Ride a bike around South Beach, engage in ridiculous antics, possibly win a sweet prize -- where do we sign up? This will be the mantra of every Miami bike enthusiast when they hear the details of the second annual Bike Hunt, a wacky scavenger hunt on wheels.
Beached Miami and Emerge Miami have partnered up to plan an afternoon of awesome, absurb adult fun. Think showering in public fountains, cannonballing into public pools, playing ball boy at a tennis game, and more straight up ridiculousness.
This is the second go-around for this crazy ride. The first went down in March 2011, and people had a blast, says Beached Miami Editor Jordan Melnick.
"This kind of kind thing where you send people on these missions, it gets people to explore South Beach in a new way. We tie in daring types of things, silly things, historic challenges," said Melnick. "It's really just about having a good time. I always like to see adults acting silly. It's heartwarming."
Basically, teams of two can sign up to take part in the South Beach excursion. Teams will get a list of the top-secret challenges (released on hunt day), and will then earn points by sharing photos of completed challenges via Twitter, using the hashtag #bikehunt305. So yeah, someone on each team has to have a Twitter account and a smartphone. Not a tough requirement in this day and age.
As far as what the challenges will be, Melnick's says it's top secret. But he offers this advice: "We try to choose challenges in accordance with the sponsors. The idea is to stretch people out across South Beach, and all sponsors except Sweat Records are located here (and Panther Coffee is about to open a new location on the beach). We'll be able to encourage people to move around and really get to explore the area."
The team with the most points at the end of the afternoon scores the grand prize, two $400 gift cards to Republic Bike. Badass. And there are other prizes, too, including pair of tickets to the Regina Spektor concert at the Fillmore, a pair of $20 gift cards for Panther Coffee, a pair of one-year memberships to the Miami Beach Cinematheque and two pairs of tickets to any of its upcoming Buster Keaton screenings, and a pair of $10 gift cards for Sweat Records.
After the hunt comes to a close, Grolsch brew is sponsoring an after-party at Purdy Lounge, complete with drink specials and a winner's circle.
During the first bike hunt, organizers had participants email photos after the fact, so they couldn't track the action as it was happening. This year, they decided to utilize Twitter so they could watch all the antics in real-time.
"The coolest thing about it is that we're gonna be tracking it as it happens. If we max out on our 60 teams, and the average person does 20 challenges, that's 1,200 Tweets flying around. And people partnering with us will be retweeting things, so there's a strong potential for this to generate a lot of buzz online," Melnick adds.
The team hopes the hunt will help locals explore South Beach in a new way.
"We're really going to push your boundaries, and we do try to tie in some of the interesting businesses, some of the interesting history, the landmarks -- so it's just fun on that level. It's also fun to meet people who are into this kind of thing. The people in the bike scene, the people who are in the Beached Miami community and the Emerge Miami community, they're all really good people," Melnick says.
"It's social, it's fun, and you have a chance to win really good prizes. You have a chance to hang out afterward and drink Grolsch at a discount. What is there that's better to do on that day?"
The Miami Bike Hunt kicks off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 10 at 1700 Purdy Avenue (Maurice Gibb Memorial Park). Registration runs from 12:30 till hunt time. Tickets are $10 for a team of two, and the event is limited to 60 teams. At least 20 teams have already signed up, so get to it already! Potential attendees can check out the event page on Facebook.
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