History of the PWC Nation – Part I
Over this past weekend, the L.A. Times ran an article about the indoctrination of recent high school graduates into the U.S. Marine Corps. http://www.latimes.com One of the things I noted in the article is that these young men and women are instructed on Marine Corps history – the past achievements of the Corps in previous times of trouble.
Many of you who have had military service may also have experienced a similar process of orientation to the past successes of your service branch in the face of adversity.
But I’ll bet that since you joined the all-volunteer PWC nation, no one has spent time telling you of your PWC nation’s past accomplishments. The AWA does a good job of covering contemporary efforts but the history of the good work fades from memory quickly.
On the other hand, there are a number of entities such as NOAA and several so-called environmental groups who will tell you and the whole world about alleged problems with the PWC nation. I would like to level the field a bit with a review good things in the nation’s past.
Much of what has been accomplished with PWC has been in conjunction with the overall marine industry. A complete 24 page review of the industry’s aquatic stewardship can be found at http://www.nmma.org under the government tab. Following below are what strike me as key issues where the PWC nation has responded to issues is a positive and timely manner.
Rapid conversion from 2 stroke to 4 stroke engines is, in my mind, the number one advancement in the PWC nation. Less than ten years ago, there was not a single 4 stroke powered PWC available anywhere in the world. For 2008, ONLY around four 2 stroke PWC models are being sold which represent less than 5% of next year’s new boats. Arguably the most important step in this conversion process has been the members of the nation readily accepting the new technology.
To me, the second major milestone in PWC use has been the equally rapid adoption of mandatory boater education in many states. At last count, about 45 states and U.S. Territories had one sort of provision or another for mandatory boating safety education. http://www.nasbla.org The PWC nation was the very first group of boaters to get onboard with support for mandatory boating safety training. This initiative sent the unmistakable message to all the PWC naysayers that the PWC nation stood for safe and responsible boating and would go to class to prove it.
In future postings I will set forth more of the positive accomplishments in the PWC nation to help all members understand that we are responsible members and leaders in the boating community.
