boat

Electric Boats are coming...

One of the hardest things to deal with at Water Monkey Camp is our impact on the planet. We burn roughly 120 gallons of fuel each day running our wake boats. We have always offset all of our CO2 emissions each season but I would much rather not pollute in the first place! The wake boat manufacturers have been slow to innovate with nearly no electric or hybrid options available (the Nautique GS22e is a one-off).

That’s why this article from a local solar installation company is some good news. The founder of Revision Energy retrofitted his small boat with a fully electric outboard motor. 25 hp is not quite what we need to wakeboard, ski and surf all summer here but it is a step forward for boats and hopefully will get the big companies at least thinking about cleaning up their fleets so that one day we can run clean wake boats on our pristine lake.

Article below:

Revision Energy: Electric Outboard

Boat design contest!

It it tough to come up with color ideas for all of our new boats! Help us out by heading to the MasterCraft website to design your ideal 2019 NXT 22.

The winning design(s) will not only get to see their boat come to life but we will also send you a camp SWAG package in the mail.

  • Follow this link --> MasterCraft <--- to get to the NXT22 boat builder site.

  • Choose your colors for the hull and interior. (Don't worry about other options, we'll take care of that.)

  • Submit your design to Evan@watermonkeycamp.com by October 20

If you don’t contribute your ideas we may just have to build the rasta boat!


where's the wake boat version?

I love Tesla. I love how they are reimagining the future of automobiles, home power and mass production. This concept electric boat utilizes two Model-S 'engines' to create 1800 horsepower!

https://uncrate.com/tesla-e-vision-gt-concept-boat/

We are still waiting for an all-electric wakeboard boat. Thousands of pounds of batteries would pump some serious wake and help us reduce our carbon footprint each summer. Someone dial up Mr. Musk and tell him to get cracking!

-Evan

 

"boating industry" letter to the new president

At Water Monkey Camp we do not have many rules...we want campers to listen to our coaches, respect each other and the environment, eat well and take an occasional shower. One hard and fast rule, however, is we do not talk politics. A simple political discussion can morph into a heated argument as individuals try to express their own deeply held beliefs. That being said, this open letter in "Boating Industry" magazine (link below) is some non-partisan wisdom from a guy who certainly knows his stuff.

An open letter to President Trump from Bill Yeargin, CEO of Correct Craft

The letter is not long and quite worth the read.  Mr. Yeargin runs one of the largest boat companies in the world (Correct Craft manufactures Nautique boats), has served on the Commerce Department Manufacturing Council on behalf of U.S. manufacturers, and has traveled the world conducting business in dozens of countries.  All of this has given him a unique perspective on U.S. policy that he concisely shares in his letter.

Just because we do not get political at camp does not mean I did not vote!

Finn helped me vote this year.

2016 season recap

Well we made it…Water Monkey Camp just wrapped up its fifth season of wakeboarding / waterskiing / wakesurfing / wake skating fun on the lake. While it has taken a lot of work behind the scenes to make it all happen, the credit goes to all of our loyal camper families for continuing to trust us to give your campers an amazing experience each summer. (At the bottom of this post are links to all of the 2016 pictures)

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Year five was also the second year at our permanent property and we are really starting to get comfortable now. Seeing campers and staff take advantage of our epic location by playing Spikeball on the beach, having flipping contests off the dock, lounging in the hammock chill zone, or engaging in intense ultimate Frisbee matches on the field is just an added bonus beyond the time spent on our ridiculous boats.

A rider prepares for his set...

Speaking of boats, the 2016 Mastercraft NXT22 was the perfect addition to our program. It is versatile and ideal for teaching and shredding! We told everyone this summer that we would be replacing the 2015 Axis A22 for next year but, by overwhelming popular demand, we will be running it for one more summer. It is just loved by so many of our staff and campers that there is no rush to get rid of it yet.

Now some fun 2016 stats!

  • 103 campers over 7 weeks
  • Each camper stayed an average of 1.5 weeks at camp (longest stay by any camper was 4 weeks)
  • Average number of campers per week was 14.71
  • Campers were 61% boys, 39% girls
  • Average camper age was 13.9
  • 33% of campers were returners, 67% were new (huge growth summer!)
  • Campers came from 13 states (AS, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, OH, VA) as well as Canada, China, Dominican Republic, France, Hungary, and Turkey!
  • 17,068 unique visitors to watermonkeycamp.com in the past 12 months
  • 9,308 pictures uploaded for parents and campers to enjoy
  • Average water temperature during camp was 76 degrees
  • 4 broken screen doors (campers like to just walk right through)
  • 1 black eye
  • 608 homemade meatballs
  • 1,200 water balloons for 1 brand new camp game – Monkey Ball
  • 25 flotilla swim parties
  • 250 hours on the Mastercraft and 230 hours on the Axis A22 (for a total of 430 in 2 seasons)
  • 2,300 gallons of gas consumed on the lake producing roughly 20 metric tons of CO2 offset with a contribution to Cool Effect (cooleffect.org) Alto Mayo Conservation Initiative to protect land in Peru from deforestation. (We offset an additional 10 metric tons to cover camper transportation to/from camp.)

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Next summer is a ways off still but it is not too early to start planning! Enrollment is officially open and some families have already reserved spaces for their campers.  As you start thinking about next year I hope that you will keep us in mind for a week or two of camp for your camper(s). Word of mouth is far and away our biggest recruiting tool so please help us fill our bunks and take advantage of our $300 referral bonus for each camper you send our way who enrolls for at least one week.

I hope you all have a terrific year until we see you again and feel free to e-mail, call, text, write, Skype, or visit any time!

Sincerely,

Evan

617-855-9253

evan@watermonkeycamp.com

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