Editorial

[krazy karl]

This is going to be kind of long and I apologize for that but I think this is something you might like to read in regards to the future of boat racing. It comes from a couple of sources I just recently read.

This is from an editorial in Car and Driver Magazine. The title was "Where Have All the Hobby Shops Gone" The author Aaron Robinson said since he has moved to Michigan he decided he wanted to get back into model building to get him through the long cold winter. He was surprised to find that most hobby shops had closed and there were only a few left in existence and those sold mostly pre-assembled toys mostly made in China. He talked to a long time store owner who said "People don't want to build anything anymore, plastic kits have become increasingly expensive and, for the iphone generation, passe'." He goes on to say "when you are finished what do you do with it, echoing the logic of today's youth. 'You look at it.' Well whup-de-frickin-do!" The author then makes the statement "if kids don't want to build models, what makes us think they'll want to build real cars and ships and airliners as adults?" (race boats?)

Then yesterday I got a Hot Rod magazine in which they interviewed Warren Johnson, one of the all time best Pro Stock drag racers. It was a question and answer interview and I am going to cite one of the questions and his answer in entirety as it is so apropos to our current situation.

HRM: How can the NHRA get kids to attend races?

WJ: That is the question they should be thinking about. When I first started racing, every kid had a car. Nowadays, it's probably down 40 percent. All they want today is the latest iPad. The environment for all of motorsports has changed significantly. The sanctioning body that comes up with the solution to this phenomenon is probably going to be the only one in all of motor sports. You don't need somebody that's a bean counter. Every successful company that was started in this country was started by somebody who either had a passion for something or was an engineer. Every one of those companies that has gone by the wayside ultimately ended up being run by bean counters. Look at the NHRA when Wally Parks was around. It was thriving because he had a passion for it. Now that we have Compton and his cohorts all they want is their paycheck at the end of the week, and they don't give a **** about advancement or even maintaining it.

This all fits. No? We are not the only ones going through these issues. We all built models and then built a boat from plans out of Mechanix Illustrated or Popular Science and threw whatever outboard we could find on it and we are still doing it on a higher level. Our sanctioning body is going through the same problems as NHRA, even NASCAR is down. Formula One, Indy Car? Same. I am glad we have the kids we do but there are far too few of them. The solution is pretty elusive as we all know but hopefully it can be turned around. But how? Still food for thought.

kk

[DiGia54D]

Its a good post, The evolutions on the kids these days. I used to bring my son to all my races when he was little and he never realy payed attention to the races. Then he got into little league, football and Lacrosse. So a couple of years ago ( he was about 17 ) Me and him when to Thompson ,CT... Most of the morning before the race started he was stairing at his Iphone. Then he watched the CMH race because my old rig was there and he wanted to see it (1st set ). So when they went out he was pretty fired up while they were milling around... When they were done the first thing he said was....Thats it???? So I said what do you mean. His reply was...You used to drive all the way to Dayton Ohio to race less then 4 minutes?
As for the Indy/NHRA....Think about it...these guys have major sponsors with alot of money involved...Kneel down boat racing is trying to survive with the drivers savings accounts.

[Syd Marsden]

Show a kid some tools and ask them what it is for. You may get a lot of stares back at you. The good old days when we went off to war, it was the fact that were use to fixing stuff with not much around and getting it working that helped win the war

[David_L6]

Its a good post, The evolutions on the kids these days. I used to bring my son to all my races when he was little and he never realy payed attention to the races. Then he got into little league, football and Lacrosse. So a couple of years ago ( he was about 17 ) Me and him when to Thompson ,CT... Most of the morning before the race started he was stairing at his Iphone. Then he watched the CMH race because my old rig was there and he wanted to see it (1st set ). So when they went out he was pretty fired up while they were milling around... When they were done the first thing he said was....Thats it???? So I said what do you mean. His reply was...You used to drive all the way to Dayton Ohio to race less then 4 minutes?
As for the Indy/NHRA....Think about it...these guys have major sponsors with alot of money involved...Kneel down boat racing is trying to survive with the drivers savings accounts.

