Hair Salon near Ladson, SC

The Auto Care Association announced the latest recipients of the World Class Technician Award in partnership with the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). The two organizations provide this annual recognition to professional technicians who have attained ASE certification in 22 specific areas during the previous calendar year.

ASE says there are an estimated 887,000 technicians in the United States, with approximately 250,000 holding ASE certification. As of now, there are 2,224 technicians who have earned the respected status of “World Class Technician” since its inception more than 30 years ago, according to ASE.

The class of 2023 World Class Technicians is:

Anthony H. Caputa – Arnold, Mo. Arlen Parker Hart – Athens, Ga. Bobby Leatherman – Stony Point, N.C. Bradley Kilwy – Plano, Texas Brian Ward – Denton, N.C. Bryan Jensen – Apple Valley, Calif. Craig Wilkins – Fillmore, Calif. Dale Collins – Orange Park, Fla. Daniel Hammond – Indianapolis, Ind. Daniel Indovina – Centennial, Conn. David Yentema – Macedon, N.Y. Don Verville – Cape Coral, Fla. Gordon Marr – Yorba Linda, Calif. Gregg Brinlee – Detroit, Mich. Gregory Pheasant – Sparks, Nev. James Moody – Heber Springs, Ark. Jarod Johnson – Lubbock, Texas Jason Kirby – Groveland, Fla. Jeff Autery – St. Louis, Mo. Joel A. Pritchard – Warren, Mich. John Lewins – Nashville, Tenn. John Vaccarello – Detroit, Mich. Jon Ewing –Detroit, Mich. Jorden Ellis – Corpus Christi, Texas Luke Plant – Edmond, Okl. Marcus Buchholz – Detroit, Mich. Mario Monsivais – Houston, Texas Matt York – Canton, Ga. Michael Gavrielides – Winterville, Ga. Nathaniel A. Dillard – Brookwood, Ala. Paul Bostel – Apple Valley, Minn. Paul French – Dallas, Pa. Robert Bridges – Omaha, Neb. Rodney Prince – Henderson, Nev. Roger Abbey – Rochester, N.Y. Russell Andrew Ringling – Warrenton, Va. Ryan Woods – Old Bridge, N.J. Sam Mott – Moncks Corner, S.C. Shawn Williams – Ladson, S.C. Thomas Kepler – Curtice, Ohio Tyler Grahl – Newport, Tenn. Victor Hasstedt – Hollister, Calif. William P. Link –Virginia Beach, Va. William Pickham – Bensonville, Ill.

For more information about the Auto Care Association’s World Class Technician certification qualifications, timing and recognition, visit the association’s World Class Technician webpage.

For more information about ASE and service professional certification, visit ase.com.

LADSON, S.C. (WCSC) - A free closet is helping young girls in the community find their inner and outer beauty ahead of this year’s prom season.

Tiana’s Closet started in 2018 and creates a shopping experience for girls who may not have the opportunity to get the dress of their dreams.

The closet is made possible by donations of dresses, shoes, jewelry and purses.

Director of Tiana’s Closet Andrea Hampton Mills says every girl deserves a night to remember, and they hope that shopping at Tiana’s Closet can give them that experience.

“Our ultimate goal is for these young ladies to leave with a smile on their faces,” Mills says. “When they walk in the door, they need to feel love, and when they walk out they need to. That’s really what we’re all about is making these girls know that they’re worthy and they are deserving.”

They dressed over 30 girls Saturday from head to toe but also included affirmations for them to remember their self-worth regardless of their appearance. Some of the positive affirmations include self-worth, being resilient, body image and planning for the future.

“It means the world to me,” Tiana’s Closet volunteer Kayla Lofton-Black says. “I remember at that time, I’ve always been a chunky baby, so being able to help young ladies find dresses that fit their body and that makes them feel confident and beautiful; it’s just everything to me. I’m really glad that I got to be a part of this today.”

