[mikeyt]

We made a last minute decision to head down to Toronto after some other plans for the evening fell thru. My 13 yr old is a wakeboarder and he was in there watching. He said they were 'mad sick' which i think means really good.

Sounds like we did the same thing with the big money boats but we waited til almost 7pm before we went to the 3 'Marquis' boats and we managed to get on to the 40' and 48' before they closed. Wow.

We looked into cuddy's between 24 & 30' and my better half liked the layout of the Chapparals the best. For those who weren't there they had also lots of ski boats with their wakeboard towers installed. They were impressive!

I couldn't believe the number of people i saw walking around with those extendable boat hooks. I finally stopped a guy and asked him & he said West Marine had them for $12. I happened to stop at Dowsar's display and they had the same thing for $10 and they had ones that acted as a pump action bailer too.

I was looking for a set of docking lights for the boat but i couldnt find any on display.. Of course, given the size of the show it was easy to miss things.
I still dont have my operators card but i'm going to do it this year. My wife and both my boys have theirs. How long did it take you to write the test there?

[Z 202]

My son is only 8, and he's just getting comfortable on the tube, but I think the show got him a little more interested in boarding. He thought the coolest ski boat was the black and red Chap. with the tower and killer stereo.

Personally I was partial to the big black and white Fountain at Jim Earl marine, Quite the deal at only 300K. Interestingly, it had sold by the second time we passed by it. We weren't prepared to stand in the huge line at the Carver exhibit, but we did see the Cruisers and Overton display. Wow, just wow...

There's a webcam link of the lake here: http://www.torontoboatshow.com/atten...es/webcam.aspx

The boarders get pulled by a high speed winch which is located at the upper right. The kids start out at the end of the log home in the lower left. They board down the "tunnel", hop onto a rail at the end and go from there... I'd be interested to know how many wind up eating some stairs before the week is out...

I saw all those people with boathooks. They must have sold a truckload of them. I also saw a combo boat hook, bilge pump and scrub brush.

I double checked all my answers and took 30 mins to do the test (45 mins is the limit). I fell into the "old fart with big boat" category, but since I'll have to have it by next Sept. I figured I just get 'er done.

[180diablo]

hahaahah thats funny that you guys saw loads of people with those boat hooks.... because I saw .. well nevermind you know.

$12 isnt bad tho. I already have 2 on my boat, so I dont need a new one.

My gf and I were there Sunday as planned, arrived at noon and left just after 5pm. I managed to snap off a few pics, but we were starting to run out of time because I was looking at fish finder/combo units etc.

We watch the seminar about docking technques, watched the wake boarding, and then walked around the cottaging area and then briefly walked around the new boats area, but we did snap some pics of the Carvers.

When I get home tonight I will take the pics off my camera and upload them for you guys to check out.


EDIT: I have 2 operators cards. One I got at the boat show 3 years ago and the second one was from the CPS training course I took last winter.... hehe.