live Entertainment Drew Tilman Acoustic
1pm	Butt?s And Bellies – Male Fashion Show
4pm	“Show Me Your Tat?s” ? Tattoo Contest
6pm to 9pm	Live Entertainment Kathy Jo & The Bluzification Band

Sunday : May 3, 2009 Location: Boardwalk Beach Resort
Time:
9am ? until	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business

The Shoppes at Edgewater
513 Beckrich Road
Panama City Beach, FL

Saturday May 2, 2009 Location: The Shoppes at Edgewater
Time:
9am ? til	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
11am-2pm	Live music with Holdcell
3pm-6pm	Live music with Rebel Syndicate
7pm-11pm	Live music with The Drew Tilman Band

Sunday : May 3, 2009 Location: The Shoppes at Edgewater
Time:
9am ? til	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business

Club La Vela
8813 Thomas Drive
Panama City Beach, Florida
32408

Thursday : April 30, 2009 Location: Club La Vela
Time:
9am-til	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
11am-2pm	Live music with TBA
2pm -5pm	Live music with Rebel Syndicate
5pm-8pm	Live music with ODIS

Friday : May 1, 2009 Location: Club La Vela
Time:
9am-til	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
11am-2pm	Live music with Kelly Hundly & The Healers
2pm -5pm	Live music with Rebel Syndicate
5pm-8pm	Live music with Holdcell

Saturday : May 2, 2009 Location: Club La Vela
Time:
9am-til	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
11am-2pm	Live music with Newfangled Theory
2pm -5pm	Live music with ODIS
5pm-8pm	Live music with King Cotton

Sunday : May 3, 2009 Location: Club La Vela
Time:
9am ? til	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business

Sharky’s Beachfront Restaurant & Bar
15201 Front Beach Road
Panama City Beach, Florida 32413

Wednesday: April 29,2009 Location: Sharky’s Beach Front Restaurant & Tiki Bar
Time:
6pm ? 8pm	$2.50 Drinks & Drafts All Brands
8pm – 1am	Kickass Karaoke

Thursday : April 30, 2009 Location: Sharky’s Beach Front Restaurant & Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
11am-til	Food & Bar ? Burgers, BBQ & $2 Beer
12pm-6pm	Bikini Bike Wash Sexy Suds & Shine
4pm-6pm	Hawg Happy Hour
8pm – 12am	Live Entertainement with TBA
12am	Bodacious Biker Babe Contest

Friday : May 1, 2009 Location: Sharky’s Beach Front Restaurant & Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
11am-til	Food & Bar ? Burgers, BBQ & $2 Beer
12pm-6pm	Bikini Bike Wash Sexy Suds & Shine
4pm-6pm	Hawg Happy Hour
8pm – 12am	Live Entertainement with TBA
12am	Bodacious Biker Babe Contest

Saturday May 2, 2009 Location: Sharky’s Beach Front Restaurant & Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
11am-til	Food & Bar ? Burgers, BBQ & $2 Beer
12pm-6pm	Bikini Bike Wash Sexy Suds & Shine
4pm-6pm	Hawg Happy Hour
8pm – 12am	Live Entertainement with TBA
12am	Bodacious Biker Babe Contest

Sunday : May 3, 2009 Location: Sharky’s Beach Front Restaurant & Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Schedule Coming Soon!

Pier Park
600 Pier Park Drive
Panama City Beach, FL 32413

Thursday : April 30, 2009 Location: Pier Park
Time:
10am-til	Demo Rides with Yamaha, Boss Hoss & CF Moto

Friday : May 1, 2009 Location: Pier Park
Time:
10am-til	Demo Rides with Yamaha, Boss Hoss & CF Moto

Saturday May 2, 2009 Location: Pier Park
Time:
10am-til	Demo Rides with Yamaha, Boss Hoss & CF Moto
11am-til	USRider News Best of The Beach Custom Bike Show

Sunday : May 3, 2009 Location: Pier Park
Time:

Frank Brown Park
16200 Panama City Beach Parkway
Panama City Beach, FL 32413

***Demos and X-Game Stunts
Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort
17403 Front Beach Rd,
Panama City Beach, FL 32413

Monday April 27, 2009 Location:Sandpiper Beacon & The World Famous Tiki Bar
Time:
8pm ? til	Live music with GENEVA

Tuesday April 28, 2009 Location: Sandpiper Beacon & The World Famous Tiki Bar
Time:
8pm	Live music with MUSTANG SALLY

