I'll give you two versions as I see it:

Regionally(Florida)
I used to be able to HEAR the fast boats rolling down the ICW at all hours. All I had to do was walk a bit to see them. Now there are wake zones and manatee zones and..... Utter BS. Nothing to get the blood and desire flowing.

Nationally
I think it's something as simple as no beacon of COOL like we had with MIAMI VICE for so many here on this site and in the sport in general. That was the catalyst for a generation of powerboat owners and fans.

Read the current facts in post 39 about new boat sales. Wakeboard boats new, currently sell for 80k to 150 k for basically a 20 to a big 24 footer. Yes there is a few models bigger but the sales are not there for the bigger wakeboard boats over 24 / 25 ft. the market for these are 25 thru 50 years of age is the main buyer of these boats and I am talking brand new. Used WB boats is off the charts in sales..

At the ripe old age of 23 I find it impossible to get any of my friends interested in the sport. I'm told that it would be stupid for them to get boats because I already have one...I give up on them

Right there with you at the old age of 23 and can't get any boy my age into it either! Mine wellcraft is no were near as cool as yalls boats but with twin small blocks and thru hulls still a awesome feeling this is my 6-7th boat since 16 or so. But my first kinda of a power boat lol

I dont have a better answer then what's posted....

First go fast 29' Mirage age 24
4 boats later
"Unleashed" age 30



I've never really tried to talk my friends into buying a powerboat........much easier to find friends that already have sweet boats!

Money and avail. of money...

There is no bubble right now. interest rates are low but financing is tight......

There is a waterfront house down the street from me that just listed for 45k.

So for a 25 year old guy, whats out there for a financable 25-35 foot boat ? Thats not old, beat and heavily in need of an update, in other words, whats avail that fairly quick, blingy, modern and in a kids price range or financing availability?

And dependable? todays cars are rolling computers.... Those muscle cars that we tinkered with as kids to learn how to wrench are long gone, So todays kids arent as mechanically inclined as we were, so they need to have other people fix their busted stuff which is expensive enough before a shop decides to take them for a ride.

Ego, kids today are all ego..you get a trophy just for showing up to soccer practice, your get a gold star on your forhead for not falling asleep in class. everybody is telling you how great you are, how good you are at everything, how you deserve recognition.... Than when one of those wonder kids show up in our world and tries to make an old resin bucket cool again we beat the hell out of him and chop him off at the knees. because his generation is about shine over substance.

when i was growing up, all i could afford was old stuff, so i learned how to fix old stuff. Mechanical knowledge is mechanical knowledge in my books, if you know how a nut/thread works, bearings, ball joints, diffs, engines, you can figure pretty much anything else out from that knowledge base. i learned from my old man. we could never afford to drop our vehicles at the shop when they needed fixing so i learned. i've changed transmissions in the dirt where the car wasn't even high enough off the ground to get the tranny out from under the car. i've patched together separated tie rod ends on the side of the hwy in 2ft of snow. I couldn't imagine getting thru life without those skills to be honest... i'd always be broke just having someone else fix what i have. i'm so grateful to my father for teaching me this stuff. its definitely rare for my generation to have any of these old-school skills tho. at the age of 27, i've already restored a classic BMW 3.0cs, built a 800rwhp 9.99 nhra certified drag truck, built a custom Harley street bob from the tires up, and now rebuilding my velocity i just picked up and doing a complete frame off rest on a 1972 corvette. Keep in mind i have NO mechanical schooling whatsoever, i'm a machinist by trade. There is something thats so satisfying about completing a project, self taught, that nothing else can compare to. i love it

Money. For decades we herd they were a hole in the water to throw money into and brake out another thousand bla bla bla. A few of us said you can do it for a lot less money if you can get your hands dirty but the scary stories were only herd. It’s also funny how a guy has a 20 year old boat and has to replace the motor and call it a money pit. And then there is the guy that has to have the cabin cruiser that sits at the marina with it’s expense instead of the runabout on a trailer at the house that they would use more ….
Accesses to the water – fewer and fewer boat ramps and it seems someone always owns the shoreline and don’t want you on it. The county I live in has more water front then 98% of the states in the country, home of Annapolis and the naval academy. One public boat ramp many miles away that you have to pay to get in the park it’s in to use. If I had to use that ramp where I live it would cost me 30 bucks in gas and enter fees before the boat would ever touch the water and you know you are going to get a look over from the rangers or DNR for your enjoyment.
Whole generation of boaters were lost from 9-11 and then hit again with the 08’ recession. That’s almost 14 years lost…. I remember how weird it was on my first boat ride after 9/11 and the lack of boats for a warm fall weekend day. Thought it would get better. Never really has.
Waterfront looks and feels like a war zone with all the alphabet agencies all over the place. If you boat anywhere there always seems to be a cop rolling up on you. Jumping on your boat. Telling you what to do for no reason besides doing a “safety check”. As a teenager if it would have happened to me as much as it did last year alone (went out 10 or 12 times and was boarded 3 times) I would have been done with it. I’m in my mid 40’s and it sucks. As a teenager out with a girl or some friends it would have been a party story and never done again. I can hear it now, “remember dude when we went out on your boat that one time and those cops rolled up and jumped onboard your boat ….” It would be folklore by the time they were in their 40’s.
It’s a “now generation”. Kids don’t want to spend months building something that they can only use a 1/3 of the year. I mean they will spend 100’s of hours building a virtual world in a video game that does nothing besides having some cows walk around and mooo but spending a couple months on a boat and having a real something is too much of a commitment.

yep, watercops are a big part of it too....

The thing about the water used to be freedom, no speed limits, no hassles, just fun.

People used to take boats up the river to party in the park every weekend. Then the govt decided we were a cash cow for the coffers, and started boarding and writing bui's hand over fist. Now the city wonders why nobody takes their boats downtown anymore, All the local police and sherriffs got so bad that the state of ohio actually passed a law making it HARDER to pull boaters over.

Yep now a days the threat of the numerous agencies competing to board you and make some money has put a damper on going out anymore like I used to. Around Bonita where I hang out away from the traffic has suddenly become the Coasties favorite place to bust people . They sit in the channel and the second you pull off the beach after a day they board ya.

Took all the fun out of beaching. boating and a few cold ones.