SCMA revives demo day event

ORANGE, Calif. – The Southern California Marine Association recently hosted a Boating Demo Day event at Irvine Lake in Orange County after a nine-year hiatus, it reported in a statement earlier this week. The event attracted over one thousand attendees.

“The motivation and interest level to find out more about recreational boating continues to be a priority among adults of all ages who value family activities and their leisure time,” the association reported.

The revisiting of SCMA’s Boating Demo Day was prompted by the NMMA’s national Grow Boating campaign, which is now in its second full year of operation, according to SCMA.

“We felt this was the perfect time to have another Boating Demo Day event,” commented SCMA Executive Director, Dave Geoffroy. “This type of activity where people new to boating have an opportunity to get out on the water and experience what it’s like to ride in a variety of boats is something that can’t be duplicated anywhere else. If you watched the people board the boat at the dock, take a demo ride and then return, you could see and hear the enthusiasm they had from the experience. What impressed me was the fact that so many complete family groups, even three generations, were taking part. We all felt that this was a very worthwhile effort and something that needs to be done in order to support and promote the Grow Boating campaign on an annual basis.”

SCMA’s Boating Demo Day, which was held on Saturday, May 12, featured approximately 40 boats in the water from 10 am to 7 pm available for demo rides. Boats ranged in size from 18 to 35 feet, with ski boats, family runabouts, pontoons, performance sportboats and fishing boats all represented. The admission charge was $5.00 for adults and children 12 & under were admitted free. In addition to the boats in-the-water, another 50 boats were present on-land plus an assortment of boating-related booth displays, SCMA reported.

“We estimate that we gave over 600 individual boat demo rides during that one day,” said Geoffroy. “That’s an incredible amount of activity on-the-water that’s good for boating. Although the primary intent of Boating Demo Day wasn’t to sell product, many of our participating exhibitors reported that they indeed made sales and developed lots of new leads.”

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