Inside the 57th Annual L.A. Boat Show

After closing down to the first day of the Progressive Los Angeles Boat Show with my good friend Tim Weinzirl from Performance Boat Candy, I drove the hour-long trip home and opted jump online (rather than sleep) and post a short summary and photo gallery of the products being featured at the 57th annual L.A. Boat Show, which runs through Sunday (Feb. 10).

I spent the afternoon and evening at the Los Angeles Convention Center visiting with quite a few company principals including Bob Leach of Eliminator Boats, Jerry Barron of Hallett Boats, Gene Willen of Howard Boats and the Nordic Boats’ dynamic duo—Thane Tiemer and John Lovell. I also caught up with Jessica Gamarra of Ilmor Marine, the crew from Teague Custom Marine—Eric McCarthy, Bob Teague and his lovely daughter Cherilyn—and Tom Veronneau of CompX Marine.

The general consensus seemed pretty positive, but there was a definite wait-and-see attitude from the performance boat builders, which included Eliminator, Essex Boats, Hallett, Howard, Nordic and Shockwave Boats. Obviously there were a lot more boats than just the go-fast models. In fact, the show, which was dominated by wakeboard and pontoon boats, featured the all-new 21 Jet from Sea Ray Boats.

Here’s a look at more photos from the show. Click on each one for the caption and to make it larger.