Tiana’s Closet takes donations all year long to prepare for the event and clean anything that may be dirty before giving it to the girls. They have locations in Ladson, Summerville, Moncks Corner and Holly Hill.

“Just knowing how many girls deserve a night to remember, but sometimes it’s difficult, we want to bridge that gap,” Mills says.

The event was from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, but if you are in need of a prom dress this spring, girls can still shop the closet.

Contact Tiana’s Closet on Facebook or call 762-529-4183 to schedule a shopping appointment between March 5 and 19.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

SUMMERTON, S.C. (March 6, 2023) – Boater Joey Sabbagha of Prosperity, South Carolina, caught a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 3 ounces, Saturday to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) Tournament on Santee Cooper . The tournament, hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce, was the second event for the BFL South Carolina Division. Sabbagha earned $6,000 for his victory.

“During practice I found some fish in the lower lake that were staging in some shallow depressions on some flats,” said Sabbagha, who notched his second BFL win. “So, I ran that pattern of five depressions I found that had fish laying in them. I just rotated through them with a Berkley spinnerbait.”

Sabbagha said he targeted flats in 3½ feet of water, where the subtle depressions lay in four feet of water. The method provided Sabbagha with his weigh fish within his first two stops on tournament day. He said he caught nine keepers during the day, but wasn’t able to improve his weight. That early weight, however, turned out to be enough for the win.

“I expected it to take 26 to 28 pounds to win,” Sabbagha said. “But we had a storm come through the night before the tournament and it muddied up some of the water, and I think that affected the fish.

“To get the win on my favorite lake is pretty awesome,” added Sabbagha. “I’m very surprised and happy with it.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st: Joey Sabbagha, Prosperity, S.C., five bass, 23-3, $6,000 2nd: Mark Hutson, Moncks Corner, S.C., five bass, 21-1, $3,000 3rd: Robert Clarke III, Pineville, S.C., five bass, 20-10, $2,000 4th: Jack Belt, Fountain Inn, S.C., five bass, 19-12, $1,400 5th: Chuck Howard, Elloree, S.C., five bass, 19-10, $2,200 6th: Greg Rikard, Leesville, S.C., five bass, 18-12, $2,570 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus) 7th: Bryan Cook, Vance, S.C., five bass, 17-15, $1,000 8th: Matt Wieteha, Miami, Fla., five bass, 17-14, $900 9th: Corey Hymer, Bridgeton, N.J., five bass, 17-5, $800 10th: Freddie Gibbs, Darlington, S.C., five bass, 17-3, $700

Chuck Howard of Elloree, South Carolina, caught a bass that weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces, and earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award of $1,000. Jerry Robbins of Asheboro, North Carolina, won the Strike King co-angler division and a total of $3,000 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 17 pounds, 12 ounces.

The top 10 Strike King co-anglers finished:

1st: Jerry Robbins, Asheboro, N.C., five bass, 17-12, $3,000 2nd: Samuel Jones, Fuquay Varina, N.C., four bass, 13-5, $1,500 3rd: Bobby Henderson, Charlotte, N.C., five bass, 13-2, $1,400 4th: Alan Bennett, Greenwood, S.C., five bass, 12-10, $700 5th: Scott Bowers, Woodbridge, Va., four bass, 12-7, $600 6th: Jeff Bissen, Lugoff, S.C., four bass, 12-2, $550 7th: Dustin Powell, Lake City, S.C., three bass, 11-12, $500 8th: Justin Antley, Ladson, S.C., four bass, 11-3, $450 9th: Tyler Hensley, Bostic, N.C., four bass, 10-14, $400 10th: Wesley Mullins, Guyton, Ga., four bass, 10-1, $350

Joe Case of Easley, South Carolina, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $500, catching a bass that weighed in at 8 pounds, 2 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.

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Ladson, SC – Even among the nation’s best bass anglers, whispers of words like big crappies attract a captive audience. So it was for Major League Fishing star David Walker, a confirmed crappie sneak. One day, while driving home from his latest bass derby, Walker found himself daydreaming about a local crappie lake and the makings of an epic fish fry. “After a hectic bass tourney, I love coming home and catching a boatload of crappies or white bass with my daughters,” says Walker, a wizard with a small jig and softbait.

