To Kid Or Not To Kid?
 

A recent conversation among poker-run organizers on attendance age-limits raised great questions, https://www.offshoreonly.com/article...-or-not-to-kid.

From the OSO home page.

No doubt some parents need a reminder about bringing kids to adult events like these.

I for one love seeing families together on events . Now that being said it’s all in the parenting as to what you want your children exposed to at the after party’s.

I have a 14 year old son and he did his first poker run at the age of 12. He has been boating with me and my wife sence the age of two and loves it just about as much as I do. I loved having him as my first mate a 1000 times better then when i did a run with just the guys. It will be a memory of mine that i will take to the grave. And plan to do more together. With that sead there is runs that i would love to do but dont because i dont think they would be appropriate at times. So i pick what we do around that. Thats just me same gos for our local islands some places at times are better to take your kids then others. When it comes to respect for other boats i have seen many adults that have way less then my 14 year old son on many occasions. If he where to do something to damage something that would be on me as the parent and i am ok with that. So i see both sides. Thank you to Elite poker runs for putting on the family friendly event here in ohio
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...e847349b7d.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...dda92e49d1.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...e85d49db37.jpg

I'm amazed every year seeing kids down in Key West during race week. I guess it is better than having them down there during Fantasy Fest. :picard1:

Love it!!!

We wont bring our kids to Key West Poker Run or Dessert Storm. May take them this year to Powell Challenge. Other than that, we bought another Cigarette specifically to get our young boys on the water and accustomed to offshore powerboats. Maybe plant the seed. They absolutely love it! My 11 y/o has been driving boats since before he could walk. Our 25 y/o daughter grew up around boats and loves them so much she now owns a Scarab CC (actually two) and is marrying a performance boat mechanic! LOL

But big party poker run weekends? It's doable but we like to actual party and have a good time (aka drink...not boat and drink but nightlife stuff) and that isn't something we'll do with the little guys. So, we pick our weekends of which they'll go and which they wont. We did bring our daughter to Key West for her first trip with she was 16 and she was hooked immediately. But she's mature beyond her years (as those that have met her can attest). Goes with us every year now and met her fiance there. Do it right and it can be the right thing to do. Come to think of it we did take her down on a buddies Tiger to KW one year for the poker run when she was about 8 or 9 but we did not expose her to any of the craziness back then. You can actually see her in the bolster with me in the pic of the Tiger running out of the bay in KW. We also have a great pic of her holding the fuel lever filling up the Tiger with Elway in the background filling up the Rough Rider :D

Stu nailed it though. It's not really an organizers job to parent members kids or decide where members will or wont take their kids. Hopefully members are smart enough to, as he said, go with social etiquette or norms.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...fe565200ad.png
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...32af2d558f.png
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...3a6bbbc4be.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...7cf9441e1e.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...d7838af7a6.png





https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...cbaaf55bf9.png

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...3768ebc5ce.png
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...069a557cdf.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...bd28d4161b.jpg

Key west is one I would think twice about bringing the kids for the sole purpose I literally don’t think there’s anything else to do there besides drink alcohol !! Then again when I’m there I’m not really looking for kids activities.

No kids in events like these is my take.

However I really don't like kids at all and will never be having any, so take that for what it's worth.

I don't mind our local weekend raft ups to have the kids and we all have fun. But for Poker run events I don't think it is the place or time until they are bit older (16 ish if I had to put a number on it).

at the tickafw 200 we let kids ride in the boats and come into the marina. but there is a fenced off area around the fun house that turns into 21 and older for the night time festivities. that's also due to having a gambling permit and liquor permit.

At the boat races we encourage families to come and experience the events. Yes there is always parties and drinking going on somewhere but its not mandatory to participate with your kids. My kids (16 and 18 now) have been exposed to the events and boating and I personally feel they are years ahead mature wise then many of there friends back home. They can see way worse on facebook and you tube and you wouldn't know it. If you haven't been to a race lately you would be blown away by how many motor homes there are with families in the pits. I love seeing all the younger kid/young adults hanging out and working with the teams. Its all good clean all American good o'l days of growing up like when we were younger. IMO

Face it dude, your kids are more mature than you are........

Our Son is about to turn 16 and has been doing mostley local poker runs with us for years now and he is a very mature young man and loves all things boating especially high performance boating as much as you me and the next guy. He has been to Tickfaw with us the last 4 years now and looks forward to that trip every year with us!

We figured getting him hooked into a sport like this (which he fully is), he wont have money for other teenage crap like getting into drugs, etc.
He has driven every boat we have owned from our cruiser, warlock cat to our last 353 fastec and all our friends truck him with their boats as well and has pretty much driven all theres which consist of things like a 47' Benetti to a new 399 Deep impact with quad 400's (which he probably has close to 50 hrs of seat time in already), 35 Donzi ZR, etc! Needless to say he is hooked and is an awsome responsible driver which as a parent is awsome!

Now when we got the invite as a family (son included) to do the key west poker run for the first time this year and knowing what the nightlife is like, the wife and I had some discussions on whether to take him or not. All our friends that went live and think the world of our son and Ultimatley we decided to take him. and honestly, I am so glad he got to expierience this run with us, have no regrets and would do it again! We made awsome memories that we will all take to the graves!

