COVER STORY GET READY... GET SET ... But where's Jeremy? (Behind the photographers!) Photos by Paul Jurbala. Anatomy of a Publicity Stunt By Paul Jurbala, OWSA Executive Director Most of us experience chaos at some time in our professional lives, and some of us are so used to panic that we no longer recognize it as unusual. Still, it always seems funny reading about it happening to som- ebody else... Our mission this time around was to organize a water-ski oriented pub- licity stunt for the Toronto Interna- tional Boat Show that would top last year's front-page-of-the-Toronto-Sun coup. Coming up with something better than barefooting in January would be no mean feat (pun intended). Here's how it happened. November 1993: What to do? Barefooting in January had natural media appeal, but just doing more of the same would wear thin. How about a show stunt, like a pyramid? Too many people needed. A bare- foot pyramid? Too tough to do. Wait a minute...what about using World Skiboard Champion Jeremy Kovak? World Champion...lives close to Toronto...the flips will look great on TV...let's ask him! Mid-December: Jeremy's on board, Mastercraft will provide a boat again, Linda Crane (Boat Show publicity) loves it. Jaret Llewellyn's coming into town for the show - let's get him to do some colour commentary for the media. Two World Champions! January 6th is set as the day. January 4, 1994: Everyone's set. The press release is drafted - Linda will send it out at 8:30 am on the 6th. Linda has a surprise - she's invited a Sea-Doo to participate in the fun. Hmmm. The actual location is still to be finalized, as the harbourfront is freezing over fast in -20 tempera- tures. January 5: I scout out the site. Ontario Place is frozen over, but there's clear water at Marilyn Bell Park near the Argonaut Rowing Club. The forecast is for snow tom- orrow, though, and it seems like Linda Crane is getting cold feet(!). Evening phone calls to Mike Feld (Mastercraft), Jeremy and OWSA's president, Craig Rutherford yield a unanimous opinion: the heavier it snows, the better the media should like it. We're on! January 6: Jeremy is to meet me at Marilyn Bell Park at 11:30 am, as the boat is launched by Mike Feld and Craig. At noon, the press, Jaret and Linda Crane are to arrive. I finally speak to Jaret at 8 am - he's going to be on Canada AM that morning, then go to a meeting before coming down to the lake. The snow starts early, and in -15 temperatures the Don Valley is greasy as I drive south. Just at 11:30 I make it to the park - and the Roads Department has locked the entrance gate! Now what ... there's about 8 cm of snow on the ground...and the ice has moved east all the way to Argonaut Rowing Club! I drive to the Club parking lot and stumble through the snow to the shore. Further east, inside the breakwater, I see the Mastercraft circling. No sign of Jeremy. I begin driving back and forth between the park entrance, Palais Royale, the Boulevard Club and Argonaut Rowing Club, looking for anyone connected with the event. GO. Jeremy hits the water, while a cameraman records the event. Con't next page. COVER STORY Con't Easier said than done. In the storm, driving is becoming downrightdan- gerous, and each lap of 3 km or so is taking 10 minutes. It's just after noon (I'm on lap 3 or 4) when I see Craig's van. We agree that we'll split up and wait; I'll direct anyone coming to the park back to meet Craig at Palais Royale. At 12:25, Craig drives up to my snow-covered car outside Marilyn Bell Park. Three newspapers and four TV stations are now set up at his location - how they found him when they were supposed to come to the park is anyone's guess - but where is Jeremy? I drive to the CNE Coliseum in case Jeremy has gone to look for us at the Boat Show. I spin my car twice on the way, but without dam- age...Jeremy's not at the Show, though. At 12:45 I head back: we'll just have to apologize profusely to the assembled media. What an embarrassment. Still, it's hardly Jeremy's fault. Apparently the Burlington Skyway and parts of the QEW are closed. Just before 1 pm I reach the site. A miracle - the Kovaks have arrived! You would think the whole thing had been planned that way...the photo- graphers have set up out on a pier, and Jeremy's getting into his dry suit. Mike Feld has been circling the Mastercraft for nearly 90 minutes now - later he tells me he was trying to use the wake to keep the ice from drifting over the only clear patch of water. Still no sign of Jaret, who was held up at his meeting (and probably couldn't believe we would go ahead). The cameras roll as Jeremy hits the water. In his first pass he warms up a little (figuratively, not literally), and then tries and misses a flip. The boat circles back to pick him up - from where I stand 50 metres away I can see his face is beet red from exposure to the icy water. Ouch! In all, Jeremy spends about 20 minutes on the water, divided into two runs. He lands a few flips, one of which is captured in colour in Friday's Sun, over the caption "He is crazy...". The Globe runs a picture as well, while the Star makes do with a brief paragraph. There's TV on CFTO. When the Star reporter asks Jeremy how bad it was out there, he replies, "Every time I wanted to twist my body,all the ice on my suit had to crack first..." Smiles and handshakes all around. My hair hasn't turned grey, it's just snow. Another routine day... Our thanks to the heroes, Jeremy Kovak and Mike Feld, along with Ian Feld at Mastercraft, Linda Crane, and everyone else associated with this craziness. Now how will we top it next year?