Shout Out To Yakabout (aka YakAss)
Inspiration from Josh Holmes @ Yakabout.com.au
Much aloha and mahalo to Josh Holmes, aka "YakAss" of Yakabout.com.au. Yes... if you are visiting this site from Josh's recommendation to see the similarities, it's because of the software program "Joomla" that I am using. With limitations to Joomla, YakHawaii is not meant to be a copy of Yakabout. I've made changes to my website on the request of Josh, but there are limitations The software I used for the template came out of the box (Artisteer) that you can see by their demo from the Internet that gave me the options of having 2 or 3 columns. Yes I chose a center based main content feature with side columns on each side similar to Yakabout and designed my own header.
Before I started this site, I did communicate with Josh and he recommended Joomla as his content management system (CMS) and said it was not an easy program to work with but managed the content well, so I went with it. To have a CMS for articles, photos and videos, it's important to have the options of extensions that work in Joomla (photo gallery, comment section, etc...) in comparison to designing your own... that is why I chose Joomla CMS over others such as Wordpress, Blogger and Drupal. Design your own site and you will see why.
Now I really want to say that YakAbout to me is the best content driven website out there dealing with videos and article writing about kayak fishing. If you have not visited this site, I highly recommend visiting Yakabout. This site is a great place to learn from on rigging a kayak.
What draws attention to videos on a great website are shark stories that are on edge, whale stories because they are so huge in comparison to the size of a kayak. Great websites share personal experiences in the water... you never know what you are going to hook-up from a plastic floating device. And of course you need informative product reviews on "how to" equip a kayak for fishing. Josh is a fantastic writer that gives an Aussie spin on things and I enjoy his camera angles from his AI with his commentary on videos with suspenseful sound editing.
No my site is not a copy of Yakabout but shares foundations from the building blocks of CMS and videos in which everyone adds text and music to video. Since Yakabout started way back when, he will always be an original one no matter if he changes his look.Everyone who accessorizes a kayak for fishing uses various vendors on the web who pretty much sell the same thing. Your rigging can be very simple to heavily equipped based on your pocket book $$$. Our world of kayak fishing is very limited to the manufacturers of equipment and we will have some similarities including the waterproof cameras we use. Nowadays, I see more and more cameras out there on kayaks and videos posted to YouTube from the Big Island as well as all over the world. You are not alone Yakabout!
The bottom line to all of this... kayak fishing is kayak fishing. As I explained to Josh in an email, a newspaper company is a newspaper company. Pick one up and it shares the same similarities of design and content to all newspapers through out the world... news of the day, articles, photos, classifieds and so forth and focuses on local content. Same with a kayak fishing website using Joomla such as Kayak Fishing Magazine.
I am sorry that his website is experiencing a hacker and I only wish him the best as he designs Yakabout 2. As you discover new videos that fancy kayak fishing, just enjoy the content and don't worry about the "Artisteer" cookie box web site that YakHawaii uses. Thanks for the inspiration Josh and you deserve a lot of credit.
And I want to thank Chris Finch at Reel Islander Adventures, my kayak fishing buddy and friend who got me involved in kayak fishing after we read an article about it in 2006. And since I spent my time on the water video capturing his catches this last year (he catches often and posts his videos), I decided to mount my camera for myself featuring my hook-ups.
UPDATE: I have not been out on the water for three weeks as I was on holiday in California and hope to share some new future experiences as I get back out there. Aloha!