It is official the 2015 TICKFAW 200 Poker Run will be held May 1-3 2015! I know you may have heard a little doubt as to the return of this event, but here at PowerBoatNation we had zero doubt the event would be back for 2015 and on into the future.

Our talks with Joey and Casey confirmed that not only are they going to have the event but there are some special surprises in store to continue to give the incredible power boating event a little change up to keep it fresh and fun.

This is a great event will a contained venue and 200 miles of great powerboating.

You can count on PowerBoatNation to bring you the real onsite experience of Tickfaw in 2015.

It just keeps coming back and we have more and more great content for you. It takes some time to capture it all but with a bunch of work the video is sorted, spliced, and then made to come alive.

A hearty cast of characters proved that the fun was really just being on hand to witness it all. Of course if you weren’t there then you can be happy PBN was around to capture at least tiny little pieces of it all. For me the trip in its entirety was the coolest part. Trialering boats for hours on hours up from Florida, boating for a few hours and towing home. The small parts and pieces of the trip make the whole of the experience what it is.

I think this is just a video episode, because there is way too much to cut through.

Thanks again to Brand X Hi Performance Marine

Here are some of the Boats of Tickfaw

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Here are some of the Girls of Tickfaw

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Enjoy!

The people of powering boating. The boats are cool and some are better than others and I know I have said it before but it really is important for me to recognize how the people we meet and enjoy life with at all these events are really what is important and sets things apart.

Sure not everyone is cool, but when we employ two simple PowerBoatNation rules…….No Whining and Don’t be a Dick………. things just seem to work out pretty good. Of course having a bunch of great looking girls around makes it all that much better. PowerBoatNation is a online tool designed to support the people of powerboating and these pictures show just a little glimpse of how much fun we all had at the Tickfaw 200. More to come and be sure to post your pictures and tell your tells!

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Attending Tickfaw for the first time reminded me of a guy I talked to on a dive in the Turks and Caicos a long time ago. I had about 200 dives at that time and he had just surfaced from his first open water ocean dive. He appeared to be pissed off, throwing his gear around. When I asked about his mood, he shruggingly responded by saying he was 50 years old and he was upset that he had waiting so long in his life to go diving, because he loved it so much. Pretty much how I felt about Tickfaw… I had such a good time and met so many great people I am so sorry I waited until 2014 to get there.

I also had a perception reality gap. The Tickfaw is a run in a river and not a boating event: Not at all, eight card stops with over 200 miles of running, as soon as you clear the Blood River its wide open running all over Lake Pontchartrain. The event is not safe: Not at all true, with two days of boating to cover all eight stops the 300 plus boat fleet naturally breaks up into common running groups and spreads everyone out. Not having a forced start time makes it easy, fun, and relaxing. The event is in the Bayou; and thankfully so. The Blood River Landing is freaking cool, Motor Coaches, Toter Homes, Big Trucks, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and more limos than any other poker run I have ever been to. The guys would come down early and set up the boats and then the wives and girlfriends would begin to arrive in full Limousines all ready to go. They might try that “Just Simple Country Folk” line, but the reality is witness to the visuals provided and they provided many of them.

Even with the limos, big trucks, million dollar motor homes, Lamborghinis, 300 plus boats in attendance, over 200 miles of boating, and the enjoyment had at the “Fun House” by far margin the single biggest take away from the Tickfaw Poker Run was the people.

I have never been to an event where the event organizers; hosts Joey and Casey and their entire team…..went out of their way to make you feel welcome. We left Fort Lauderdale Wednesday afternoon and hit the site Thursday afternoon to be greeted as someone would welcome you home. We launched the boats and they grabbed our trailers with tractors and parked them for us. Water and electricity was routed for the toter home and they had free Jambalaya for everyone Thursday night.

The entire weekend was just unbelievable. Different live bands playing at the Fun House, great food on site, short runs to the Prop Stop to take part in a giant raft up and a wet T-Shirt show like no other.

While I am so happy I made it to TickFaw this year I do wonder what did I miss the years before. I plan to never miss another and most importantly my perception of South Louisiana is forever wiped by the heartfelt genuine people we met on this trip.

I will tell you don’t wait until it’s too late to experience this run, it is for sure something special and I can only hope it always is.

PowerBoatNation thanks BrandX Hi Performance Marine for all the support and help with bringing us to these events so we can share the PowerBoating Experience with all of you online!

