I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Discover Boating. I received collateral to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

When I was a kid my grandparents owned a home in Wareham, Ma. We’d go there each Summer to enjoy fishing, boating and swimming. I’d also play pool, collect toads, watch movies, eat junk food and stuff myself with my grandmother’s famous crepes. I really loved fishing on the boat, though. My grandfather, Rick, would teach me all sorts of things about fishing from a boat. We would sometimes anchor and cast but most often we would go trolling. When I got older I’d even get to drive the boat.

Over the Fourth of July I visited my grandfather and he gave me a ton of slides that my Great Uncle had taken. I am going to convert them to digital images. The very first image I pulled out of the random box of slides was of me on my grandparent’s beach when I must have been either 2 or 3 years old. I went through a few boxes of slides and found some fun photos of my grandfather’s boat, me on the beach and their home. I really loved going there so much and had many great times out on the water.

While I never went, the most popular Summer activity for everyone was water skiing. My grandfather was excellent and my uncles were also very good. I remember that people could go around the pond and then as they come back towards the beach they’d drop the rope and ride back to shore on one ski. It was fun to watch but nothing I tried.

My most vivid memory of boating with my grandfather was one time when we were trolling. Grandpa was driving the boat and I was trolling. I caught a fish and then it was time for us to switch so that grandpa troll for a bit. So, I began to drive the boat and we were trolling around and my grandfather yelled, “Cut it!” to me.

Now, understand this. Before we started trolling my grandfather said to me, “When I tell you to cut it, you cut it, okay?” I nodded my head and said sure. But I had no idea what “Cut it” actually meant. Well, it meant cut the engine. What it did not mean was slam the throttle into reverse, which is what I did.

So, Grandpa yells out, “Cut it” and I slammed the throttle down thinking that the boat would stop. Instead the boat gunned it in reverse and grandpa went flying backwards into the backwards facing seat. He quickly scrambled around the seat and turned the boat off. He wasn’t too pleased with me and I didn’t get to drive for a while, however, I did learn what “Cut It” meant.

I haven’t gotten out on a power boat in quite a few years but I did get to spend some on the water time in my kayak. I got to fish and I also got to take my daughter out fishing and kayaking as well. I have a lot to teach her about fishing and kayaking and am looking forward to every minute of it.

After my previous post about DiscoverBoating.com I spent a bunch of time on the site looking around and learning more about boating. In a survey done by DiscoverBoating.com they found that “boating makes memories” and “Children get benefits from boating”. I can certainly attest to not only making memories while boating and gaining great benefits from boating.

You can learn many more things about boating at DiscoverBoating.com like:

• Boating Activities
• Boat Rentals
• Cost Comparison Tool