SQ at SCRAPIN= Disappointment...

First topic message reminder :

I normally try to keep my mouth shut but sometimes things just need to be put out in the open. We just returned from Scrapin' the Coast in Biloxi today. While the show itself, which is mainly a huge car/truck show, was pretty awesome, the stereo competition was pathetic. I don't have a final car show entry total yet but I would assume they had well over 1500 vehicles at a minimum. Over 8000 spectators through the gate on Saturday alone. They sold ALL 2400 event tshirts, too (at $20 ea.).

I took my Camaro and had a customer & friend (Dustin Daigle) from New Orleans also bring his car (which was his FIRST show with NEW build this year). Ray from Linear/Blues had 5 guys competing including himself (one of which was ALSO a NEW true FIRST-time sq guy). An old friend and long time USACi supporter, Ralph Leake, was also there with a car entered (he also had a few in SPL). James Halter, also a good friend, was also there but did not compete but made the trip to demo some of his subs (there was 1 entry from TX). All of which bringing the TOTAL SQ "turnout" to NINE VEHICLES. SPL entries were over 150 according to the guys running the show (which btw were two- one on meter & one on mic).

I was made aware early Saturday morning that there was NOT a "certified SQ" judge even at the event. Now after a little confusion I was notified that one of the guys running SPL would be the SQ judge (sound & install). This was an apparent major problem with several at the show, not because of former "team affiliations" and a now severed relationship, but rather that the guy was NOT really an SQ judge nor had any background of ever having judged SQ at any event before. Please understand that this is in NO way a personal attack to any of those parties involved. I am simply stating the record.

In an attempt to rectify the problem, Ray had called Ralph and explained he situation. We BOTH ended up speaking with Ralph and I agreed to work with Ray and that if needed we would both judge any vehicles that either of us had in the same class or wherever there would have been a conflict. As it all worked out, being ONLY 9 SQ competitors total, NO two were in the same class, so everyone WON by default. No judging or contraversy involved in the final outcome (getting there- a different story).

Now with my thoughts on this event and basically ALL the rest for that matter...
1. No reason why MORE SQ competitors could not have SHOWED up for this event! There were show trucks from all over the country there (Maryland & Arizona I know for a fact).
2. SPL guys showed up by the tons- Bigger than Finals.
3. Huge venue, well organized car/truck show judging.
4. Well promoted event, it's 10th Anniversary this year!
5. Plenty of hotels, restaurants, and entertainment close-by- an added bonus.
6. Piss-poor 12v manufacturer support, although props to Kinetik, Memphis, MTX, Polk Audio, and whoever I forgot.

Every single SQ person (myself & the other 8 folks), all spent hard earned money, took off work, etc to get to this show and have our cars JUDGED! Not buy a trophy & points which is exactly what happened. Now I have been doing this for a long time and realize that things like this happen sometimes but frankly I am quite tired of it. I don't have to even have points for Finals (Xtreme class) but I try to show my support for this and other organizations whenever and however I can but enough is enough. Event promotors take NO priority in SOUND QUALITY hardly ever and this show is only further proof of the continued decline of SQ. This is not aimed solely at Greg, who hosts Scrapin, either. But it costs the same $50 to enter SPL as it does SQ. And if you can have/plan a successful event for 10 years that people enjoy and continue to return to from all over the country, CAN'T you find at least ONE well-known, proven, certified, SOUND guy, to judge a handful of cars????

I have been gone for 5 days attending this event, spent over $2000, and didn't work for 3 days myself at my shop only to return with a $50 (nice) gold metal 1st place cup for a car I am very proud of that wasn't even judged. Btw, I had NO MANUFACTURER support or monetary reimburement either. Zero. I have thought for the last 450 miles about why exactly I do what I do travelling to these shows. It is to compete. It is to help fellow competitors and help get new interest in the sport.

