Gallery of the Week: Taking The Desert By Storm

For attendees of this year’s Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., Friday’s festivities did not disappoint. The weather was about as good as it gets, the parade through the channel was superb, the starts were relatively smooth and the turnout of both participant and spectator boats was as good as any year before.

Rick Bowling and his crew enjoyed Friday’s Desert Storm Poker Run in Gone Again, Bowling’s 37-foot Talon catamaran. Photos by Jeff Helmkamp/Helmkamp Photos

As usual, the event, which was organized by Phantom Productions and took place at the London Bridge Resort for the second year in a row, had an incredible variety of brands up and down the registration list along with excellent manufacturer participation and sponsorship support. Not only were the West Coast staples such as DCB, Nordic Boats and Eliminator Boats well represented, there were tons of cool boats from Doug Wright, E-Ticket, Fountain Powerboats, Glasstream Boats, Howard Custom Boats, Lavey Craft Motorsports, MTI, Mystic Powerboats, Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats, Skater Powerboats, Wright Performance and more.

For Northern California performance boater Rick Bowling, who hauled Gone Again, his canopied 37-foot Talon catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines, the trip to Desert Storm wasn’t his first, but it was definitely one of his favorites. He enjoyed Thursday’s Street Party and had an even better time on Friday driving the boat up and down the lake during the five-stop poker run.

“Wait until you see the video of the start of the poker run with the yellow DCB M44 Widebody (the new Bananas XL owned by Dave Megugorac) and us running 10 feet apart at 150 mph—now that was exciting!” Bowling said. “I can’t wait to see it because he had an onboard camera facing us on his side. We weren’t ‘racing’…but it reminded me of my racing days. We had so much fun out there.”

Check out the slideshow above for more images of the boats in action on Lake Havasu.

Bowling wasn’t the only one to have a blast. George Argyros and his crew, which included Jimmy Biro, a frequent Speedonthewater.com contributor, had a great time in Argyros’ 48-foot eight-seat MTI catamaran, Mayhem, which is powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines.

“The weather was perfect—high 90s, low 100s,” Biro said. “I can’t speak for the people who are not from around here, but for us Southern California and Arizona boaters it was a perfect Lake Havasu day.”

Speaking of perfect days, speedonthewater.com has to give a shout out to Shawn and Lyndee Moe, who celebrated their daughter Saylor’s birthday on the deck of their MTI 340X catamaran on Friday (right, click to enlarge). From Lake Powell and Lake Havasu to Lake of the Ozarks and the Florida Keys, the Nevada performance boaters have taken their daughter everywhere this past year, which is commendable and super adorable.

Gallery of the Week: Taking The Desert By Storm

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