About the same story with my son... He just didn't have any interest in boat racing once he got old enough even though he'd been going to boat races since before he was born. One thing was that he didn't want to make the long drives to get to races. He raced dirt bikes for 4 years and had 10 races per year all in Louisiana. He's joined the real world now (got a job, truck note, trying to buy a house....) and hasn't gone to the 2 races they've had so far this year and told me he probably won't go to any of them. I tried to get him into boat racing without really pushing him. Before I sold my equipment, I offered to let him race my 44. I offered to buy a D stock and let him race NBRA D on my E boat. I offered to buy another C Mod boat (I already had a motor). No dice. Just wasn't interested. I think one problem is the lack of place to run the boats other than at races. I first drove a hydro on a lake that we lived near when I was 12. I was able to run it almost as long as I wanted to anytime my Dad was home. Now I'd get ticketed or arrested if I tried that! Can ride a dirt bike just about anytime you want to...

The Times They Are a-Changin'

[D_Allen_III]

I see it every day in my classroom. I played the Stock Outboard promo and a couple other you tube videos for some kids during a lunch hour a few months back. After about 45 seconds, one of the kids asked, "Are there any crashes in this video?"

I said no, it's a promotional video so we aren't trying to scare people away.

"Oh, that's boring", was his response as he turned and went back to doing something else.

That pretty much summarized the whole situation in a 10 second scenario.

[blueskyracer]

I see it every day in my classroom. I played the Stock Outboard promo and a couple other you tube videos for some kids during a lunch hour a few months back. After about 45 seconds, one of the kids asked, "Are there any crashes in this video?"

I said no, it's a promotional video so we aren't trying to scare people away.

"Oh, that's boring", was his response as he turned and went back to doing something else.

That pretty much summarized the whole situation in a 10 second scenario.

Yup they would rather watch the stuff that has the disclaimer "dont do this at home" and then go out and screw themselves up and wonder what happened.. We used to go out and play all day till the street lights came on and now they just sit around and play video games or text and get fat. I am glad I wont be around when they take charge which is slowly what is happening now in congress

[pops67g]

It's kind of funny that I used to get people on my case about having a bad attitude when I would voice my observations of just what is being spoken of here. It wasn't popular then but it appears to be gaining some small measure of momentum. Who did I observe? Kids in my classes as I was a teacher for 26 years in junior high and middle school. Most didn't want anything to do with something you have to work at to have fun.

[3autility]

eidtorial

I can relate to the model building. I built many models as a kid and did not expect them to "do" anything, except sit on a shelf for my friends to see.The local hobby shop even sponsored model competition which all of my friends entered. It was building something and making it our own. That is why I am still collecting old Mercs and running them on a hydro or runabout. It is a challenge to make something work after it has sat for years. It is much more rewarding than staring at an ipad all day.
Unfortunately cell phones etc. are addicting. I taught middle school for 41 years and in one of my last years I had my students leave their phones on a shelf while they took a final exam. As soon as they were finished they rushed to retrieve their phones. What an addiction!

[Tomtall]

The American family

Great editorial -

Why are these hobbies becoming a thing of the past and our youth becoming less connected with hobbies and the outdoors?

1. I and my wife are a member of the minority called "A Family". Husband, wife, son, daughter. Only 1 in 5 couples that have had children are still together as a family. No that is not a typo.

2. Mentoring our youth - Most boys and girls are being raised by their mothers our grandparents. Dad is out of the picture in most cases. Those that are still around have issues such as jail time, drinking problems, drug addictions our cheeting on there wifes. Junior has more family structure by belonging to a gang then from his own parents.

3. Religious beliefs - Almost non existant. It's called the "Santa Claus" syndrom. No morals or faith of a better way of life.

To sum it up, our youth are getting dumped on. In large numbers. However the people stepping up to try and help them are falling way short. It's the future of this country and other country's of the world to do somthing about it. But people have become to self absorbed and selfish making this problem even worse. Keep our head in the sand to long and it will be our undoing.

Solutions - Get involved. Help your local youth programs such as Scouting, youth sports, big brothers and sisters and taking your single neighbors boy or daughter out fishing (or boat racing) so he or she has a adult figure to look up to. Then just maybe he or she might get interested in doing those hobbies again. It works, I have seen young men and women get transformed and help to make their communities a better place. It all starts with us. One child at a time.

I'm done now

P.S. - My 2 older brothers and I must have built over 100 models by the time we got our drivers licenses. We still have alot of them packed away. Fun times and memories.