Wednesday: April 29, 2009 Location: Sandpiper Beacon & The World Famous Tiki Bar
Time:
7pm	Thunder Beach Kick Off Party
7pm	Free Body Painting in the Tiki Bar
8pm	Live music with MUSTANG SALLY
9pm	Beachside Fireworks Display

Thursday : April 30, 2009 Location: Sandpiper Beacon & The World Famous Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
7pm-til	Free Body Painting in the Tiki Bar
8 pm	Live music with MUSTANG SALLY

Friday : May 1, 2009 Location: Sandpiper Beacon & The World Famous Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
3pmam	Live music with GENEVA
7pm-til	Free Body Painting in the Tiki Bar
8 pm	Live music with ELI

Saturday May 2, 2009 Location: Sandpiper Beacon & The World Famous Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
3pmam	Live music with GENEVA
7pm-til	Free Body Painting in the Tiki Bar
8 pm	Live music with ELI

Sunday : May 3, 2009 Location: Sandpiper Beacon & The World Famous Tiki Bar
Time:
11am	Vendors & Exhibitors Open for Business
2pm	TO BE ANNOUNCED

Rock’it Lanes
Shoppes at Edgewater
513 Beckrich Rd
Panama City Beach, FL 32407

***Vendors and Music

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.

Spring Break Really Picks up This Week

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Yesterday, amid overcast skies, fog and overall crumby weather, spring breakers partied in droves on the beaches of Panama City Beach. Drinking from hollow, plastic baseball bats, followed by spinning around in a circle ten times with the butt of the bat against your head, facing down, then challenged with hitting the empty can the beer originally came from ensures quick vomiting on our beaches.

I don’t typcially work on Sunday’s, but yesterday I wanted to capture the stunt act of the Red Bull Aerobatics Helicopter. My labors were in vain as the performance was delayed and still hadn’t happened behind Spinaker’s when I finally gave up at 2:30 pm.

This week is the largest spring break week of the season with approximately 2.1 million kids out on spring break across the country. Compared to last week’s 1.8 million, this week is expected to pick up a little. I’ll be quite interested to talk to hotelliers, etc. at the end of the season to see how the occupancy numbers faired. I’m sure it will be similar to the Country Crock analagy I gave last year.

If the plugin still isn’t working, here is the link to the pix.

Below is a list of the colleges on spring break this week, again, courtesy of TripSmarter.com:

March 16-20, 2009 (Mon-Fri)
College / University	Enrollment
Adams State College	2,308
Auburn University	24,137
Austin College	1,291
Brevard Community College	14,616
Brock University	14,443
California College of the Arts	1,670
California State University, Chico	14,500
Canisius College	4,857
Carthage College	2,930
Central Missouri State University	10,711
Claremont Mckenna College	1,135
Clemson University	17,409
Cleveland State University	15,706
Colgate University	2,750
Colorado State University, Fort Collins	26,884
Columbia University	24,820
Concordia University, Austin	1,400
Concordia University, Wisconsin	5,600
Cornell University	19,800
Delta State University	4,392
Des Moines Area Community College	27,000
Drake University	5,221
Earlham College	1,194
Eastern Illinois University	11,651
Edgewood College	2,500
Fairleigh Dickinson University	8,000
Florida College	600
Florida International University	38,614
Fordham University	16,009
Fort Hays State University	8,500
George Washington University	24,531
Georgia Southern University	16,841
Georgia Tech	18,747
Grambling State University	4,999
Grinnell College	1,555
Harvey Mudd College	746
Humboldt State University	7,773
Indiana University, Purdue	29,854
Indiana University of Bloomington	38,990
Iowa State University	26,160
Jackson State University	8,351
Jacksonville State University	9,000
John Hopkins University	15,000
Kansas State University	23,332
Keene State College	6,400
Lafayette College	2,403
Lakeland College	3,999
Lipscomb University	2,744
Madison Area Technical School	20,461
Manhattan College	3,000
Meharry Medical College	723
Montana State University	12,250
Morgan State University	1,221
Mount Holyoke College	2,100
Naval Academy	4,400
New York University	40,870
Northwest College	1,800
Ocean County College	9,351
Pitzer College	950
Pomona College	1,548
Princeton University	6,898
Purdue University	39,228
Rider University	5,790
Rutgers University at New Jersey, Camden	51,480
Rutgers University at New Jersey, Newark	10,246
Rutgers University at New Jersey	34,392
Saint Clair College	6,500
Samford University	4,400
Santa Fe Community College	14,500
Savannah State University	3,169
Scripps College	899
South Dakota State University	10,566
Texas A&M, Corpus Christi	8,355
Texas A&M	46,540
Texas Tech University	28,260
Towson University	18,921
University of Alabama, Birmingham	16,246
University of Alabama, Huntsville	7,100
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa	25,580
University of Alaska Southeast	2,800
University of Arizona	36,805
University of Arkansas	18,647
University of Central Oklahoma	15,753
University of Denver	11,117
University of Hartford	6,225
University of Houston	35,344
University of Idaho	11,251
University of Iowa	30,409
University of Kansas	29,260
University of Kentucky	27,209
University of Lethbridge	8,001
University of Maryland	36,014
University of Maryland Eastern Shore	3,297
University of Massachusetts	60,000
University of Miami	15,449
University of Minnesota	50,402
University of Mississippi	17,323
University of Nebraska	22,973
University of New Hampshire	13,547
University of New Haven	4,480
University of New Mexico	24,092
University of North Florida	15,619
University of North Texas	34,268
University of Northern Colorado	12,981
University of Northern Iowa	14,207
University of Oklahoma	29,721
University of South Alabama	14,003
University of South Florida	34,036
University of Southern California	33,389
University of Southern Mississippi	16,050
University of Tennessee	26,400
University of Texas, Austin	49,696
University of Texas, Dallas	14,480
University of Texas, Pan American	17,048
University of Texas, San Antonio	28,534
University of Texas, Tyler	6,150
University of Tulsa	4,165
University of Utah	29,192
University of West Georgia	10,677
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse	10,052
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee	28,356
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh	12,409
University of Wisconsin, Parkside	4,999
University of Wisconsin, Platteville	6,431
University of Wisconsin, River Falls	5,950
University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point	8,552
University of Wisconsin, Stout	8,416
University of Wyoming	13,301
Utah Valley State College	23,750
Valdosta State University	11,280
Vanderbilt University	11,847
Virginia Commonwealth University	31,907
Washington State University	24,396
Western Illinois University	13,600
Wichita State University	14,298
Wilson College	868
TOTAL	2,130,258

