well, went to the opening day of the boat show. lots of brands there. I'll preface this with that fact that I didn't take a single pic. nothing really stood out as "flashy" or worth the efforts to take one.
ironically, for the 3rd straight year waterski pro shop didn't attend. they are mb and supposedly mc dealer but have not ordered a new mc in over 2 years. they are the ones that started the boat show 20+ years ago, but for whatever reason, choose to be non-participants again.. oh well..
Biggest fail of the event: capital sports was there as the sea ray/bayliner dealer and had a nice sea ray for 88k with a tower, sterndrive and dual wakesurf boards in the racks. morons..
prestige had tige and sanger there. didn't spend any time in sanger as they were the same boats that were there last year and I think even the same red/silver graphics. tige had the z1 there. basically a baby bro to the z3. nice boat and typical tige fit/finish, but at 79k somewhat loaded, overpriced imo. r20 there for 51k with a few options.
idaho watersports was there with 'bu, supra, moomba, axis and new this year to them-nautique. I didn't spend any time looking at the bu's except a 21v-ride at 52k. not a bad boat at that pricepoint. not a single boat there I saw had surfgate and they were not talking about it. might have had a few, but the platforms to see in the boats were hiding the back ends. interesting. on the corner of the display they had a mxz22 and right next to it the LONE supra sa450. sad that it was the only supra there that I saw, but they represented well. high90's boatshow pricing, but compared to the mxz, 2x the boat imo. it was my first look at that boat and it was awesome. it was solid black with burnt orange top and stripe. great color scheme to look at(better sell in the spring-hot as hell in the summer) and outclassed the mxz by far. had a matching wakeboard in the rack. moomba had 3 there. the outback v was there. had a black/yellow lsv. nice boat and they did a good job with the redesign. didn't catch pricing on either of those. mojo was black and white. it was 62.5k boat show special. nautique has been absent for a few years. they had 3. the 200 was 81k. stupidly priced for a 20ft crossover that does nothing well except show off nautique nameplackards. there was a sante210 for mid90's. give me a supra sa all day over that boat. it doesn't look like it's changed in 5 years. the big dog was the g23 and man was it huge, including the price. 132k boat show(160msrp) with the 550engine and no surf system. it was a real nice boat and had cavities big enough to bury bodies, but worth a house?? heck no!! axis had 2, an a20 for 48k and an a22 for 56k.
overall from them, it's obvious as last year, skiers is taking a sideline to other brands. not sure if skiers has charted boat sales year after year, but betting there has been a fall-off since '06. hope in the near future they find a new dealer to push that brand or at the least, split off into 2 separate shops. it would appear they have the service business to run 2 shops in the valley. at least the sa got a good showing right along the perimeter of their booth. feels odd selling supra/'bu and nautique as your highline and having axis and moomba as pricepoint all out of the same dealership.
dennis dillon was there with supreme and centurion. both brands were WAY overpriced last year and it was a different story this year. centurion had 3, fx22 at 67k(talk about NO freeboard on the back end), enzo 233 at 68k and a world wakesurf championship boat from parker arizona(enzo244) complete with the sponsorship wrap for 83k. lots of money on that one for a used boat. supreme had 4, 2 232's at low50's and 2 226's at 63k. same 226 last year was in the mid-70's.
overall, really felt that unlike years past, if you were in the 50-55k or the 60-65k price range, there was a ton of competition for the consumers $$. good for all of us when it comes time to shop :)