[dsprint2000]

Tom - you make a very valid point. The decline of the family is (in my opinion) the root cause of many of the problems we see today. The values that were taught to us by our parents regarding hard work and satisfaction (such as model building) is gone. It's all about instant gratification now.

Also, I think we as parents need to be stronger in regards to the feeding of the electronic addiction. At 12 y/o, my daughter has no cell phone, no email account and she is surviving just fine....

Being a divorced parent myself - it is not an excuse to let values slide. Happily, my daughter loves going to the races and is involved in 4H horses and would rather read than play her Nintendo.

Kids just don't have the attention span anymore. I can have the garage doors open, working on my hot rod, but the neighbor kids hardly pay heed. When we were kids, most of us would be begging to turn wrenches with the neighborhood hot rodder - when not turning wrenches with Dad.

Karl - excellent topic and very interesting read from Warren Johnson - he nailed it.

David

[daveracerdsh]

Good post

I find this post to be very interesting....when I was a kid my parents would kick me out of he house in the summer and tell me to go do something or build something etc etc etc....it sure is not like that now. My race shop is located on a somewhat busy street in a residential area...a junior high 2 blocks away, lots of kids in the neighborhood. I usually work on the hydro with the door open....and in 2 years maybe 1000 or 2 kids have walked by, some neighbor kids, others from around town...and not ONE KID has stopped to ask what boat was or how fast it goes or anything. 99% of the time they have heir faces buried in their I phone or have an Ipod going in their ears....and could care less about anything aside from what is on the little computer they are carrying around. One local kid from around the corner actually poked his nose in the shop a few years ago....just to ask me for some WD 40 for his skateboard. He could not have cared less about the boat. I had not seen him for a year or so, and asked his mom what happened to him. She tells me he does not like to go outside...even in the nice weather....and would rather spend time playing video games. This is what we are up against.

[Original Looper 1]

Cybertainment has Taken Over

Back about 20 years ago, there used to be a super good patriot radio broadcast by a guy in FL. It became, at one point, the biggest private, grass roots media on the radio. The thing I used to like about the show the most was that they had some extremely intelligent PHD types on as guests, ranging from the far left to the far right in political thought & knowledge.

What I specifically remember is a guest from a significant California think-tank college, and what he predicted back then has come to reality at an alarming rate in the last 5 years. He said back then that in the future the powers that be want the youth (and then later the adults) to be totally content and satisfied with cybertainment without the physical combination that most of us are accustomed to, ie think about it, learn about it, build it, perfect it, perform it, improve it and progress it.

Now it's all primarily virtual. When you really think about it, even what we experienced and were accustomed to in our traditions and history, what it ultimately boils down to is the science of mind over matter.

They want us all entertained, contained and wage slaves for them. It was a plan that seems to be working well.


Regards,

Paul

[propfxrO84]

Maybe the poor children (who's parents couldn't afford smartphones and computers) will be our next great generation. Wait a minute.....the last "greatest generation" were raised with NOTHING. The last group fought and won wars, built things that were impossible to build, dreamed big dreams, then went out and made them happen. I pray that spoiled brats and gov't assisted "Obamaites" don't run the world we live in, in the future.

[Dr. Thunder]

[QUOTE=Original Looper 1; <snip> ...in the future the powers that be want the youth (and then later the adults) to be totally content and satisfied with cybertainment without the physical combination that most of us are accustomed to ...they want us all entertained, contained and wage slaves for them. It was a plan that seems to be working well.[/QUOTE]

Who exactly are the powers that be ... who are the "they"? Just curious ...

[sponsonhead]

The way I see it

Here's the deal: We can whine about it all we want, and wring our hands over this as our kids futz around with our iPads and play Xbox and wonder what the h*ll we're doing wrong.

OR: We can buy some boat kits, teach our kids how to read a tape measure, sand a little, work with wood, use tools and SPEND TIME WITH THEM to build race boats.

Seems like a pretty radical idea....who would ever do that?

Oh, wait: we are. And it's working pretty good. 5 prospective new racers that will be on the water this year. And in the process, learning skills, and spending time with their parents, and other kids doing the same thing.

Show up on Saturday at Don Kelson's shop, and you can help too!

R-19