At about age 7 dad bought another boat. We kept it Downtown under Lakeshore drive. Every weekend we went I just waited for one of the boats from Marina Towers to peer it head out , when they came down the river to the locks I was focused nothing could draw my attention away. I quess this has a little to do with growing up at US. 30 dragstrip when dad raced pro stock. Boats like B A M , WE BAD . Hollywood and The Beast. Then we moved to the river and I thought all hope was lost . Turns out that thier were some down there and dad knew these guys from the strip. So now I can ride on them. Ghetto Way a 26 left drive twin small block Donzi that was a total freak , Getaway a 28 Magnum Maltess, Rainbow Chaser a 39 Signature and a few others. I never thought that it would get to this point, I may not actually own one but I have access to a few, one of which is dads that I have an unbelievable amount of time in and more to come , but it all works out. Everytime I hear one coming its still like the first and I love getting behind the wheel and running wide open . How about you?

At 18 years old, my buddy's dad bought a summer home on the river part of the Chain-O-Lakes.
Boats drag racing up and down past the house...I was hooked.

About 8yrs old my dad took me fishing to the chain......after a full day we were returning to the ramps when we arrived there was a jet boat with a fully chromed out BBC.....the thing sat like 3" above the waterline atthe a$$ end.....almost sunk as they pulled out when water come over the transom! I was hooked on power and speed and bling from then on!!!! Ofcourse i think like any one that grew up watching Miami Vice....thats how the seed for the love of big offshore machines was planted

I was one of the Miami Vice converts...hell, in my 7th grade picture in the yearbook I've got a pastel blue sportcoat and a yellow polo underneath!

The defining moment was, ironically enough, at Lake of the Ozarks when I was 14 or 15. We had gone down there for a vacation (amazingly land-based...what WERE my parents thinking!), and we had rented a couple Jet Skis (I had been riding standups for 4-5 years already). I was cruising this rented 550 around a cove when a Fountain ICBM came flying in and went over to the gas dock. I fell in love at that moment and the weirder thing is...the boat was red! Karma, baby!

As a young kid we would vacation for 2 weeks at a time up in Pentwater Michigan. Mt brothers and I would sit on the channel wall and fish. I would be watching all the boats comeing in and out, thinking how cool that is. A few years later a family friend bought a ski boat. That was when he became a good friend of mine! It didn't take long to find out how easy it was to pickup girls when you had a boat.
A few more years and I was dating Linda. One time we broke up and her and her dad bought a boat together. She was the girl for me!! I married her and we traded the 15' tri hull for a big block jet boat.
We've progressed a little from there.

Fine 509, do you remember this boat coming down the river back in the day? The previous owner kept it at Marina City for years, along with the other go fasts. I see s lot of older guys on cruisers pointing at my boat on the river downtown. Seems like a lot of people recognize it.

As for me, I spent my weekend at our Lake house growing up. I ways always a car freak, but then I started seeing some checkmates and baja's roaring across the lake, while I was on dad's pontoon. Had to go get one of those loud go fasts!

I think so a guy at Skips on the river, I think it was Mikey Freeman had an Excalibur

For me it never seemed that I wasn't around boats. I grew up at the Calumet Yacht Club as a kid int eh 60's in those day's there was a lot of bench racing going on. A blast up the Calumet seems to be my 1st memory of speed....BZ

I was almost born on my parents boats. We spent every Thursday- Sunday from the time I was born until I was 14 on the boat. I loved the performance boats since the first time I ever saw one, which was a old Scarab called Bun Buster. Ironically I actually got a ride on the boat, my mother was not to happy about that. This was in the early 80's and was alot different then everyone on the boat was hammered. It was either a ride on the boat or a screaming kid . I guess the rest is history. I am on my second boat with hopefully many more to come.

When I met Ian I was taking sailing lessons he soon converted me
Ian had the bug from early on, he loved anything to do with motors they had a lake house and as a little kid he rode, skied and worked on outboards. His dad bought a Nova around the time Ian was in HS, and without realizing what he was doing gave Ian the gas card
When Ian got on his own he bought a Nova, then a 30' Scarab (that's when we met) and then OUR next boat, which I talked him into, a 40' Scarab the rest is history