Here are some of the pictures: We have so much more coming! Stay Tuned!

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TICKFAW 200, 200 MILES, 200 BOATS, 2000 PEOPLE

24 Years ago Charlie AKA “Crazy Charlie” began a tradition that has grown and grown and is now one of the most talked about and attended powerboating events in the country.

Today, I talked with Casey Harrison, Casey is the Vice President of the Tickfaw 200 and he told me that after the passing of Charlie he helped keep the event going and raised the awareness to take it to the next level.

This year even with some chilly weather to start, “we definitely had the best year ever” according to Casey. “We sold 263 card hands, with at least 200 boats, and were able to raise $15K for the local water patrol. Everything went smooth and it was a great time.”

The Tickfaw 200 is certainly Louisiana’s Premiere Power Boat Poker Run. It is a two day event. Based out of the Blood River Landing, a private marina area with the Fun House bar that only opens to the public for this event every year. Tickfaw 200 | Blood River Marina

I had friends who attended tell me there were as many as 2000 people at the fun house with at least 40 Motor homes and more Cigarettes rafted together in one spot than they had ever seen before.

With over 200 miles of running and a couple thousand people attending this is an event that I will not miss next year. I have never been and I need to fix that.

A big hand to Casey, his crew and everyone else who has kept the dream alive for Crazy Charlie and everyone else who loves the life.

Among the companies that are continuing to thrive in the age of Coronavirus: Waves and Wheels, the marine audio, upholstery and fabrication company based in the Lake of the Ozarks, MO. Demand for their products and services remains unabated, according to company owner Justin Wagner. “We’ve been slammed,” he tells Powerboat Nation. “We’ve got a full house of projects, including seven or eight that we’ve cranked out in the last month and another half a dozen that we’re just wrapping up right now.”

One that they recently completed was for an Outerlimits owner who’s raving about his project boat. Andy Robinette of Georgia-based Synergy Refrigeration Inc., purchased his first Outerlimits, a 2010 SL44, last October from the former owner based in Akron, OH (when it was called She’s Gone). Robinette had previously tapped Waves and Wheels to install a stereo system in his previous boat, a Sunsation Dominator.

“They did such a great job with it—everything was just amazing,” he says. “And since they’re relatively close to where I live, I knew it would be the perfect fit to have them put a new stereo into the Outerlimits as well as to completely redo the interior and bring it much more up to date.”

Wagner and his crew worked on the boat over the winter, and when it was completed, Robinette was awestruck. “The first time I saw the interior in person, I was just blown away. They did a stellar job. Justin and Noah Estes were excellent to work with, and came up with some very cool designs for the interior. There were a lot of FaceTime videos and chats going back and forth as they were coming up with ideas and plans, and they just did a knockout job.”

Robinette loves to attend events like the Tickfaw 200, the Kuttawa Cannonball Run and the LOTO Shootout, but until the pandemic has passed, it’s anybody’s guess which poker runs he’ll be attending in 2020, if any. In the meantime, though, he’ll be enjoying the boat on the Lake of the Ozarks with wife Stacy Robinette and their five children. The boat’s new name, Fuelish Addiction, was added to the boat’s transom by Waves and Wheels.

Recently, Waves and Wheels had the opportunity to make parts for a local hospital to aid them with their efforts to treat victims of the pandemic. “We made about 600 parts for the hospital and, because we do electronic repairs and things of that nature, we were allowed to stay open. But regarding COVID-19, we were pretty much ahead of the curve before local officials mandated anything. We’re blessed with a having a big facility, so we’ve kept it to two people per department and have set up hand sanitizer stations in every department. We’re seeing our clients by appointment only so we’re not filling up our showroom. That’s worked out very well. We’re still working on getting people’s boats ready for summer.”

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Of course the Tickfaw 200 would not be complete without having the Powerboat Nation party at Sun Buns. This year, just like all the past years, you better get there early or miss out on a place to tie up, because it’s going to be PACKED!

Friday May 5th, it starts at 2 p.m. and ends WHENEVER!  We will have a Bikini Show and the PBN video team is coming to this so you just might make it on T.V.!

The excitement and atmosphere at the Tickfaw 200 is so incomparable to any other powerboating event it has to be experienced to really understand it.  We home you can join us, but of course if you cant you know you can count on Powerboat Nation to bring it all back to you!