Back to Top

New Reel Giveaway







Here is the deal. For ages our connection has been more than that of a journalist and readers (or a wannabe-journalist in my case since I kinda suck at it). Throughout the years many of you invited me to fish, housed me during trips, helped me buy gear that couldn't ship directly to me, put me in contact with local boats and skippers, and I've got to know you on personal levels and made countless actual friends in the process.  


Now I feel it's time to give a little something back to the community, and while this time it's much less than you deserve, I hope in the future I'll be able to do it on a larger scale and offer much more expensive items.


I'm holding a free giveaway of a 2021 Spheros SW-A in a size and ratio of your choice, and it will be brand new as it comes from the factory and not a reel that's involved in any of my field testing whatsoever. It might not sound like much to some anglers, but over the years I've heard from thousands of fishos who couldn't buy a $200 reel. Therefore I ask you to please only participate if that reel is something that you normally wouldn't be able to afford so it would mean something to the winner. There is no joy in adding a Spheros to your collection of expensive Saltigas and Stellas :)



Information about the giveaway



1) The reel that will be given away is the 2021 Spheros SW-A. This is the fully sealed saltwater model that is a watered-down version of the Saragosa SW-A, not to be confused with the imposter "Spheros SW" of 2019 which I spoke about in this article.


2) This giveaway is completely free. No money or purchase of any kind is required. This is not a commercial site or a shopping portal and the only sale ever conducted here is the private sale of my own personal reels on this page.


3) My legal people require me to say the following silly stuff; my role is limited to gifting a reel to the winner. By participating in this giveaway you acknowledge that I bear no responsibility for the misuse of the reel, any injury you might suffer while using it, or damage to property or person arising from any fault in the design or manufacture of the reel. Use it in safe conditions, read the instructions carefully before spooling or mounting it, and follow all the wildlife regulations and laws governing sportfishing in your locality.


4) Also for reasons of legal liability, only people 18 years or older can participate. If you are a young fisherman who's not yet 18, please ask a parent, a guardian, or a friend who's over 18 to submit an entry on your behalf. The person submitting an entry on behalf of anyone under 18 affirms that he or she will supervise the young angler during fishing and that they bear all responsibility for the young person's safety and adherence to local fishing laws and regulations.


5) This giveaway is open to everyone from any country in the world. I will pay for the delivery of the reel to you anywhere. If your country imposes customs duties or importation charges, these will be up to you to pay. I will do my best for it to arrive to you smoothly without hassles but I have no control over your government's imposed charges.


6) By participating you promise that if you win the reel you will fish it and enjoy it. This is not for you if you want to get it only to sell it new or exchange it for cash, goods, or services by any means.


7) The giveaway runs until October 31st, 2021, 11:59 PM GMT. After that a winner will be picked and I will immediately contact him or her to ask which size and ratio they want. You must be able to check your email and answer within 72 hours of being informed that you won. If I don't hear back in 72 hours, someone else will be picked.


8) If the winner chooses, I will post a congratulations message stating their name. If the winner prefers not to have their name published, then I will respect their privacy and only state that a winner has been picked and received their reel.


9) I will be in the United States during the giveaway period, so your choice is only limited to the sizes and ratios available in the American market which are listed HERE.


10) This is not a promo and this giveaway is not sponsored by anyone. I don't engage in that filth. The reel will be bought, packaged, and shipped with my own money to make a fisherman out there happy.


11) For the sake of fairness, everyone gets only one entry. Anyone who sends multiple entries will be excluded. The vast majority of fishermen are decent honest people, but unfortunately there are always the few oddballs who don't care about fairness or basic decency.


12) If Naomi Watts is reading this and you want the reel, then to hell with fairness and you'll get the reel right away, in addition to my house, my guns, my car, my kidney, and the other kidney as well because I love you more than I love being alive babe!!!



How to participate



To submit an entry, please go to the contact page HERE and send the following:


1) Your name


2) Your city (not your detailed address, just the city)


3) An email address that will be active and accessible to you around the beginning of November 2021.


Please note the following;


* If you win, the reel will be sent to the name and city stated in your entry. This can't be changed.


* Due to the number of entries expected, I will not be able to send each participant a personal acknowledgement that their entry was received. If you click "send" and see the thank you message, rest assured that your entry was successful and has been received safely.


* If you get an error message from your network, then submit another entry using the exact same email, name, and city. This will not be considered a double entry and you will be entered in the giveaway.


* If English is not your first language and something on this page is unclear, please contact me and I will find a way to explain it to you with the help of machine translation or someone who speaks your language.


Good luck everyone, and hope this will put a smile on your face during these tough times.


