-You had to have Nordskog speedo! Hot Boat & Powerboat magazines were the only connection to the world of performance boating. For years, read about Havasu and LOTO. - Remember how excited you were when the latest issue of Powerboat was in the mailbox? One month, my issue got lost in the mail, after a few days late, my wife and I drove over 100 miles (each way) to beg for a copy at Channel Marine in Laconia, NH. If you needed info, you spend hours on the phone. This guy was alway calling Mel Riggs as he was one of the very few who had answers and the parts. Dean Nickerson was another that I called all the time.

25 yrs ago, if you were playing with marine blower motors, you melted many pistons. (countless) Bob Endress @ B&M was the phone call that saved a lot of money.

Those were also the days when we had to research and order boat parts from those Powerboat Mag ads and ordering paper catalogs...could you imagine having to do that now?

I still recall calling (not emailing,LOL) Gil Marine to order a new set of their "Gil Coated" manifolds and stainless risers. When they called and told me they were ready to ship I said hold up, I will come and get them because I don't want them to get scratched during shipping..so... I hop a flight in Atlanta to LA, rented a convertible Mustang and drove up to the high desert to the Gil Factory ....drove back to LA airport, checked them as baggage and flew back to ATL the same day....those were the days!!

Cheers,

Dave

What was it like before the internet?
answer : They had this thing called the library.

I remember waiting for each issue. Powerboat, Motorboating & Yachting, etc and most of the content was cruiser stuff so when they did a performance issue it was gold and I knew the exact day each issue came out.

Ok, I'll give my synopsis of "Before the Internet:"

1. Fountains were longer than they appeared
2. Jim Darr was a legend, Chris Sunkin was becoming one
3. Cigarettes were #1
4. Apaches were the best wavecrushers ever built
5. Jayboat was hanging polaroids on his bedroom wall
6. BobtheBuilder was actually working, not boating in some exotic destination in yet another great boat
7. Cashbar was rockin' the mullet, talking about boats all night at the bar
8. Shooters was the place to go and yes you actually had to be there to see the action (no pics/videos online for everyone to see/share)
9. Everyone talked about running 75 in 8-10's and no one could contest it......today everyone wants to see the video!
10. When you described a boat, very few would know it but some would have heard about it. Today, something happens good or bad the story, pics, video links are all posted online in the same day.......(Beached MTI story comes to mind).

11. We could actually watch real Offshore Racing on TV, now we watch it streamed on the net with ONLY 1 camera......we have come a long way ---grrrrrr :-)

Dave

I kind of liked when I took off for a weekend on my bike and no one could call and bug me.

Unless you forgot to take this off of your belt....

Growing up the only communication problem I ever had was caused by high winds.....
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.... the smoke signals quickly dissipated.......


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There was this here thing called maggyzeenz. And you went down to the corner store to fetch a powerboat one and read all the latest about Seagareette and that Injun brand.