They say if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. For Jason Hawk, director of business development - commercial construction at Reliance Worldwide Corp. and an avid fisherman, fishing isn’t just a pastime — it’s a passion. During a fishing trip with friends, inspiration struck: Why not create an industry event where contractors, wholesalers, manufacturers, reps and vendors could trade their golf clubs for fishing rods? And  the Buds & Suds fishing tournament was born.

What started with only 29 participants has now become the industry’s premier networking event, celebrating its 15th year. However, Buds & Suds isn’t only about the fishing — it’s about the camaraderie, the stunning locations and the meticulous attention to detail that set it apart. Hawk, who juggles full-time responsibilities at RWC while owning and running the event, is always dreaming up fresh ways to elevate the experience for participants.

This isn’t just another industry outing — it’s the hottest ticket in town, rivaling even Willy Wonka’s golden invite. And here’s why.

The Wholesaler: How did the Buds & Suds Saltwater Challenge come about, and what inspired you to merge big game fishing with a construction industry networking event?

Jason Hawk: This did not start with the auspicious and lofty goal of creating “the construction industry’s most unique and exciting networking event.” In 2010, I was working for Holdrite as a regional sales manager and took a trip down to Baja Mexico to fish the Sea of Cortez, hoping to catch my first black marlin. 

As is typical with a group of friends on a fishing adventure, wagers were placed on who could catch the biggest fish. We each threw a $100 bill into a hat and the “competition” was on. 

That evening, while drinking margaritas, gazing out at the Sea of Cortez from a beachside palapa bar, celebrating and embellishing stories about the fish we had caught that day, and listening to my friend who caught the biggest fish of the day brag about the money he had taken from us, the question arose. How can I recreate and share this experience with customers? I imagined teams of contractors from across North America competing in a big game fishing tournament sponsored by industry companies. 

I reached out to some friends in the industry to see if they could put together a team of contractors and meet me in Mexico at the Sea of Cortez to compete in the first of its kind big game fishing tournament. The very next year, I hosted the first-ever Buds & Suds Contractor Invitational. The humble beginnings of Buds & Suds started with six teams from the support of five different companies who collectively brought down 29 contractors. It was magical and only the beginning of the story. 

TW: The December 2024 event set a record with 24 teams. When you first started, did you imagine the event would grow to this scale, and how it has evolved over the years?

Hawk: I started with the support of a couple of people in the industry who were willing to take a chance. Each year thereafter, I was able to add more team sponsors. By the end of the fifth year, I selectively increased the competition to include 14 team sponsors, and the stories about the event really started to spread. 

When I was attending various national industry events, I would hear people telling fish stories at the bar about Buds & Suds and started to have people approach me inquiring about how they could attend. I knew I had something special on the line. A couple of years later, I was up to 24 teams and had clearly outgrown the capacity at our current location in Mexico, stretching their resources to a breaking point. I needed to put a plan into action to find a location that would allow for expansion and help me take it to the next level. 

TW: What role does the location play in the experience, and how did you choose it for this event? 

Hawk: As the event grew, I felt that my dream to create the most unique, exclusive, exciting and premier networking event in the construction industry was becoming attainable. And I needed a location with the elements and the infrastructure that could live up to the vision. I found it in Costa Rica.

The story goes that in 1991, while fishing the Pacific Coast, Californian developer William Royster dropped anchor in Herradura Bay, Costa Rica. On this trip, he had caught hundreds of sailfish and an 800-pound blue marlin right off the bay. He was immediately captivated with the region’s natural beauty, unique topography, the amazing fishery and the warmth of the Costa Rican people. 

He purchased a 1,100-acre parcel of land that was home to 400 head of cattle and free-roaming horses and began building his dream, the Los Sueños Resort & Marina — a premier, exclusive, world-renowned billfish destination resort community. 

The Los Sueños Resort is now home to the Buds & Suds Saltwater Challenge. The spectacular resort grounds, the offshore fishery, the opulent villas, the luxurious condos, the world class marina, the top-of-the-line boats, the amazing restaurants, the delicious food, the warm and friendly staff — all exceed the expectations of our guests and allow us to confidently promote the event as the premier big game fishing tournament and networking event in the construction industry. 

The combination of our new host resort and the continued support of our industry sponsor partners has allowed me to grow from producing and hosting one event a year with 20 teams to doing two events each year with more than 40 teams in total competing. 

TW: Tell us about your most recent event — the highlights — and I’m sure you have a story of the “fish that got away”! 

Hawk: Although the format and the schedule of the event does not change much, every event has a different feel to it and the story line that comes from it. The December 2024 event was special in many ways. We had a record number of teams in attendance, a record team daily score and a record bar tab!

