Articles by RiverDave
Pulling up to the back of Absolute Speed and Marine's shop in Lake Havasu, the first thing you'll notice is the truly awe-inspiring amount of boats they're working on at any given time. Their bays are crammed full of customers' boats, and their gated parking contains barely enough room to...
RDP Sponsored Coeur d'Alene Performance Boat Regatta this year!
RD
So we have lived out in Havasu for almost a year, and the picture is becoming clearer and clearer that I was grossly mistaken of what my life would be like in Havasu. Much like any other So Cal transplant you imagine living here, doing some work in the morning, hitting the lake in the...
http://youtu.be/UBJeVTeMy1k[/video]
My story of the Texas Outlaw Challenge goes back to our trip to Miami earlier this year. It was late one night during the Florida Powerboat Club "after party" that I sat down at a table with Jim Nichols, Devin Wozencraft, and Paul Robinson. I was introduced to Paul and we had a few...
I bought the Pink Taco in 2001 after several years of going to the River with my buddies who, at the time, all had spots at Emerald Cove. We were there for all of the big weekends. We'd wake up early to get some good water in the morning, grab breakfast at Fox's then spend the rest of the...
It was thirteen months ago at the Desert Storm street fair, that the entire Lucas Team made a very big splash introducing their "Marine Line" of Oil products. The heart of the company chemist Mark N. was in attendance, Brian S, and even the founder Forrest Lucas came out to the West...
Losing my virginity to a lake commonly referred to as "The Sag'' . Lake Saguaro, I ventured from my "comfort zone'' in Lake Havasu and in my opinion the mecca of west coast performance boating as we know it, the river, better known as the Parker Strip. On Thursday I made the easy three hour...
After a twenty year hiatus, DRAG RACING HAS RETURNED TO IRVINE LAKE!!
20 Years ago on April 22nd 1985 a Drag Boat driven by Jim Lange ran ashore and into the crowd ultimately killing a 9 year old girl Brandy Branchflower. There was a heated debate between the drivers and what was the...
Maybe it's just in my mind, but there's nothing cooler looking then polished aluminum. I also can't think of any single finish that is harder to keep maintained then polished aluminum as well. This is a quick "How To" guide of what I personally do to restore and keep my wheels looking...
I went down to the Parker International Water Ski Races a few weeks back (Mar 9-10), and had an absolute blast! I have been going to water ski races of all sorts for about seven years and it seems with each event there is always a different "vibe." I'm not hardcore enough into the...
Team Nordic - 192 in the mens open marathon on Sunday, Parker AZ 2013
Nordic brought more boats than any of the other Performance Boat manufacturers with a very impressive line up featuring everything from Deck Boats to a 100+mph 39 Vee. The boats themselves will be "lightly" covered in the article, but I figure what better way to start then to just give you...
Ten months ago Wayne Monasmith purchased Rons Custom Detail and things have been on a fast trek for the local Havasu based detail company ever since! Ron's Custom Detail already had a reputation for being one of the premier detail shops under the watchful eye of previous owner Ron Burnett...
Howard Boats brought two phenomenal examples of their work to the LA Boat show this year. A 28 Sport Deck and a 28 SDS (Sport Deck Series). Before we get into the two boats at the show I think it's important to discuss a question that I get a lot. "What's the difference between a 28...
In the fall of 1976, after leaving Long Beach, I was in Rocklin during the week (college) and coming, home to Grass Valley on the weekends. My best buddy was Jim. Jim worked at a gas station. He had an old 65 Power Wagon, he tuned every kids hot rod in town.
My 56 F-100 was pretty cherry...
The Center Console concept as a whole is a bit new to me from a fishing standpoint, but while I was in Miami I learned a term "fishability" that I thought was somewhat clever. The guys trying to sell the fishing versions were basically saying it was better because it held rods in this...
It's interesting to sit back and watch the trends of boaters from the sidelines. Ten or eleven years ago if you had a deck boat people on the lake and the river would look at you sideways like you were driving a "pontoon" or something. That quickly changed as the Conquest got more popular...
We are going to start this years reviews off with Eliminator, because of the votes in the thread I posted earlier on RDP. This year Eliminator brought A 27 Speedster, 22 Daytona, 260 Eagle, and Bob Teague brought a 28 Speedster for display in Teague Custom Marine's booth.
This 27...
As summer approaches the usual Parker Crowd will gather in the usual Parker Spots. This summer you will see a cross at the Northern Sandbar in Parker with Josie "Chief" Garcia on it, and some of you will wonder who we was. Most of us new him by his nickname "Eddie."
I met Eddie a...
It's around 10:00 am and the howling wind outside isn't exactly eluding to the idea of it being "a great day for boating." I grab the infamous blue bag with all my camera gear, kiss the wife and kids good bye and I'm heading down to the Islander to take a ride in the new DCB M-41. I...
This week I would like to showcase a project Schiada flat that we built a few years ago. Part of this boats beauty stems from the clients keen sense of planning and quality assurance. In turn, we all wanted to be certain that the boat suited and functioned well.
The boat is a 1971 Schiada...
You'll remember back to my first article titled Welcome to the Front Page, that I said I was tired of trying to hammer our oblonged shape of RDP into an round or a square peg. That's going to lead me into this article titled "Less than Professional."
The other day I had a very long...
It's Wednesday January 9th and today is the day I have been waiting on for over a year. There is a buzz amongst the boating locals here in Havasu and on the forums about the new DCB M-41, and the fact that it's on it's way here right now. We have all seen some build pics of the boat, but...
Take a ride in DCB's new M41! DCB has just released this video of their newest and also flagship model the M-41.
There has been a lot of buzz surrounding this boat from it's inception to it's tooling stages and now finally culminating into the final product. Both skeptics and fans can...
Got a text from Thane the new GM of Nordic boats Saturday afternoon inviting me to partake in their first annual Christmas party. The text was short and to the point and didn't give a lot of detail or description as to what the game plan was, all that I knew was 5:00 and something about a...
This week we will showcase a boat we built for one of our many great customers. This particular individual has been a customer for many years. The boat is a 24? Schiada. It started life with Mercury 500EFI, Imco stand-off box and a Bravo I. It was originally rigged by Schiada and is a very clean...