A lifelong panfish fan, Walker recently discovered a new bait concept for crappies, perch and bluegills. Ironically, the idea first occurred to him while fishing bass tournaments.

“When I first started throwing these so called ‘superplastics’ for bass several years ago, I quickly learned an almost magical advantage of the material known as ElaZtech, which was that panfish and other nuisance fish couldn’t peck the tails off the back of your bass jigs,” recalls Walker. “While bass fishing with traditional soft plastics, it’s always been a headache and major time waster when you’ve got perch, sunfish and other tail-pecking fish in the area. But using these ElaZtech baits, I discovered panfish could peck them all they wanted, with little to no effect on the bait. I could stay in the game, non-stop, without reeling torn baits back to the boat, and constantly re-rigging a new tail.”

All the while, Walker was thinking about crappies. He knew that ElaZtech’s advantages held tremendous panfish potential. “This is a material that’s wonderfully soft and lively, making it easy to activate, so it moves and undulates fluidly in the water,” he notes.

“Like most anglers, I accepted for years that traditional panfish sized soft plastics just don’t move that well underwater. Because they’re relatively rigid, traditional soft crappie baits tend to lose action the smaller you make them. So, you often had to resort to larger baits than you wanted or had to retrieve them faster to achieve the desired tail movement or the right swimming action. Neither are ideal for a fish that often exhibits size and speed selectivity in their feeding habits.

“You’ll understand that when I started fishing ElaZtech, I was pretty excited about its advantages for bass. But secretly, I couldn’t wait until panfish-sized superplastics arrived on the scene. Combine a super soft, lively bait with crazy durability and you quickly appreciate what I’m saying. This stuff has all the makings of the perfect panfish bait.”

A few days after the finish of a recent bass tournament, Walker found himself on his favorite crappie lake. He spotted the aqua-blue packs of new Z-Man Micro Finesse baits lying on his boat deck and a light bulb ignited. “I grabbed up a pack of Shad FryZ™— a cool little 1-3/4-inch paddletail swimbait— and put it on a 1/10-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ™ panfish jig. Almost immediately, it became my favorite crappie bait, and here’s why.”

From the first few casts, Walker noticed that in water the bait’s tail activated and kicked realistically, almost effortlessly, even at slow retrieve speeds. “The Shad FryZ is one of those rare crappie-sized swimbaits whose tail will wag and thump even as it’s falling. Crappies can be really speed sensitive, in terms of lure retrieves and drop-speed. Too many traditional crappie baits require excessive speed to activate them; often, that’s too fast for crappies, especially in cooler water.”

Walker, a deep-thinking angler who’s always conjuring ways to maximize lure performance, suggests that bait buoyancy and rate-of-fall remain two ignored factors in the crappie-catching equation. “Consider that the natural buoyancy of the Shad FryZ slows its sink rate. So, while I can benefit from the extra casting weight of a 1/10-ounce jig, the rigged bait flutters and fishes more like a 1/16-ouncer. And it still exhibits that nice natural tail-kick on the fall that induces bites.

“As veteran anglers know, crappies primarily feed up,” Walker continues. “So, keeping your lure at or a few feet above their eye level is of utmost importance, especially in spring.”

Unlike traditional PVC soft plastics, which sink, Walker notes that ElaZtech baits float, slowing the drop-speed of the jighead. “That’s something you simply can’t do with other crappie baits, because traditional plastisol baits sink fast—often, shooting right through the active strike zones of crappies and other panfish.”

To further tweak rate of fall, Walker spools with “straight 6- or 8-pound test braided line and no leader,” he suggests. “After trying those micro-thin 2-, 3- and 4-pound test braids, I realized thicker diameter braid, which floats, slows the lure’s rate of fall a bit more.”