Yes there are times where he was bored or say the body painting thing was a bit inappropriate for him so when that instance came around the one night and all the people we were with wanted to watch, he and i took a walk around the docks and checked out all the cool hardware that was there. We had some awsome father son bonding time looking at all the boats, etc.
Couple of the people we went with arent real big party peeps so when we wanted to go out for a night on the town and they wanted to go back to the house, they snagged him and took him back so we could have a night of fun, etc.

The way I look at it is if the people you are boating with dont mind that a mature 15-16 year old is with then its up to the parents to do their job and parent as needed when doing trips like this!

In all reality, he didnt see anything during the key west poker run that he hasnt seen on our local lake on any normal holiday weekend at times either. Or probably online for that matter!

So with this all being said, I dont think the poker run promoters necesarily need to put an age limit on it but parents need to do their job! I personally dont think we would have taken him to KW if he was say 7-11 or 12 but as kids get to be teenagers, driving and mature like our son is, thats a little different in my mind.

Plus, isnt the goal to keep promoting this sport and get the younger next generation into it so it keeps going after we are long gone?
Just my .02 for what its worth.

races are kid friendly IMO and are put on with the city they are in to assure that.

A bit different of a environment then a lot of the poker runs (not all).

I think the article was geared more towards the pre and or after parties. As long as you’re not treating it like a race it’s great to see kids at/during the actual run. Boating is our families number one hobby, but there’s some get togethers they’re staying home.

Dumbest thread ever! Need proof? Lucky Strike, Jr and LS3...........those "kids" were shooting the bikini contests at Shooters and posting the pics!

Need more proof? Dan K is running Outerlimits Powerboats right now and he has been around powerboats/poker runs for decades.

I wrote out a big paragraph about growing up as a family doing poker runs with Mom & Dad, went to look for the LS3 Shooters pics and lost what I wrote, so here it is in a nutshell.

Our family started doing poker runs in 2005, I was 17ish and my brother is 6 years younger. That was the best couple years IMO for us bonding as a family. We even did KW then too. It’s a great time for parents and kids to spend time together I believe (10-16 year olds) if they like boats. As we’ve gotten older we probably don’t spend as much family time as we did then. Mom did every poker run with us too....that’s her in the backseat next to me in the the last photo.

We would never have even thought about damaging someone’s property, but Mom & Dad brought us up right. That’s strictly a parenting issue IMO, but I’m not a parent either.

As far as young kids seeing anything at poker runs they shouldn’t....we grew up at Shooter’s on Sundays....they had things going on way worse there then anything I’ve ever seen at a poker run, guess we were just lucky to be exposed to that stuff at such a young age 😁



https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...11d0d0ad7.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...2bb47f095.jpeg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...a4ffe05bc.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...e0e2a2ae3.jpeg

damn I miss those floating reporter / shooters (bikini) pics. :D

Seeing how I was 16 when I put the blower on the old outlaw, I’d be pissed if I couldn’t attend an event. I get what they are after, “drinking, night life”. But the day time boating is what the event is focused on.
correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there a recent thread about power boating dying off In younger generations?

I don’t like the things I do because my father exposed them to me after I was 18 years old....

All that proper grooming for LS3...
...and he goes out and buys a damn fishing boat!!!! SMH!!

I don't see this as as an event organizer thing to manage. It is a parent thing to manage. Bring the family, enjoy the run, keep the kids away from any craziness.

We need the sport to grow. Fewer families equals fewer attendees.

No kids here either BUT it was nice having a certain Friends kid as a DD on LOTO :ernaehrung004:
and HE knows who he is and he was a pretty good Detailer too

So a few years ago my wife and I and another cpl were in Key West down close to where the cruise ships come in. Me and my buddy were taking pics of the girls with the Nude Statues. They had on their normal Key West Attire which is.... well not much. Tiny thongs a Tiny tops that dont cover Big Titties very well.. Next thing I know I see about 50 to 100 people with kids in strollers and kids of various other ages in tow. I am sort of like thats odd. Cant be us that are the odd ones. lol.. Anyway I look around the corner and there it is. A Disney Cruise ship.. WTF. Who decided it was a good Idea to port a Disney Ship in Key West. I felt bad for a moment as I could see some of the young ones were looking at the Girls like mom's dont look like that. Then my wife said hey they have to get an education sometime. lol

Chris

When the nudity got crazy at Jammin' on the James, within two years, the women stopped coming (spouses/SO/girlfriends) etc. And because of that attendance dropped off; and the poker run eventually died out.

Keep them kid & family friendly, 100%. That's the only way to promote and extend the length of the sport. Look at how motorcycles are dying a slow and painful death (from a new sales perspective).

Great discussion.

I personally wouldn't want to feel like I couldn't turn up the fun factor because there were kids present at an event that I paid to be at. The amount of good looking well fit and financially capable people I see on these boats speaks volumes of the type of personality's most have. The expense, time, effort and locations normally screams "good times". After a few cocktails and some good music most are ready to turn it up a notch. I would just say parents be ware. Everyone has a different idea of a good time.

Im curious on the off water incident, any details?