Skaterfest 2015 Wrap-Up: Five Years and Fantastic

Another Skaterfest is in the books—and it was a winner (click image to enlarge). Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Earlier this afternoon, Skaterfest organizer Ron Szolack and a few of his remaining guests wrapped up the weekend-long event in Michigan with a photo shoot for photographer Jay Nichols using a 38-foot Statement Marine center console as a photo platform. For Szolack, the fifth annual running of the event, which attracted 22 Skater Powerboats catamarans and 120 attendees and included a lunch run yesterday from Metro Beach to Pepper Joe’s restaurant in St. Clair, was another winner.

“We had a great time,” Szolack said. “You couldn’t have asked for better weather, a better turnout or better people.”

Skater Powerboats founder and owner Peter Hledin, his wife, Maria, and Tony Cutsuries, the Douglas, Mich., custom high-performance powerboat builder’s national sales manager were on hand for the event, as were Mike and Connie D’Anniballe of Sterling Performance and Devin Wozencraft of Wozencraft Insurance, which handles the insurance needs for some of the best known high-performance boat owners and their rides in the country.

For a look at Skaterfest through the eyes of Devin Wozencraft and Chip Miller (aerial shots courtesy of Miller), check out the slideshow above.

While photographer Jay Nichols handled the running shots—Nichols reprised his role as the event’s official shooter this year—Wozencraft and Chip Miller of Miller Marina—using a drone—brought home an assortment of glamour and detail shots from the event.

“This was my first time at Skaterfest, and I liked the event because it wasn’t as ‘big’ as some of the others I attend, so you get to know people beyond the ‘small-talk’ level—you get to know them and their famlies,” Wozencraft said. “It’s neat to see an all-Skater event because you get to see Skater cats of similar sizes but completely different styles. And it was great having Pete Hledin and his wife there.

“Half of the time we were boating between the U.S. and Canada in many narrow spots, which was pretty cool,” he added. “Our mobile phones occasionally picked up the Canadian cell phone network.”

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