LAKE COUNTY – Leggy models and breath-taking stunts may not be the only show stoppers at the upcoming X.S. Labor Day weekend bash at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa.
BoardStock owner and promoter Rob Stimmel is suing the popular resort for $300,000 in damages, according to a complaint the resort”s attorneys read in a phone conference with the Record-Bee.
But Stimmel said the main thrust of his efforts is to get an injunction to quite literally stop the show. He claims that after telling him in February that BoardStock was canceled because of problems with underage drinking during the previous year”s event, Konocti Harbor used a contact list of Stimmel”s sponsors, athletes and vendors to turn its X.S. Labor Day weekend event into his only viable competition.
“I”m not trying to put Konocti out of business, but they seem to have tried to put me out of business,” said Stimmel. “I don”t mind competing with them but all things should be fair.”
Stimmel said because of Konocti”s late cancellation he”s lost five months” time finding another home for BoardStock and promoting it. As of the resort”s 2006 Christmas party, Stimmel said he had a verbal understanding with the resort that BoardStock 2007 was a go for its usual mid-August slot.
“It”s put me in a really awkward position. I lost my prime dates now that I”m at the end of September instead of mid-August. I lost prime season,” said Stimmel.
Now, said Stimmel, finding out that Konocti Harbor has a similar event planned is like adding salt to the wound.
“If I was such a bad event and had all these terrible elements, how come he”s (Greg Bennett) trying to replace it,” said Stimmel. “Wonderbread5, SK2, the Hawaiian Tropic Model Search – those elements were BoardStock.”
Not so, according to Michael Senneff, an attorney with the Santa Rosa law firm Senneff, Freeman and Bluestone, LLP. Senneff is the principal on the case defending Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa and all other defendants involved in the civil suit, which includes Greg Bennett, who is president and general manager of both Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa and of its events promotion company Konocti Presents ….
When asked about Stimmel”s claim that Konocti Harbor”s X.S. weekend would steal the thunder from Stimmel”s BoardStock, Senneff pointed to the fact that the resort has held labor day events for the last 12 years, including its “Takin” it to the Streets” road rally, which is now going into its 11th year.
“By September – just after BoardStock – the question was raised about whether or not to have another event this year,” said Senneff. “Greg Bennett said he”d take a look at it and see how things shake out from this year”s event. By December they realized there were problems with the track record of BoardStock from last year”s event with regard to ABC aand kids” activities.”
Senneff also pointed to the fact that X.S. will not feature wakeboarding – a BoardStock mainstay – nor will it be a competition, but rather an exhibition.
Konocti Harbor”s X.S. Weekend will feature a new jet ski exhibit this year, said Senneff, as well as a motocross event, skydiving and its road rally.
A preliminary hearing for the motion for the injunction is scheduled for Aug. 27 at 9 a.m. in Dept. 1 of the Lake County Courthouse before Superior Court Judge David W. Herrick. It was continued in a Monday date-setting hearing due to Senneff”s vacation schedule.
Attorney Dan Beck, who represents Stimmel, said when he asked the judge if that would leave enough time to force an injunction before the Sept. 1 event, he was told it would not be problematic.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
