You learn how to drive a boat before you can ride a bike when growing up on Lake Erie.I started driving boats with my father at six years old and now I am in my fourth decade of boating. It’s a big part of my existence. I live in a lakeside house with my boat on a lift directly under my sitting room. With immediate access to over 9,000 square miles of Lake Erie, boating is a way of life here.
When I was 15 years old, I raised enough money cutting grass and gardening in my evenings and weekends to buy my first boat. It was a 1954 wooden Niles Craft 16, powered by a 12hp Johnson outboard. It took me most of the summer to rebuild it. I upgraded it from tiller steering to cable steering, replaced the transom and rebuilt the seating. This started my obsession with modifying boats, a passion that I still have.
SOLID CHOICE
Fast forward ten years and a degree from Akron university in construction engineering provided me with the resources to start racing jetskis on the amateur circuit. In 2003, I won the world championship