I simply refuse to continue to support something that does NOTHING for me and apparently is not, has not, and will not ever be a priority again. This post is only saying what the other 95% of ALL OF YOU HARD CORE SOUND GUYS are thinking anyway. I have not made my decision on Finals in Indy yet either but I can say that it is NOT looking good. I may stay at home this year, save $$$ and grief bigtime. Almost certain I will not go unless something really changes and I am guaranteed of top notch quality sound judges. I have nothing to prove and SPL will go right on along, without me being there. So there ya go- someone can go get an "easy" one.

Enough is enough.

One last word from me and I'm done for the night. I applaud the fact that Greg had a 15 year veteran of SQ onsite and willing to go out and judge cars. My question is, Does this gentleman understand the rules and classification of classes nowdays? Just having a great ear does not qualify you to Judge a show of this caliber. It certainly helps, but it is not complete. Classes are designed around the build and unless you know current install rules inside and out you still cannot verify. Sound feedback is always appreciated however.

We most certainly need a judges training to freshen up even some of the seasoned guys.

USACiGC wrote:

You know, I have been sitting back reading this post and to sit here and read this is a bunch of Dung Pile! I understand where Todd is coming from to a certain degree. Saturday I was confronted with a complaint that the SQ people that was at the event did not want Tj judging there vehicles and that's cool. But Sunday when I sent my partner who has been doing Sq for almost 15 years out to take care of the sq competitors and ext thing I know he said that all of the competitors agreed that being since no one else was in their classes that they would take their points. That was the last that I heard. Now, if someone had a problem with that then why did you not open your mouth and speak up then? Why are you waiting to get home and complain about it on the forums??? Chicken Dung Pile if you ask me. He went out there with the intentions to judge all of your vehicles. Hang me because I was trying to run an event that had over 2,000 cars! I had full intentions on Matt Sibley running the event but at the last minute he said that he couldn't do it because he and his new wife just bought a new house in Texas and they was moving. I contacted John because he has helped me before in the past, he said that he had someone who could judge sq and I was cool with that, especially being last minute. My question here is why didn't you all speak up at the show? Why did you agree to take the win by default if it was a problem? Why wait til now to complain? Sq hasn't been that great the past couple of years, I by no means was expecting to have 10 sq. If this is a problem I apologize and I will be sure that from here on out either you preregister for Sq or I will make sure it's a Spl only event.

I NEVER seen a SQ judge at that show on Sunday Sir ... We were at our vehicles giving demos all morning ...
I had a first time SQ guy there to see what this was all about ... I finally had to get Ray and Todd ot give him a demonstration of what a SQ judge would do with him and his car ... Nobody came over from the show since your wife talked to us ... I looked for you to talk and ONLY seen you during trophy time ...
Chicken S h i t ??? Really ???

USACiGC wrote:

I understand that you aren't singling my event out and that it's about all shows in general. But the reason I couldn't come out there was cause I was trying to handle 50 million other things. My partner who has been doing Sq for over 15 years went out there to handle the situation and to judge the vehicles. Now, if someone there at the show wanted to have their vehicle judged, then they should not have agreed to take a win by default!! That's my point. They should have spoke up and said no!

NOBODY came up to my truck with a scoresheet in hand ... Josh will say the same thing, it was his first Sound Quality competition ...
He was really nervous the whole time about what was going on ... If anyone needs an apology, its Joshua Sharp ...
We walked the entire park looking for you to meet him ...

Wow. ....lol....just wow. There is a whole lot of disrespect here in this thread. I'm just taking mental notes at this point.

Team Linear brought 5 vehicles to this show (Ray's, Herman's, Johnny"s, Mine, and the new guy Josh) Josh is not a member of out team, but a very good friend with a similar love for Sound Quality like us ... NONE of us would be in the same class ... Todd brought 2 (different classes) ... then that other guy brought 2 ... EVERY vehicle practically fell into a different class ... WE ALL wanted judging, why would we even care who judged our vehicles if we didn't ...
And then your wife threatened to Disqualify me and Josh for not having / bringing her our score sheets ???
What was that all about Greg ??? I never had a SQ scoresheet until I filled it out Sunday morning ...

