Tips for First Boat Purchase

If you're thinking about buying your first boat, the variety of boats available can daunting. There is no concrete equation to picking the perfect boat for you. Read our guide below to pick the right new or used boat in Ontario below!

Used or New Boats

Finding new and used boats for sale in Ontario isn’t hard, but choosing which of the two is best for you can be. If you are less worried about your budget, buying new is more stress-free and gives you more options, but the cost is higher. Buying new offers the benefits of having a buyers warranty in the event of a malfunction or unexpected issues.

Pre-owned or used boats are the more frugal choice; a boat that is less than 5 year old can cost over 50% less than its new counterpart. Another bonus of buying used boats is that they are likely to already come fully equipped, thus cutting your cost further. If you choose to buy a used boat it may take longer to find one that suits all of your needs, plus you aren’t likely to get a warranty.

Sail Boats or Motor Boats?

Sailing boats rely more on the wind for movement, which can be difficult for inexperienced sailors or first-time boat owners.

Some boats are better for cruising, fishing, or sports, and you will need to do some research to see which boat is most useful for your intended use.

Large Boat or Small Boat?

Determining the appropriate boat size for you requires many factors. How long will your boating adventures be? Will you be using it on rivers, lakes, or coastal waters? Do you want to do overnights in your boat?

Boats for mainly rivers and lakes require a small or medium boat, which are between 20’ and 40’. For larger bodies of water, you will need larger boat sizes.

New or used, Pride Marine Group is here to help you find the right boat for you and your needs. Find your perfect boat here!

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!

From our team at Pride Marine Group, we'd like to wish a Happy New Year to all of our loyal customers! We wish you all the best in the upcoming year and look forward to seeing you all on the dock this summer!

As 2014 begins and everyone is getting back into to their regular schedules, we have been hard at work preparing for the fast approaching Toronto Boat Show. As usual, this is a hectic time for us, but its an amazing show and we couldn't be more proud to be apart of it. With our acquisition of Skyline Marina this past year, we now have an even larger footprint at the show this year to help you find the right boat for you and your family. The boat show is the best time of the year to purchase a boat for the upcoming season, and we are continuing to do our best to help make this process simple and enjoyable.

This year at the Toronto International Boat Show we will be representing a total of 10 different boat  brands. As usual, we will have Crownline, Nautique, ChrisCraft, EdgeWater, Robalo, and Chaparral Boats on display. We have been representing these brands for years and could not be happier with the products they produce. We look forward to showing everyone the exciting new features for 2014 in each of the different models at the show. With the absorption of Skyline, we will also be the premiere dealer for Meridian, SeaRay and Hatteras at the boat show this year and are extremely excited to see the success of these boats. Finally, we have some exciting news for 2014; We are now a dealer for Crest Pontoon boats. The company builds a product that we will be proud to sell and service. They also have excellent customer service and we look forward to a long and prosperous future with the company.

Stay tuned for more insightful blogs leading up to the boat show which starts THIS Friday January 10th. We will be displaying close to 100 boats on the floor to check out and there are lots of fun activities for the whole family INCLUDING an indoor wakeboard show featuring a handful of Nautique Pro Athletes. Hope to see you all there!

Cheers, 

Pride Marine Group

Wine & Cheese / Boat Show Update

On Saturday December 14^th, we hosted a Wine & Cheese party at our Pride of Innisfil location. This was a great opportunity for our customers to come out and enjoy an afternoon with our team while browsing the 2014 line-up of Chaparral boats. Despite poor weather conditions, we had a good turn out and a great afternoon! Needless to say our sales crew took advantage of the excess wine and cheese... Thanks to all that made the trip through the snowstorm and to those that missed it, we hope to see you at the event next year!

As we’re quickly approaching the holiday season, January is sneaking up on us. That being said, we wanted to give everyone an update on the details for this years Toronto International Boat Show. The show will once again be hosted at the Direct Energy Center in downtown Toronto, and will run from January 11^th to the 19^th. We're there all week long and hope to help you find the right boat! If you'd like more information on the show or our brands, please contact one of our sales professionals at (705) 645-9151 or toll free at (877) 228-2297.

For those of you that haven’t been to the boat show in the past couple years (or ever for that matter) we thought we’d shed a little more light on what the show is all about. We sat down with senior sales professional, Wayne Rodgers, who helped articulate how substantial the show really is. Here is what he had to say:

“The Toronto Boat Show is an awesome opportunity for potential boat buyers to view the best selection of boats at the best price of the year. It’s like having the entire North American manufacturing facilities at your feet. Furthermore, the ability to place a custom order at the boat show is a major benefit. With manufacturer build spots filling up quickly, this is the last time of the year for our clients to purchase a fully customized boat and have it ready for summer.  The majority of our clients want all their ducks in order before they get to the cottage. We're able to offer a turn key experience, where all you do is show up and you're ready to get on the water. Getting your boat ordered at boat show is the perfect opportunity to ensure this happens flawlessly."

With our recent acquisition of Skyline Marina we have a huge selection of boats at the boat show - so come by and see us! Also keep posted over the coming weeks for future updates and incentives to buy at the show this year. 

Happy Holidays!