Walker offers another tip for creating a semi-permanent soft “lure” that catches dozens of fish without replacing the tail. “Add one drop of Loctite Gel Control glue to the jighead before threading on the Shad FryZ or other Micro Finesse body,” he explains. “This locks the bait in place and has allowed me to catch close to 50 crappies on one single bait—all without re-rigging or even re-positioning the original bait on the jig hook.”

Analogous to the way anglers initially perceived braided superlines, Walker acknowledges that anglers often approach superplastics with hesitation. “Similar to superlines, which require different knots, ElaZtech baits call for slightly different rigging and storage,” he notes. “But the advantages are too dramatic to ignore.

“To rig a bait onto a jighead, thread the body onto the hook in traditional fashion. Then, rather than pushing it up and over the jig’s keeper barbs, grasp the bait by the head and pull and stretch it right up tight to the jighead. This material is so stretchy and resilient that you almost can’t rip it by hand.

“For storage, just keep baits in their original packs— don’t mix them with regular soft plastics in storage compartments—and your superplastics will last for years. That’s all there is to it.”

While springtime anglers typically target shallow water fish, Walker prefers to pursue bigger, less pressured crappies in 5 to 15 feet of water—just outside eventual spawning zones. “Count the lure down to the right depth and begin a slow, steady retrieve. Pause every 5- to 10-seconds. Let the bait stop and hang momentarily. The tail will hover; won’t drop unnaturally below the jighead and turn fish off. It’s a real key to ‘talking’ lethargic crappies into biting.”

“As a bass angler familiar with the toughness of ElaZtech, I spent years trying to slice and customize bigger worms into panfish-sized offerings. They worked, but the new Micro Finesse baits give me panfish profiles and actions I’m after, no knife needed.

“As crappie fans discover the advantages of superplastics for panfish—super soft, easy to activate and crazy durable—we’ll all be eating a lot more crappie dinners.”

A dynamic Charleston, South Carolina based company, Z-Man Fishing Products has melded leading edge fishing tackle with technology for nearly three decades. Z-Man has long been among the industry’s largest suppliers of silicone skirt material used in jigs, spinnerbaits and other lures. Creator of the Original ChatterBait®, Z-Man is also the renowned innovators of 10X Tough ElaZtech softbaits, fast becoming the most coveted baits in fresh- and saltwater. Z-Man is one of the fastest-growing lure brands worldwide.

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Ladson, SC – Admittedly, Abby Abbondanza’s a pretty cool name for a musician. So maybe it’s a moniker more befitting a heavy metal rockstar than a country singer. Then again, country crosses over into rock, pop and other genres; perfectly appropriate for a songwriter, professional angler and salt-of-the-earth gentleman who’s reinvented himself as a successful kayak fishing competitor.

When he’s not slinging ChatterBaits® or ElaZtech® soft plastics, new Z-Man pro-staffer Chris “Abby” Abbondanza still strums an awfully impressive six-string. Original frontman of country crooners the PovertyNeck Hillbillies, Abbondanza and bandmates produced three acclaimed studio albums, including 2006 single “Mr. Right Now,” which held the #2 spot on GAC’s video chart for fifteen weeks straight.

Eventually, the group disbanded, but Abby never stopped writing, performing and releasing solo albums—and certainly, he never stopped fishing. Today, he continues performing his own style of country music to audiences all over the northeast. But ask him what’s more important, singing or fishing, and his answer speaks for itself. “Put it this way. I schedule my concert calendar around fishing tournament dates, not the other way around,” Abby says with a welcoming grin. Three years ago, Abbondanza, a Pennsylvania native who lives within a few hours of Lake Erie, sold his bass boat to tackle competitive kayak fishing full-time.

“Several years back, my buddy Adam Milstead, who’s an ex-UFC fighter and a big dude like me, got me into kayak,” he recalls. “At first, I figured someone my height (Abby’s 6’4″) would have trouble in a kayak. Actually, it’s just the opposite, and now, a kayak’s my favorite way to stalk bass. The stealth and human-powered parts of the sport just add to the appeal. And the people on circuits like the Hobie BOS—including my good friend and fellow Z-Man pro Jody Queen—make up an awesome community of anglers. We’re a friendly bunch who like to share in each other’s successes and just have a good time. Sometimes, Jody and I will sit and just jam on our guitars for a while. Fishing and music are good for the soul, man.”

