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Row View
So why was I sitting on a bench overlooking two launch ramps on a busy summer evening? I guess I was just there for entertainment? Not really sure. Traveling for work has its highs and lows, with the highlights being meeting and interacting with new people. When traveling solo, I often look for an excuse to be around other boaters, even if it means looking like a boat ramp stalker.
So how do we avoid any unnecessary embarrassing scenes? While there’s really no substitute for practice and experience, here are a few tips that’ll have you backing up your trailer and launching your boat like a pro in no time.
As the grand prize winner of the Ultimate Father’s Day Real Marine Giveaway, Jason and his South Bay pontoon received a $5,000 stereo upgrade from KICKER Marine Audio that included the full installation. How’s that for a great way to celebrate being a dad?!
My love for art led me to school at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Mich., where I majored in Transportation Design. Out of college, I landed a dream job at General Motors as a digital sculptor for the Cadillac Studio. But after a few years, the passion just was not there for me. I needed to get back into what I truly loved: the marine industry. My fiancée and I moved down to Abilene, Texas, where I started my new career with Tige Boats. I loved working with that crew and got to design some of the coolest boats in the industry. However, life happens, and as my family grew, we decided to move back to Michigan to be closer to my wife’s family. I was able to get a job with Manitou Pontoon Boats and really enjoyed the challenge of designing for the pontoon industry. You wouldn’t think that it would be that difficult; it is just some couches on a platform, right? The real challenge is designing different layouts for different models in multiple lengths while balancing configuration, ease of production, and allowing the customer the freedom to create the boat for them.
Few things are as astonishing as this before and after pontoon renovation. Located just outside of Austin, Texas, Andy Wunder has turned his love of tinkering with pontoons into a hobby that keeps him busy all winter. He said, “I love making old boats look new. It is a fun hobby and it is amazing what you can find on YouTube to help!”
It just happens that our local lift dealer, Lakeside Dock & Lift, sells the FLOE brand. We already had a FLOE pier, so our first stop was back to the same dealership. There’s a good selection of quality boat lifts on the market today. Proximity to the nearest dealer is what usually guides most purchases.
It was specifically designed to magnetically connect to your BOTE watercraft, but because it attaches to any metal, it can work on a pontoon. The holding power is impressive, with the magnet securing it in place even when hitting small wakes.
It’s 100 percent waterproof (IPX7 up to 3 feet), and it even floats if you accidentally drop it overboard.
After trying it out, we found that the Surge speaker offers excellent sound quality with a long battery life. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m considering adding a second one just so I can connect the two speakers for amplified sound.
The speaker includes a USB-C-to-USB charging cable and retails for $169. Weighing less than 2 pounds and measuring over 9 inches long, it is truly portable while delivering amazing “surging” sound waves.
Whereby it falls to me, party-planner-snack-maker-extraordinaire, to invent some kind of captivating game. And since our family boating outings need to be, ahem, family-friendly, there are a few activities (wild party drinking, I’m looking at you) that we forgo entirely.