I was your regional points champion for 3 years in a row, Ive dedicated alot of my time and money to region 2 Sir ...
Why would you call me a Chicklen S H I T ??? and yes, I'm taking this personal ...

Enough of this. I hear mountains of complaints but other than Todd Crowder and Ray Rafield who last week offered solutions on the phone and John Roberts who has worked hard to keep it going few if any other solutions were offered to fix it or make recommendations on solutions. SQ manufacturers no longer try to help instead they just set on the sidelines talking bad and stirring the pot further. Most have a favorite organization or favorite agenda that drives them. None of them offer to help grow the sport either promotionally or financially. You want to know the difference in commitment between USACI now and before? Nothing! USACI has not changed our commitment to SQ, the manufacturers and competitors and shops have. That’s my opinion.
SQ competitors used to come to membership meetings and protect their interest. USACI shops used to host seminars and promote judges and training. SQ Manufacturers used to come to shows, pay a membership, and help promote growth of SQ as a sport. With all that support a LOT got done on behalf of SQ. Today all of that has dried up. None of these things happen anymore. I have tried to get people to at least host judges training and no luck. USACI has not changed our commitment to SQ and we will not. We will continue to push in with or without the support and no amount of backstabbing or sabotage will deter that.
I get thrown under the bus every week. No matter who or what I get the complaints. Some can be fixed and some cannot. I do what I can but it never seems to make everyone (if anyone) happy. From now forward If you do not have a solution, do not want to help promote SQ, or just want complain without helping fix things, DO NOT CALL ME! I am wasting too much time on problems on behalf of people who could care less. If you are a USACI member, you love SQ and want to be part of growing it to past glory then by all means I still look forward to working with and hearing from you.
See the NEW SQ GUIDELINES post for more.

As for Finals, we moved to this new venue to support the industry, to benefit all competitors, and to promote the growth and life of SQ. If you are serious about SQ and want to see it grow you will be there in Indianapolis with USACI and IASCA SQ competitors from across the country. If not then you have shown your hand. “It’s too far, it’s too close to MECA, I don’t like the judges, my Manufacturer does not like your org, and all the other excuses are not good for SQ and are not welcome. Please do not bother to call or post with them.
Ralph Randall

Todd did make several good points in his post. Why so few in SQ? Over a hundred in SPL, near 2000 in car show, and SQ were OUT TO LUNCH? Hard to commit resources to SQ if the competitors do not come to the events. Let’s get off the sidelines and get into the game. Armchairs work fine on Sunday for NFL events but do not make the cut for USACI SQ!

As for Team Linear Power, Ray Rayfield has spent countless hours on the phone and in texts talking to me and giving me ideas. I sincerely think he is a very strong supporter of SQ. If we could just get some help getting it done then we would be golden. Unfortunatly John Sketoe cannot be the head judge now. All of this recent activity surrounding Biloxi has convinved himto withdraw his offer to do finals. Seems that the more we need help, the more we ask for help, the less we get it. I sincerely hope no one here intended to do more damage to SQ but still, that is the result. We stumbled and got stomped on.

I am truly sorry we are unable to make allt he SQ hguys happy. We still plan to do SQ, still plan to ask for and train good judges and staff to help with SQ. I hope we win back some of the great competitors we have had in the past.

As for thsoe who are just political, and you know who yoou are, please DO NOT COME OUT AND SUPPORT USACI SQ. We are better off without that kind of support. The previous remark IS NOT pointed at Team Linear or Ray. It is pointed at the teams who have single handedly done more damage to SQ in the past two years than USACI could have in Ten. Those guys who came to play only so their bitching and whining would be taken seriously. You know who you are qand so do we. Thsoe guys ARE NOT WELCOME and I will be contacting the team leaders and manufactureres involved to ask them to not participate. Perhaps wihtout that support SQ can be fun and viable once again.

