Well it is the end of the first day of my Archery Trade Association (ATA) show experience and all I can say it man am I tired! I have spent days walking before but this is at an all new level of tired. But I can say it was all worth it!
The drive here wasn’t what I would call your standard 5 hour drive. We saw two different accidents that blocked the freeway on both sides completely but even with that delay we managed to arrive almost on time. After securing a parking spot we hit the convention center running. Well almost running, we had a bit of a problem getting our passes to get in the door. After a few minutes of looking they finally found them, now we are off and running.
I literally walked in the door and the first thing I see is a guy sitting at a booth talking with a company rep. I thought the guy sitting there looked familiar and low and behold it was Aneal Roney & Anthony Dixon from Bowcast! A quick hey dude and we moved on, didn’t want to interrupt the business deal. I began to take in all the glitz and glamour, we eventually wound up over at the Hoyt booth for our first stop. For some strange reason I think Matt Woodbury of Compass Outdoors, who came with me, had something to do with this although he would never admit it.
We were fortunate enough to get Hoyt’s marketing manager to spend a few minutes with us talking about the new Hoyt Alpha Max Bone Collector series along with a few of the Fusion line products they offer. They are now offering a nice line of youth bows that any parent would be proud to put in their kids hands.
Along with Hoyt was the other major bow companies, Bowtech, PSE, Bear, Browning, Ross, Quest, High Country, and the new kid on the block Elite. Yesterday, PSE debuted their new bow the “Omen” which claims to produce a speed of 360 fps!
Another new promising item was debuted here at ATA yesterday. It was the Rip Shot release system. This could be the hottest thing since the debut of the mini blazer vanes! I will definitely be checking some more into this product!
After walking the floor a few times we made our way to speak with the Mossy Oak gang at their booth and meeting up with a few of the Michigan Pro Staff members in attendance. Then it was off to a conference with Carbon Express, G5, Away Hunting Products, Quest, Dead Down Wind and Gorilla Treestands.
Dead Down Wind has quite a few new products to offer the hunter this year that proves to be promising. G5 has a new offering in the Montec series of broad heads that will be a nice addition to their line. The one thing that impressed me the most was the new broad head offered by Carbon Express called the F-15.
This new blade system is the newest design on the market and has the potential to change the way we think about broad heads. This is the one product along with the Rip Shot that I was truly excited about today! Since I’m literally sitting in the hotel writing this, it will be a few days before I can really start putting some of this into perspective and give you the low down on all the exciting things we saw today.
We also managed to rub elbows with a few celebrities, like Michael Waddell, 
Lee & Tiffany Lakosky, Chuck Adams, Will Primos, Tom Nelson and country music singer Blake Shelton to name a few! Tomorrow should be just as exciting, we already have a few more interviews lined up and who knows who we might run into. Be sure to stop back in for more on the 2009 ATA Show here in Indianapolis Indiana.