As Abbondanza grew into the sport he’d loved since watching Bill Dance on TV as a lad, he eventually discovered Z-Man ElaZtech baits. He knew the baits were different, better in many ways than traditional soft plastics. For a light-packing angler, he also realized the longevity and resiliency of ElaZtech baits were a match made in kayak heaven. “To simply pack a few bags of soft plastics for a full day of fishing—rather than mountains of traditional baits—is a huge advantage and a major time saver,” he notes. “Imagine fishing an entire tourney with just a few packs of baits. Crazy, but perfectly possible with ElaZtech.”

Right off, Abby knew he wanted to meet and connect with the folks behind his new-found bass baits. So, several years ago, he made his way from Pennsylvania to Florida and the annual ICAST show, in hopes of a developing friendships and perhaps, a new sponsor.

“We liked Abby immediately,” recalls Z-Man promotions manager Joey Prochazka. “He’s a likeable, charismatic guy—and a heck of an angler, no doubt. Everyone here loves his positive energy and excitement for fishing. Yet he’s also a laidback and approachable dude who just likes to talk fishing. Abby’s combined talents for music and catching bass make for an interesting human being and we’re delighted to welcome him to Team Z.”

In his first few years on the Hobie BOS circuit, Abbondanza has quickly ascended leaderboards, qualifying for the Tournament of Champions in 2022. “We fish some really diverse waterbodies—from Florida and Texas lakes to West Virginia and Midwest rivers,” he notes. “Everywhere I’ve been, ElaZtech baits like the Baby GOAT™, Bang StickZ™ and Mag FattyZ™ just continue catching good fish.”

Among his more intriguing bass tricks, Abby likes to nose-hook a Finesse TRD™ onto a dropshot rig—a decided departure from traditional Ned rigging. “You can lightly nose-hook a TRD on a dropshot and it’ll stay put—won’t rip off the hook like other baits,” he notes. “Some days, you can fish all day with a single TRD. The material just doesn’t tear, even after a bunch of smallmouths eat it.

“I’ll fish it down in 25 to 30 feet of water at Lake Erie all the time, and the smallmouth can’t get enough of it. The buoyant ElaZtech material floats and makes the TRD ascend and hover in place. You really don’t have to do much with it, almost like it’s live bait. Just move it slowly back, pause and let it set in place and you’ll catch loads of bass.”

When he does tie on a Ned rig, Abbondanza’s style once again deviates from convention. “I never put a Baby GOAT, TRD or Bang StickZ on an exposed hook jighead—except when I’m fishing a shaky head. I prefer going weedless with my Ned baits, and the NedlockZ™ EWG is an awesome, underrated finesse jig. Amazing fish hooker. But it also lets me rig small baits weedless, so I can fish cleanly across rocks, and through grass and brush, no problem.”

Underscoring Z-Man’s commitment to the burgeoning sport of kayak fishing and its cast of fascinating characters, Z-Man’s Prochazka adds perspective: “Similar to Drew Gregory, Jody Queen and Ryan Lambert, Abby’s got a super interesting backstory and an exciting future ahead. When he or any of our pros win or discover an innovative way to catch more fish, everyone shares in the rewards.”

A dynamic Charleston, South Carolina based company, Z-Man Fishing Products has melded leading edge fishing tackle with technology for nearly three decades. Z-Man has long been among the industry’s largest suppliers of silicone skirt material used in jigs, spinnerbaits and other lures. Creator of the Original ChatterBait®, Z-Man is also the renowned innovators of 10X Tough ElaZtech softbaits, fast becoming the most coveted baits in fresh- and saltwater. Z-Man is one of the fastest-growing lure brands worldwide.