And last, the joint finals IS NOT FINANCIALLY ADVANTAGOUS TO USACI IN REGARDS TO SQ. WE WILL NOT OPEN INVITE IASCA COMPETITORS JUST TO MAKE MONEY, AND WE DO NOT WANT ENYONE WHO BELEAVES THAT CRAP TO PARTICIPATE. IF YOU ARE ONLY HERE TO BE PART OF THE PROBLEM, GO AWAY.

Thank you and best of luck to the USACI sq competitors who are really about making SQ better and growing the sport. I sincerely hope we can continue to serve you folks...

Funny thing, in ANY ORGANIZATION, even the ones that I hear do SQ much better than USACI and who I am told are KICKING OUR BUTT if you look on their sites most of their events have NO SQ CARS. Huge events are lucky to have 3-5, and finals is a GREAT SUCCESS because they had 42 SQ.

This is not just a USACI problem, this is an SQ problem. USACI is just the pick on us flavor of the month right now.

And all the negative on the forums have just cost USACI our finals head judge. One more casualty of the WAR AGAINST USACI SQ... Tehe

TeamTCA wrote:

Well true true. If SQ was respected enough and ran properly maybe there would be more than "5" of us to compete. Exactly my whole point. Maybe I will just bring my S10 back out SPL only this time so at least I have someone to compete against. Whole lot less grief.

You sir own a business. As long as USACI has to survive with no industry income we have to be a business too in order to survive. You cannot stock 300 amp alternators in your shop for every make and model of car if you only sell one per year! You offer it to customers and then you order it in......

USACI USED TO have HUGE industry support and could afford to lose money on SQ because we had the support of the industry. Today we cannot afford to lose money on SQ lest we go out of business. Even the two of the largest and most well known SQ companies out there take advantage of advertising their SQ wins at events including USACI but do not purchase memberships, do not putrchase booth space, and do nothing but talk bad and hurt our efforts if their cars do not win. As long as it does not cost them a dime and their cars win we are golden....

USACI is no different than TCA, we do the best we can with the budget and support we get. You do what you can with the customers and budjey you have. That is thebest we can ask for in the worst financial times in my lifetime.

Cablguy wrote:

Team Linear brought 5 vehicles to this show (Ray's, Herman's, Johnny"s, Mine, and the new guy Josh) Josh is not a member of out team, but a very good friend with a similar love for Sound Quality like us ... NONE of us would be in the same class ... Todd brought 2 (different classes) ... then that other guy brought 2 ... EVERY vehicle practically fell into a different class ... WE ALL wanted judging, why would we even care who judged our vehicles if we didn't ...
And then your wife threatened to Disqualify me and Josh for not having / bringing her our score sheets ???
What was that all about Greg ??? I never had a SQ scoresheet until I filled it out Sunday morning ...

I was your regional points champion for 3 years in a row, Ive dedicated alot of my time and money to region 2 Sir ...
Why would you call me a Chicklen S H I T ??? and yes, I'm taking this personal ...

On behalf of USACI I wnat to thank you and the team for supporting our events. I was hoping to see you guys at Showfest. I am truly sorry that SQ at Scrapin was not up to your expectations. If I had the opportunity to fix what happened I would. The best I can do is assure that it never happens again. How to do that is a point of contention. I have made some changes that will hopefully have a positive impact. If there is howefer a problem like this in the future call my cell. Ray has the number. If I am not already at a show (was home this weekend) I will drive to where you are and judge your cars myself.

My ears and mind are open to your ideas and input. Please helpo me with some ideas to make things better out there for SQ.

No matter how hard I am pushed or how much abuse I take, SQ will be part pf USACI. Just FYI

TeamTCA wrote:

TJ, I don't have a problem with you as a person and have NOT said jack S H I T behind your back. I purposely did not mention your name in this post for a reason. Now its a different story. Anyway, props to you for handling the SPL duties and for even accepting the fact that you were, according to you, "volunteered" to judge SQ. I was not aware that you were NOT part of Team Linear/Blues until Sat. morning at the show. Regardless of being "certified" or not is the MAIN problem but even without that the simple fact that YOU and Ray's crew were former affiliated is enough to question integrity from anyone competing in SQ.

