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This weekend Gill Athletics will be honoring all the people that have promoted the sport of pole vaulting in the past year. I am not sure who all is invited but i would imagine all the top names in the sport. I do know that Earl Bell who runs Bell Athletics and trains many of the best vaulters in the world and Tom Davis(my dad haha) for opening Hip Athletics.

Our coach (Dave Nielson) was invited and will be there. He is leaving tomorrow

yeah my dad is also leaving tomorrow i think about 20 or so people were invited if anyone else knows who will be there post it

I think Dave said that Jan Johnson and Anthony Curran were going. i'm not positive though.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that pole vault power's own rainbowgirl28 will be going as well!

Gill inviteded a fairly short list of movers and shakers to its first symposium. In short, we showed off our new factory and pole testing equipment. We have done approximalty 6 years of pole research and we wanted to share it with some of the top people.
Both the openness, and depth of information regarding poles was awsome. I think Jeff Watry and the entire Gill pole division demonstrated for the for the first time in the history of the industry, scientific data and information which was both quantatative and reliable.
It was very informative, and a lot of fun! Perhaps in the future it will be an annual thing. Perhaps, it will also be open to more invited guests. Gill wanted to keep it small because we were uncertian regarding a number of issues including space and presentation.
Speaking on behalf of those who attended, I think we all were very impressed by the scientific basis, and depth of the information. It was nothing any of us have ever seen before.
Here is a partial list of invited guests who attended:
Pat Licari (UWashington), Toby Stevenson, Derrick Miles, Mike Tully, Anthony Curren (UCLA), Jeff Hartwig, Mike Fontana (Dekan Ath), Ron Morris (On Track), Rick Attig (Nebraska), Dave Nielson (Id ST), Peter Mcginnis (USATF PV Biomechanics), Steve Rippon (UK Elite PV coach), Greg Hull (MF- Sky Athletics), Dan West (FTF-NW), Kris Allison (Lone Star Pole Vaulting), Russ Versteeg (New England School of Law), Don Hood (Texas Tech)

Probably, in a day or two, photos and stuff will be up on the Gill web site.
It was the best, and most informatitive confrence, of its kind, I have ever been associated with.
~jan~

yeah i heard it was very interesting and you got really cool jackets, also they informed people of the new pacer concept pole that has a different weave of materials and supposed to be 25% lighter i believe

Oh yea! The jackets were cool.
But the vibe was even better.

~jj~

hey JJ when are the new poles supposed to come out? I am looking forward to lighter poles they are always a plus

I am uncertian when they will be out.
It still may be a little early : . We have been product testing different versions for nearly a year. SJVSC, the English, some Germans and Russians have been testing them. A couple were even used in the Ogames . I think the product is probably 98% ready to go to market.
Its gonna be cool!
I might try to get Chelsea J to switch soon.
~jan~

The people at Gill, including David Hodge, Jeff Watry, Bryan Carrell, Jan Johnson, Steve Vogelsang, Fred Dixon, and others whom I'm sure I've left out, treated us like royalty. Thank you all!

The presentations were very, very impressive.

Jan's right, the positive atmosphere was something special. That company is doing an incredible job.

from my understanding when i was talking to Mike Tulley he said the poles wont be available to the general vaulter for some time because they need to sell the poles they still have in inventory, but some of the elite guys will be trying them out in the near future