ORANGE BEACH -- Rob Lynch may not be as involved with The Wharf as much as when he first moved his business from Ohio to Orange Beach.

But he’s still got his hands in some pretty exciting events coming to Pleasure Island. And he plans to keep those events coming.

Up first for his Odyssey Events is the Gulf Coast Yacht and Boat Super Show on March 30-April 1. He is also planning hydroplane boat races on Lake Shelby in Gulf State Park on Labor Day weekend.

“That’s massive, that’s unbelievable,” Lynch said of the boat show. “We’re going to be all up and down Main Street, up and down in front of the condos, all the docks all the way down, the Events Center with the whole hunting and fishing shows. It’s probably 800 boats. It’s huge.

“It’s grown beyond all my wildest expectations.”

For the past few months, Lynch had taken it upon himself to be the promoter for The Wharf as it languished without a buyer through the recent purchase by Art Favre of Performance Construction.

Among the events he promoted were for Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Mardi Gras.

Favre followed up that purchase up with another to encompass the marina and amphitheater and hired a management first to handle operations.

That team has their own ideas about how The Wharf should be operated and promoted, so Lynch is moving his office further up Canal Road.

“The bottom line is there is no place for me at The Wharf right now with the direction management is taking,” Lynch said. “But I support Art Favre in any way or capacity that he asks me or sees fit. I’m a firm believer in The Wharf and I always have been. We’re just having to make some changes based on the management company’s long-term views of this property.”

Lynch says this will give him and his company more time to concentrate on the core of his business: promoting shows.

“We’re going to focus our efforts on other positive things in the community,” Lynch said. “We’ll be able to use our talents to do so much more than just be focused on The Wharf. That’s the good news.”

And those begin at the end of March with boat show. The cost to get in the show is $6, but that will get you in for all three days. Parking is free.

“We’ve got advertisements in Birmingham, Montgomery, Nashville, Baton Rouge, New Orleans,” Lynch said. “We’re spread out across the board getting all kinds of people for a regional show and not just a local show.

“Plus we have the two tournaments during the show. The cobia tournament and the redfish tournament.”

The renowned Bass University will also be here during the show with co-founder Mike Iaconelli who is bringing a whole host of outdoor celebrities just for his part of the program. For more on the Bass University visit thebassuniversity.com to register.

Anglers can sign up for the cobia and redfish tournaments at rvexpo.net.

Lynch is also excited about a couple of other outdoor events Odyssey is planning, including boat races on Lake Shelby in Gulf State Park.

“That’s going to be a huge thing for the community,” he said. “We’ve already got approval to do this. We are in the pre-planning stages of putting massive hydroplane race together for Lake Shelby for Labor Day weekend. That will be a consistent annual event.

“And we’re going to follow up and have two events in 2013. One’s going to be the formula class hydroplane races Memorial Day weekend. We’re going to start summer that way and we’re going to finish the summer with additional hydroplane racing on Labor Day weekend.”

The first weekend after Labor Day 2012, Odyssey Events is planning a “Muddy Buddy” type event. An obstacle course-like event where competitors must complete the course in pairs.”

"We just got approval from Gulf State Park the weekend after Labor Day, Saturday Sept. 8 we’re going to have what’s called ‘Neptune’s Revenge,’” Lynch said. “We’re doing our own version of the muddy buddy race or the warrior dash on the beach at Florida Point.

“It’ll be a 3K run full of about 30 different obstacles. Running over the sand or up over mountains of sand and different things. It’s really a unique concept and we get people to participate from all over the Southeast. We’re real happy about this.”