If Ray never "trained" you to do anything then I am in the wrong on that post and will be the first to admit it. The fact the all the crying and whining goes on at almost every event is not my problem. Drama seems to follow SQ no matter where it is. You don't like SQ nor the drama and BS associated with it, then fine with me but do NOT accept responsibilty to judge a show without the background in Sound and the Rulebook or that kind of attitude. Hey, I can appreciate the fact that you at least showed up and help run SPL.

Again, my reason for this entire post was to "bring to light" that there is NO reason why the things that happened at this show (& mainly all the rest) should have happened. At least, one qualified, certified sound judge could have been present and avoided the whole thing. It's all over with now so do not think I even started this post to degrade YOU or talk negative about YOU in any way. My phone # is on my website: www.tcaudio.net if you wish to talk about any of it. I don't talk about anybody behind their back.

I spoke to Greg Miller at length. His partner is a seasoned USACI SQ judge and fully qualified to judge. He was at the show but VERY busy. After all the issues came to light and the problems between TJ and a large number of SQ competitors on his old team this other judge was set to take over Sunday. By the time he got assigned to judge the decision to forgo judging and take trophies was already made by the Competitors and his services were no longer needed. I have more than 40 texts to my phone from that day and can say with little doubt that had this been a different show and the issue between the new and old team members had not been involved then we would not be having any of these discussions. The problem could have been taken care of without all the side effects we have seen as a result of this event and the posts in this forum. Hind site is 20/20.....

We decided to unlock this topic. Sure it is negative, sure it is bashing, but hey at laest it is signs of life in SQ! LOL

Seriously we want everyone to have a chance to get that opinion out there, clear the air, and get theis BEHIND us. We cannot move forward if we have stuff like this draggin us backwords......

jsketoe wrote:

Wow. ....lol....just wow. There is a whole lot of disrespect here in this thread. I'm just taking mental notes at this point.

Please don't. Hate for one show to be the catalyst fora meltdown. We need our judges to stay above the fray for the health of the organization.

Ok I am playing devils avocate here. But why in the hell would anyone believe there is/are/going to be changes made to help SQ when there are several posts/topics about the issues on the SPL side that have never been addressed? Hate to say this but USACi is a business and should be run like one. The competitors are the customers whether it be sq or spl plain and simple. To make up this sq competitors need to pre register for a show it down right ludacris. What happens if there is a show and 5 local guys just happen to stumble upon it and want to compete in sq? They are told sorry we don't have a sq judge, and they go away probably to never be heard from again. I have stated this before and I will do it again. I have attended the sq judges training that Chris Pate had at his shop a couple years back. Both my wife and I went to it and learned a great deal from everyone involved with the training. Have I ever received a call to judge a show, nope. Am I surprised? Nope basically I am a nobody that spend my wedding anniversary at a sq judges training with my wife. I was hoping that after the training we would be able to go judge shows and get some experience under our belts so that maybe one day we could do judging at finals. Well that has never happened. You can't really expect the customer to believe that changes are going to be made when all the other issues with this organization has going on. I have been around car audio over 22 years most of that time I worked at a shop. And during all those years I have never seen anyone ask their customer to help them fix a problem with their business. If the customer has a problem then it is up to the business to rectify the problem. How is it that directors can have 5-6 people helping in the spl lanes and not even 1 for sq? There seems to be the problem there no one is willing to admit that there is a problem with that. You can have all kinds of people helping with spl but when sq comes up everyones it like what's that. Face it sq is on its last leg, and at the rate it is going may not be around much longer. You want a solution to the problem? Here you go. Bring people on staff that actually give a Dung Pile about car audio! Not just spl! I love sq and have since my first show back in 1995. I took a 3rd place at that show, and to this day even all the first place trophies I have won or world championship vehicles that I built mean exactly dick to me. But I still have that trophy not a one of the others. I am willing to help out the best I can if needed. I can travel some with enough notice. I would hate to see this die off, but it looks as though there is not much hope. End Rant

USACiGC wrote:

ironmaiden wrote:

Not sure what happened to Rick?

