Sunday Fun Day: Ed Champion

Although my typical Sunday during the boating season here at Lake of the Ozarks probably doesn’t sound all that “fun” to many people, I quite enjoy my Sundays. The thing is, my Sundays are always different. Generally I go into the office in the morning because no one is there so I can get a bunch of paperwork done.

If it’s a Sunday and at least somewhat warm enough to hit the Lake of the Ozarks waterways, you’ll usually find Ed and Kathy Champion with friends in their Hustler Powerboats 377 Talon. Photos courtesy Ed Champion

If there’s not much going on and I don’t have any boats to show, I’ll usually leave after 2 p.m. and head home to pick up my boat, which I keep in the barn at my house. My wife, Kathy, and I will grab the boat, use PB2 (Public Beach 2) to launch and then either go cove out with some friends or hit one of our local watering holes.

As anyone who has ever visited Lake of the Ozarks knows, there are a lot of great establishments to go to on the water. Sometimes we visit the popular places like the new Redhead Lakeside Bar and Grill and Camden on the Lake, but most of the time we hit some of the more low-key places like Nautifish in the Niangua arm of the lake, The Fish and Co. to see Dale Blue and the Village Marina Boathouse Lakeside Bar and Grill, which was recently remodeled. Sometimes we like to lay low and go incognito. I like to talk boats—that’s why I got into this business—and my wife understands that’s part of the job, but she also can get tired of it.

Champion’s all-white Hustler 377 Talon is powered by twin 525-hp engines.

Once the season starts to wind down and we get into fall, which in my opinion is the most beautiful time of the year on the lake, we get to spend a little more of our Sundays on the water. The work slows down a little, but it doesn’t stop just because people aren’t boating in Missouri. The advantage of selling boats where we live is people come from everywhere to look at boats that have only been in freshwater.

In the winter, it is hit or miss if we get on the water depending on the weather. Last year we boated at least once all 12 months of the year. Because we keep the boat indoors we can take it out at a moment’s notice if we want.

Editor’s note: Ed Champion of Lake Ozarks Marine in Osage Beach, Mo., owns a home on the lake and a 2003 377 Talon catamaran from Hustler Powerboats powered by twin Mercury Racing 525 EFI engines with No. 6 drives that he stores indoors at his house. Champion, who was born and raised in Nebraska and moved to Lake of the Ozarks from Carter Lake, Iowa, several years ago, is a go-to resource for performance boat events on the popular lake in Central Missouri.

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