-Pride Marine Group

Pride partners with Spray Lake and The Ranch Wakepark

Pride and the team at Spray Lake Watersports and The Ranch Wakepark have recently partnered together to provide a world-class waterski and wakeboard facility in Newmarket, just minutes outside the GTA. The event site is home to a picturesque private lake with a sanctioned waterski slalom course and one of Ontario's premiere straight-line cable wakeboard parks. 

Pride will be providing Spray Lake with two 2013 Ski Nautique 200 Open Bow's for recreational use and competitive slalom training. We will also have a further selection of Nautique boats on display throughout the summer for interested customers to test-drive. What was formerly a private club will now be open to the public designed to welcome all watersports enthusiasts to come enjoy the amazing location and experience the pull behind a brand new Nautique or the cable system. 

Both parties are very excited about the new partnership and are passionate about increasing exposure of the waterpsorts industry in Ontario. The official opening date is this Saturday May 18th, so if you're in the area, take a drive down and check out the site! For more details on location and pricing packages check out spraylake.ca or theranchwakepark.com. 

Still A Lot of Hard Water

Well our gas sales are definitely lagging behind last Easter Lol !! It certainly has been an old fashioned winter as far as duration. The good news is the sun now both has some kick behind it and is giving us daylight until eight at night. This should help slowly turn this snowy white picture to one of  happy boaters getting their fuel and supplies for a day on the water.

Wakestock and Ontario Movie Stars

1998 to 2000

In 1998, following on the heels of a successful festival style wakeboarding event in California (Boardstock), SBC media set out to become the world’s largest wakeboard event and the premier stop on the World Wakeboard Association Pro Tour. With the media clout to promote it and the rider respect and influence to pull in top tier talent, the 1998 Wakestock event became the most successful wakeboard event in the history of the sport. The festival atmosphere caused gridlock on the streets of Bala. The only thing more legendary than the Boards, Bands and Bikinis (Wakestock’s tag line), was the ensuing parties every evening. If you were there, you know what I am talking about and if you weren’t there you likely wish you were. Even though Wakestock quickly outgrew the small town of Bala, the precedent had now been set on what a top tier watersports event should be modeled after.

By 2000 Ontario pro and semi-pro riders were being recognized on the world stage for their abilities and skills. Dave Tsuyuki won the Men’s 1 World Championship in 1998, local Muskoka riders were commonly being included in the Pro Men’s Heats at Wakestock, with amateur victories, a top 10 finishes by Austin Ball of Kashe Lake, and Pride’s own Neil Brown finishing 8th in the Pro Men’s final in 2001.

The influx of wakeboard talent to Muskoka from 1998 to 2002, inspired Jake Thomas to combine his passion for wakeboarding with his formal film school training. Jake filmed, edited produced and sold a series of Canadian Wakeboard movies that featured almost exclusively Canadian wakeboard talent to help expose them to a larger audience throughout North America. For Ontario riders, having a feature section in the Sea Monkeys movie series was a nod that you had made it to the elite level of Canadian wakeboarding – now you were a Pro. Jake followed up the Sea Monkey’s trilogy with a weekly television show called World of Wakeboarding that lasted for several years in the early 2000’s. Known for its classic wipeout scenes at the end of each episode, World of Wakeboarding became what must have been one of the most syndicated and re-run show in the history of the OLN network. I think I only ever appeared on two or three episodes, but for years after it was cancelled somebody would message me every month to let me know “I just saw you interviewed on a TV show last week”.

Between the exposure of Wakestock bringing US pros into Muskoka and the skills that Ontario riders were showing in movies and Florida winter sets, it was clear that the table was being set for Canadian riders to be able to win on the world stage.

Wakeboard Snowbirds

The top riders in Ontario knew that to become seriously good at their craft, they needed to train year round. In the winter of 1996/97, Dave Tsuyuki became the first of many young riders from Muskoka to head south, working the season at Benzel’s Ski School in Groveland, Florida. Dave worked at Benzel’s for a few winters along with Tiff Finley (now Tiff Tsuyuki), returning to Muskoka every summer to ride, to compete and to run their DTS Wake School from Dave’s family cottage in Bala Bay.

Dave’s successful model was quickly followed up by other riders who ironically have become the senior legends of Ontario Wakeboarding. Names like Sean Fleming, Chris Guard, Joel Adair (who ran The Projects for a few years) , and Pride’s own Neil Brown all spent time in the late 1990’s working and training at various Florida Wakeboard schools. This first generation of elite riders set the ball in motion for what became the new normal – live and work in a wake School in Ontario during the summer and train and work in a Florida wake school in the offseason.

This riding lifestyle spawned Ontario schools such as:

- DTS Wakeboard (instructors included - Dave Tsuyuki, Tiff Finley(Tsuyuki), Neil Brown, Scott Duke)

- Muskoka Pro Ski (instructors included -Joel Adair, Chris Guard, Kyle Rattray, Jamie Rowe)

- Pride of Muskoka Wake School (instructors included – Kyle Rattray and Mark Enns)

- Basecamp – (instructors included – Scott Duke, Robbie McMillin, Jono Boysen, Scott Boysen)

- Many smaller local schools in Haliburton and Kawartha also popped up to support the new rider lifestyle.

From seasoned Pro Tour riders like Ontarians Kyle Rattray and Sunni Ball to the current group of aspiring pros like Robbie McMillin and Brayden Beswick, every serious rider puts their time into Florida training in the off season.