Rick moved to Virginia Kevin

Wow didnt know that. Last I talked to him was around 08. Think he was talking of getting married. Rick worked his tail off that year, as well as everyone involved with Scrapin.

2008 was the last year I attended, greatest show on earth in my opinion. Having two sons in my 40's limits my time to do much and work, lets just say the funeral industry is no respecter of holidays, weekends, or any other min or hr, in our 365 day years

I dont know the answer to the problem with attendance at sq shows. I know the people that prefer bass for as far back as I can remember has always had a larger following. However, pre 2000, you would have to ask the seasoned guys like John and Onymrk. I know John has always worked on competing, judging and too many other things involved with sq to list.

Wish I new?

Ironmaiden...glad to see you post! Hope all is going well for u.

Alarm God , is nice to know that you are willing to help Judge .The reason , I believe , you have not been call to Judge even that you took some training it might be cause a lot of people take the training only to learn and help there costumers .

Well I will throw in my $.02. I started in car audio competitions way back in 88 with Alpine's C.A.N. While life, income, and family didn't let me be as active as I wanted to be.I competed when I could. Lately I have been out of it. But I have been and always will be into SQ. While I do like my music loud, Music not test tones. Back in the day it was a challenge to get it loud and sound good. that was before SPL only came about. Now it is all about loud distorted BS. No real challenge in that. Reading some of the posts that John linked to. It says that SQ takes time, well people SPL takes more time. I have waited at several shows for SPL to be done to have awards. But had to wait on the local idiots who wanted to try and get 1 more DB out of his street vehicle. Doing re-runs after re-run.
I can understand what is being said about lack of SQ judges and judging at an event. With me I would be peeved if I drove to a show that advertised SQ and found there was no SQ or qualified SQ judges. For me most events are at least a day or more drive. Why should I spend my hard earned money to attend a show where SQ might be held.

Tim

Just a little bit about me since I know almost none of you know me.

I've been in the industry now for almost 10yrs. (I know that's just a drop in the bucket compared to some!) This will be only my second year as a competitor. So as someone who IS new, and TRYING DESPERATELY to be apart of SQ because I am passionate about it, here is my .02

Last year (my first year) was more of a learning experience than anything else. I attended Siknic, Scrapin, Pandemonium and Finals. I placed third in Mod Q last year at Scrapin' and am not totally sure if there were even more than 3 in my class. Other than that and Finals, the other shows I went to didn't have a SQ judge at all. I was shocked. How could this be? I thought to myself. I sort of got the feeling there was nobody really interested in me being there. The competitiveness I hoped to find wasn't there. From what I've been reading, this is much more commonplace than I thought. Being a new competitor, I saw first hand what happened at Scrapin' this year and with it being as big of a show as it is, how can I not expect that to happen everywhere else I go for USACi? I've been to 5 total USACi shows as a competitor with 3 of them being absent of SQ judging. How can you expect a turn out when people already know this is how it's going to be? Hell, I didn't know but I do now. How can a business (USACi) expect to retain a clientell base that feels neglected? I'm sure there are countless potential SQ competitors that have been lost, never to return only because of piss poor management and a neglectful attitude towards what seems to be the red headed step child of the organization (SQ).

Don't wonder why the turn out for SQ is low when you have people who are showing up to be judged, only to find out there's no one interested in their participation. At-least, that's how I felt being a second year competitor. I've now started to question my motive to continue. What's the point? Why should I continue to "compete" against myself?