We kicked off the event with a Meet & Greet dinner party hosted by Bradford White at its  private villa on top of the ridgeline overlooking the Los Sueños Resort. It was a truly spectacular setting and gave our guests a great first impression. 

The next day, about half of the attendees went pre-tournament fishing and many of the other teams went on an ATV tour thru the Costa Rican countryside and jungle. The remaining teams either relaxed by the pool at their private villas or played a round of golf. That night, we celebrated with our official kick-off dinner on the beach hosted and sponsored by RWC. 

The next day we kicked off the two-day tournament and the fishing proved to be hot. The Midwest Sales & Marketing and Able Distributing-sponsored team, Liquid Liabilities, came out swinging with a daily record of 2,000 points by catching five blue marlin and five sailfish. The fishing slowed for them on day 2 and they were only able to catch one sailfish. However, that proved to be just enough to hold onto firstt place and hold back the Cregger Co. and Cerro Wire-sponsored team, Plumb Crazy, from South Carolina, which ended up in second place by catching two blue marlin and 13 sailfish. The Bradford White-sponsored team, Bad Company, from Southern California finished in third place with one blue marlin and 13 sailfish.

As it often goes with tournament fishing, only one fish separated the top three teams and provided an exciting finish that came down to the wire. For the first time in the game fish category, we had a tie on the Dorado Jackpot between the Kliman Sales team from Northern California and the Bradford White team from Southern California. Each of those teams took home $9,000. The Tuna Jackpot was won by the Joyce Agency-sponsored team, Going Deep, from Virginia; it weighed the biggest tuna at 59.48 pounds and took home $18,000. 

TW: Networking is a key element of the event. How do you ensure that the event fosters meaningful professional connections while still offering a fun and competitive atmosphere?

Hawk: Planning and managing a group trip for customers can be challenging and time-consuming. That’s why I’ve developed a unique solution for our team sponsors. From the moment everyone arrives at Costa Rica’s airport to their departure, my crew and I handle all the details, allowing them to focus on spending quality time together.

We provide seamless service, including private drivers and 24/7 concierge support, ensuring you and your guests can relax and enjoy the experience without worrying about logistics. Each team sponsor and their guests stay in an exclusive private villa during the four-day event, which includes an optional day of Costa Rican adventures and two days of competitive fishing on top-tier, tournament-rigged boats with expert top-tier captains and crew.

We’ve built networking dinners and parties around the event that encourage connecting with your fellow competitors. With more than $50,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs at each of the events, it’s not hard to see the competitive juices and banter between the participants flow. 

TW: Buds & Suds has a tradition of donating nearly all the fish caught to local charities. Can you tell us more about the impact of this initiative and why it’s so important to the event’s mission?

Hawk: I have been fortunate to have spent a lot of time on many different adventures around the world and have visited a lot of different countries. My most memorable experiences have always had a common thread — it’s the people that you interact with can leave the biggest positive impression of your experience of a place. 

Costa Rica is at the top of my list of my favorite places I’ve been, and it’s primarily because of my positive interactions I’ve had with the Costa Rican people. I want the Costa Rican people who have interactions with the Buds & Suds groups to know that we appreciate them because I know their positive interactions will leave an indelible positive impression upon our guests. 

We not only donate all the fish caught to local charities and churches, who in turn distribute it to those in the area who need it the most, we support local youth groups and other charities. I am always looking for different ways to positively impact more people there. 

TW: As he creator of this event, what’s the most rewarding part of seeing it come together each year, and what do you hope participants take away from their experience?

Hawk: The connections made, friendships built and stories that have unfolded are truly special and will long survive me, but the most rewarding part is seeing the team sponsors return year after year. It proves to me that the event is living up to their expectations. Fourteen years after the very first Buds & Suds Contractor Invitational, four of the original five companies that supported the idea and helped me get it off the ground attended the December event. 

Most of our team sponsors have been sponsoring the event for 10-plus years consecutively. One person, Brent Westover from Omegaflex, has never missed an event in the 14 years we’ve been doing it. Everyone has a lot of options available to allocate their entertainment budgets with customers, and to see them sign up year after year is very humbling and a rewarding feeling. 

Competitive offshore fishing is a very exclusive and extremely expensive endeavor to participate in. Most of the guests at a Buds & Suds tournament will be first-time participants of the event or the first time they’ve ever been to Costa Rica. Only a few of the guests have ever fished in a tournament before and the excitement that we create around the event is palpable. 

Whether it’s their first time to Costa Rica, first time catching a marlin, first time offshore fishing or first time competitively fishing in a tournament, when they leave, I know we’ve delivered a truly unique and exciting experience for them. If we’ve accomplished that goal and the fish are biting, I know they’ll have fish stories to tell that will last a lifetime and get bigger every year. 

Epilogue: After all these years, I’m still working for Holdrite (now part of RWC) and still in search of catching my first black marlin — fish on!