Lake of the Ozarks can be a washboard with agitation on most weekends along the the douche baggery of wave runners jumping a cruiser wake or a 50+ footer plowing up the main channel. Challenging to me is something else on another that has seen nothing but ocean salt. I watch the FPC vids on spytube, I mean youtube and drool over the conditions they run in, seem to be like glass or a nice consistant roll. Other times there in 2-4 foot seas and working the props,, its relative to where your at. Different conditions and I am sure challenging as well as others noted. You should check the FPC footage out.. Without getting off the rails history has told us they are challenging enough that boaters at this level have paid dearly with there respective mistakes. Everyone knows someone.

I understand they can both be challenging, but I'm tasked with building a matrix of different boat personalities/generalizations. I have an inland lake performance boat guy, and an offshore performance boat guy. One of hte axis on the framework/matrix is called 'engagement'. Low engagement would be something like a pontoon. So in terms of actual interaction, I see two things and I'm not sure which is more engaging to the driver/operator:

Offshore: More dangerous conditions (and more dangerous fish lol), and obviously a lot of throttle modulation in rough conditions, punishing on the boat and body

Lakes: More dangerous boats, period. The really fast ones are barely in the water, and a good gust of wind can cause them to flip. The drivers are chine walking keeping a tiny section of the hull on top of the water, and adjusting trim/throttle constantly to eek out that last MPH. In my experience that has been extremely engaging/terrifying (lolz).

But I don't have experience with both.

If you are talking competition, then Offshore is more challenging IMO. Inland competition is or should be on closed courses with somewhat predictable conditions. Offshore racing is more a case of racing the variables that can occur with rogue waves and wind after that yu have to try and beat the competiton also. Cant remember the last time a decent sized boat submarined on a river or lake course.

Outside of just going for a quick blast in either place, I look at it like this.

Lake Boating (excl Great Lakes) mindset: spot hopping
- Enough fuel for the day?
- If I break, I am not far from home
- did we leave early enough to get a good spot at the tie up/bar
- do we have enough beer
- how big is that cruiser wake
- should we buzz the cruiser
- should we make a pass by the hangout
- watch the water, its choppy
- how fast are we going
- off and on WOT all day

Offshore Boating: destination hopping
- What are the conditions offshore, can we go?
- do we have supplies for an emergency
- do we have enough fuel to get to the next fuel stop
- do we have a dock for the night
- what time does the lift close
- where are we flushing
- stay in the channel
- pay attention to navigation
- pay attention to the equipment
- what is the break down plan, whos bringing the trailer or where are we leaving the boat
- cruise as fast as conditions allow

No big lake boating experience for me........ but on the subject of destination boating: One of the worst is getting a sunburn, then dealing with the wind and more sun the next day on your way back to the trailer. Key West Poker Run can be fun but the return trip home is NEVER more fun than the ride down. In the case of the Bahamas crossings your weather/waves dictate your departure (not the calendar!). You might have planned a 5-7 trip but if the weather is ideal on day 4 and the next 7-10 days is big winds/waves then you leave on day 4.

The brown water is the low point for lake boating (except Torch lake with that ridiculously blue water, but its cold!). East coast usually has nice blue water.

Great input.. NOT! Always a smart a$$

Would love to understand this but my grasp of the english language apparently does not.

The biggest challenge of offshore/ ICW poker runs is navigating the channel at high speeds with a lot of boats around.

I'll take offshore boating any day of the week, and twice on Sunday; over dealing with the POS PWC operators and other lake idiots in such a crowded space.

was an inland lake that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald , and many others Fact