Alan Hawk

August, 19th, 2021





UPDATE #1 - October 29th




Days ago, USPS suddenly announced disruptions and suspensions of international deliveries to an expanded list of countries. Here is a screenshot of the announcement as it appears right now on USPS.com in the early hours of October 29th


Free Reel Giveaway - AlanHawk.com.

4 of the countries affected by suspensions are ones from which I received entries. These are New Zealand, Brunei, Cuba, and Australia, which is particularly worrying since roughly 30% of all the entries come from Australia meaning there is a 1 in 3 chance that the winner would be an Aussie. For some of these countries certain services are still working, but these are prohibitively expensive options including some that cost almost as much as the reel itself.

.

In any case, there is still two days to go until I hold the draw and know the location of the winner, but I wanted to give you an early warning just in case someone from an affected country wins. If that happens, the winner would need to be a bit patient until I can work something out. I have some ideas to get around this, but let's cross that bridge when we come to it. Only wanted to give you a heads up just in case.

.

That's all for now, check for further updates on November 1st after the draw is done.

.

Alan Hawk

October, 29th, 2021





UPDATE #2 - November 1st


Phew! That wasn't nearly as easy as I'd anticipated, but we're finally there. Here are some data points and important disclosures;

.

* Roughly 1050 entries were received during the giveaway period beginning August 19th and ending exactly at the end of October 31st Greenwich mean time. The exact number is hard to pin point because the folder containing these entries has a few extra thread emails where I replied to some entrants answering a question they had included with the entry, asking others if the email was just a standard greeting or was meant for the giveaway, etc.

.

* Off the top of my head and without an actual count, the entries came from about 60 countries give or take 5.

.

* 13 entries came from 3 countries to which there are no readily available means of delivery due to war/unrest. Each of these people was offered an exception from the rule that shipping must be to the city specified in the original entry and were told that they can still participate and have the reel sent to a friend or a relative in another country. 8 of them came back with such a contact but 5 didn't and were unfortunately excluded from the draw with a promise that next time I hold a giveaway they would each get 2 entries to make up for it, of course if the situation had improved where they live.

.

* Expectedly, most of the entries came from the US amounting to ~40%, second place was Australia at about 30%, and surprisingly third and fourth places were Indonesia and India each at maybe 8-10%. Didn't know I had that many readers in these two gorgeous countries, and hopefully one day I can visit and meet up with some Indian and Indonesian fishos to see what swims in their waters. Other notable mentions were Israel, Bangladesh, Algeria, and Russia.

.

* Entries also came from places where the populations are relatively wealthy such as Norway, Denmark, Finland, UAE, Switzerland, and Kuwait, and I accepted these entries with the intention that if one of them wins I would first contact the winner to confirm that the reel is indeed something he/she wouldn't normally be able to afford. I stipulated early on that people who can afford expensive gear should refrain to allow this to make someone genuinely happy.

....

* I received messages from 8 "Naomi Wattses". 7 were silly fishos obviously joking and they were entered in the draw after we exchanged a laugh, but weirdly one appeared to be genuinely trying to convince me that he/she was actually Naomi, having set up an email account with Ms. Watts's name followed by a bunch of numbers along with a cover story that "she" saw my references of her in the reviews and was a fan but due to the complications of Hollywood life and tabloids she can't receive the reel herself and wanted to me send it to her "agent", a woman in California. I'm not naming and shaming because that woman could be the innocent wife/girlfriend of that crook, but I truly feel that my intelligence was insulted. I mean, yeah, I'm randy pretty much all the time and I worship the ground Naomi walks on, but I'M NOT A BLOODY IMBECILE!!

.

On that insane note let's get to the business end; all valid entries were collected into a folder and arranged by date they were received, then using Google's random number picker a number was generated and the message corresponding to it was selected. I emailed the winner the following message, and I'm still waiting to hear back

.

Free Reel Giveaway - AlanHawk.com.

If I don't get a response within the specified time frame, another entry will be chosen using the same process. Go ahead and check your email, including the bulk/spam folder. My message refers to winning and prizes, something that might trigger spam detectors.

.

Keep checking this page over the following days for further updates

.

Alan Hawk

November, 1st, 2021




.

UPDATE #3 - November 2nd

.

Heard back from the winner who permitted me to share his name and city, so congratulations to Marquis Grace from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. He chose the Spheros SW-A 8000HG, and I hope that he'll enjoy it in good health and catch lots of big ones on it.

.

This concludes the giveaway. I hope it was a source of some fun and excitement to you, and there is going to be more in the future. Life has been very good to me and nothing would make me happier than sharing my good fortunes with you, foul smelling bunch!

.

Alan Hawk

November, 2nd, 2021




BLOG    REVIEWS   LISTS    CONTACT    HOME