outings: a.k.c.a. seminar 2009

San Diego 2009 February 11 - 16
It has been a long time since I attended an AKCA Seminar, to be exact 8 years, the last one being in Houston in 2001. The seminar typically occurs in June which is our busy season and I just can't afford to be away at that time of year - which explains the long lapse in attending

When I discovered the seminar would be held in February this year I knew I had to attend. Mike Poplawski, who started with us last spring, was very excited to come along and we had a great time while and learned a lot as well

The seminar itinerary is as follows. Day 1 is a tour day for those who would like to see some of the local sights. Days 2 and 3 our lecture days and on the final day, Sunday, are the pond tours
akca kohaku
On Friday the seminars began. There were 3 streams so to speak - koi, ponds and 101/interest with these themed lectures taking place concurrently. I pretty much stuck to the koi stream. Mike attended some of the pond streams and filmed 5 of the lecture I didn't see. I'm in the process of watching them now

Day 1 Lectures
To start things off for me, Galen Hansen led a koi slide judging talk which was great. I was on a real role ranking the fish correctly but lost it on the asagi/shusui slide. the consensus number 1 fish was an asagi, I had it placed lower due to a lack of sheen on the head and not very pronounced reticulation. Live and learn is the name of the game with this hobby

Ray Abel filled out the first day for me with 2 lectures as he discussed raising koi in mud ponds and selecting good fish. I'm a big fan of Ray's and I have attended his last 4 mud pond harvests which occur every year in Midlothian, Virginia. If you want to see a huge number of show quality koi, Ray's is the place to be

  • shiro utsuri
  • showa sanke koi
  • Koi born iin the USA
  • Flamingo
  • Balboa Park



More Koi Hobby Lectures:

Saturday was another slate of interesting lectures. They included:
  • Selecting Non-Gosanke Tategoi
  • Open Veterinarian Forum
  • Koi Disease and Treatments
  • Joe Zuritsky talked and his koi breeding operation
  • Growing Jumbo Koi
The Growing Jumbo Koi lecture had a great pace with 3 different speakers supplying anecdotal observations. I feel this type of information has great credibility because it's coming from those who have actually "done it". We included this full 1 hr. lecture on our free disc in 2010, and now it is here too

growing jumbo koi

Download an mp3 version to listen to on the go
  • koi judging
  • pond tour
  • natural looking waterfall
  • USS Midway
  • bay filter system
  • parrots eating

Final Comments
This was a great event and a lot of work to present. I learned a lot and love watching the lectures videos over again because there are always things you missed or have forgotten

My only complaint would be that there was really too much going on ! Yes, if that can even be a complaint that would be mine. I wanted to see all the lectures and go on the pond tour. That just left very little time for speaking with vendors and taking in all of the koi at the 2 koi shows.

With 3 lectures gong on simultaneously most of the time, I'm sure some people were torn as to which on to see. I'm glad Mike was along and we filmed most of them, so each of us can watch the ones we missed which is great. I'm hoping the AKCA will present another Winter time seminar in the near future

1 hr. health lecture from the seminar on our Koi Health Care page