All these regional managers, or other people in charge of the shows and organization that are looking to point fingers at anyone other than themselves to justify the ridiculousness that I've experienced, need only to look in the mirror to see what the problem is. It's YOU killing the sport with your lack of support for your customer base. There's absolutely no excuse for offering SQ at such a large event, then not having a judge there (who is qualified) other than just plain laziness or a lack of giving a sh!t. You can't sit back and blame vendors and shops for a lack of SQ competitors when you're not even catering to the ones that do compete! Especially the new ones! Just like myself.

I WANT to compete, I LOVE music, and sound in general. But I won't, if this sort of thing continues.

BBGIC wrote:

Cablguy wrote:

Team Linear brought 5 vehicles to this show (Ray's, Herman's, Johnny"s, Mine, and the new guy Josh) Josh is not a member of out team, but a very good friend with a similar love for Sound Quality like us ... NONE of us would be in the same class ... Todd brought 2 (different classes) ... then that other guy brought 2 ... EVERY vehicle practically fell into a different class ... WE ALL wanted judging, why would we even care who judged our vehicles if we didn't ...
And then your wife threatened to Disqualify me and Josh for not having / bringing her our score sheets ???
What was that all about Greg ??? I never had a SQ scoresheet until I filled it out Sunday morning ...

I was your regional points champion for 3 years in a row, Ive dedicated alot of my time and money to region 2 Sir ...
Why would you call me a Chicklen S H I T ??? and yes, I'm taking this personal ...

On behalf of USACI I wnat to thank you and the team for supporting our events. I was hoping to see you guys at Showfest. I am truly sorry that SQ at Scrapin was not up to your expectations. If I had the opportunity to fix what happened I would. The best I can do is assure that it never happens again. How to do that is a point of contention. I have made some changes that will hopefully have a positive impact. If there is howefer a problem like this in the future call my cell. Ray has the number. If I am not already at a show (was home this weekend) I will drive to where you are and judge your cars myself.

My ears and mind are open to your ideas and input. Please helpo me with some ideas to make things better out there for SQ.

Apology accepted ... Thank you Sir ...

Ok... Ive been away for a while... but this was too good not to chime in on...

Yeah It costs more all around for SQ... we get no sponsorship notice hardly at all these days cause they would rather be playing the field of SPL blowing woofers and amps and getting more product sold etc... Usaci has kinda shown that SQ is a bit of a black sheep here lately from what Ive seen... If I never compete again in SQ I will have known I have gone to WF 1 time in my life and was able to compete against a very seasoned competitor, Team TCA, only beaten by spl score, won the points championship in my Region and the Nation in SQ, soI cannot complain on that department.. I have met some of yall here and there and the ones still around genuinely do care about the sport, as most of yall who chime in here,

Truths of the matter is We all care about it, but like you said earlier TCA, driving all those miles and the $ out of pocket for a show like scraping isnt there man,
Something ive seen is that the trend of putting all these major events with basically just scene shows it kinda narrows the field... the trends these days are q power woofers hidden in some fiberglass and makes some noise playing rap music loud for those guys... Now we have out SPL GUYS that those guys look up to and putting up a bigger number for them is all that matters... Were 2 differe type of people all in all, people think it takes 5 to 20k to build a sq vehicle... well to compete in extreme yeah I can see that somewhat... But the intro class is very basic, modified is a big step up in some ways, some ways not, but very tough.. But the $ to get started isnt bad if you have any install skill and an ear for sound,

I have been through hell and back this last year and almost died, I may have said some things to some of you that I dont remember and could have been rude and not the best attitude in the world. for that I appologize to anyone who it may have rubbed wrong.

I can say this much, some people have this holyer than thou attitude walking around at shows and finals and like their schiznit doesnt stink... that will discourage any new competitors comming in for sure.

Its bad that the side of the sport that was once all throughout magazines and make so much ground breaking for what we have these days is so much of a dying breed and has a very low support from the sanctioning organizations...

As said above, having the spl guys keep going and going for .01 db is getting a bit out of hand, were not going for big $ payouts here, esp at local shows etc...