Bike Week on Panama City Beach, Day 4

Saturday was the last day of Bike Week, for me at least. There were still venues open and bikers abound yesterday, but since it was Sunday and I was completely worn out, I stayed home with the fam.

Saturday was crazy busy, although it seemed like there were more bikers on the road than at the venues. Riding around, it seemed like there were bikers everywhere. Talking to a friend yesterday, he said that it seemed like everywhere he looked, there weren’t just a few bikers, but several packs of bikers – streetside, hanging out, at gas stations, etc.

Talking to several local businesses, many thought this year was actually up from last year’s fall rally. If anyone has any quantifiable evidence to exactly how many people were here, please share! In the future, we’ll have to figure out how to make a count – I know that it hasn’t been figured out yet.

I spoke to the camp site across from La Vela, and they said they were busier than last year, but were unsure if it had something to do with more people wanting to camp because it was cheaper. Talking to vendors, I was told that sales were way up. Apollo Choppers sold 7 bikes! Ms. Newby’s had motorcycles parked all the way down Thomas Drive almost to where Red Rose is and Ruthy T’s used to be.

Check below for pics, and comment on the fun you had over the weekend!!

Bike Week on Panama City Beach, Day 3

Me? I’m great, other than my legs feel like they are about to fall off and I’m totally and completely wiped out. But, I had fun.

What many may argue as the first day of Bike Week on Panama City Beach, today was awesome. Technically the festivities started Wednesday. Some of the venues were open, some bikers had come in town, but for the most part, many of us were worried about the turnout for this rally. Things started picking up yesterday, but today, man o’ man, the bikers rolled in.

Talking around, the numbers still seemed down from this time last year, and I think most agree the current state of the economy and gas prices are to blame. However, overall the vendors I talked to seem to be pretty pleased.

The Apollo Chopper guys were ecstatic having sold 6 bikes between today and yesterday. Merchandise sales seemed to be going very well all around, and at 10 o’ clock tonight, Club La Vela and Ms. Newby’s seemed to be the only party in town. People were almost fighting for a parking spot at La Vela, bikers and cars alike.

I rode all day, and went pretty much everywhere; so did everyone else. There were bikers everywhere – from Back Beach Road, to Pier Park, all up and down Front Beach Road, at all the gas stations, condos, hotels. They were packed in groups on the side of the road, talking, hanging out.

Tomorrow should be fun.