Recorded at the San Antonio SeaWorld, I recently had the privilege of covering the first ever, Southwest Airlines Duck Derby for Red Belly Radio. The event was the culmination of eight-months of work by our Onboarding department, to sell 5000 Canyon blue rubber ducks. The Onboarding department is charged with welcoming new Employees during their first year to make them feel welcome and to help them stay “onboard” at Southwest Airlines.

Ducks are purchased by older (err—not brand new) Employees to raise money to give the new (err—not necessarily younger) Employees a little gift. I won’t say these ducks are endangered, but they are limited. The ducks have little wings and a tail that is slightly different from a real duck—and of course a red belly!

So, you think we just dumped a bunch of ducks in the Lazy River and wait for them to float around? Not hardly! I interview Jan Barandela, a Dallas Mechanic, who designed and built a contraption-catcher-funnel-channel to determine the winners. We didn’t want any arguments over the prizes.

Give this episode of Red Belly Radio a listen you won’t reg"wet" it

(Also, check out Bob Hurst's video blog on the race to see how the "duck funnel" works.)