Mikker Sports the MB Sports dealer in Sacramento just sent a letter that they closed their doors. <BR> <BR>Bummer for them and their customers.

huge bummer, though not surprising given the recent turn down in the RE market which created alot of the wealth that allowed people to buy the boats in the first place. Cobe is a great guy and I'm sure he'll bounce right back on his feet

Maybe they can help out Capital Water Sports... The service department is doing so hot...

Thats a shame. <img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/sad.gif" border=0>

Ops, forgot the NOT so hot part of my posting.

That is a shame. I recently had an opportunity to check out their boats and they are very nice. the wakes were exceptional on both the v23 and the tomcat and the surf wake stock on the v23 was amazing with two people in the boat! Handled chop very well, seats were the most comfortable I've ever been in in a boat and the new dash is sweet! Very cool boats IMO.

i think there's been a couple places up in the sac. area that have closed down. the way that the industry is looking, next year is suppose to be just as bad. i had heard that cali for a whole is down about 35 to 40 percent. i think it'll going to kind of weed out the dealers that don't really know what they're doin, adn the ones that have been smart with they're new boat orders will stay.

No more home equity loans = no more boats. <BR> <BR>You will also see some nice used deals coming around.

flux thats exactatly whats killing the industry

I am not saying it be unkind or sarcastic, but it's the truth in alot of ways. Folks suddenly found themselves with a seemingly increasing bit of wealth in their home equity. So they buy some luxury items like boats and nice tow vehicles. <BR> <BR>Unfortunately, that well has dried up, and either folks are scrambling to keep it all together, or they are staying liquid and not buying anything or getting themselves into loans. <BR> <BR>It's natural that the boating industry takes a hit, they really are luxury items. I can't say that my boat payments hurt, but I see what else I could be doing with the money and I am sure folks who aren't super into wakeboarding may be looking to dump their boat payment liability. <BR> <BR>Cali is gonna get hit hard, top to bottom. It's a shame, but it was unprecedented growth, now it will be unprecedented decline. Recession coming, that certainly seems hard for the boating industry. <BR> <BR>I am hearing horror stories about foreclosures from all over Cali, folks are walking away from their liabilities right now, and it's not cool. Really bad stuff from the Stockton area in particular.

thats true flux. a lot of people are tapped out

glad i live in portland, my house is still going up <IMG SRC="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":-)" BORDER=0>

i'm glad i just moved out here to norcal...good time to find a good deal on a house in about another year...

Crap, it's teetering on the edge here in Palmdale, CA. It shot up like crazy when prices went up and I suspect it will drop like a rock in the coming months. You simply can't sell a house around here and foreclosures are popping up everywhere. All the realtor folks I know are looking for other lines of work. <BR> <BR>I am sure the car dealerships are seeing a decline as well, and the RV guys too. This was after probably 2-3 of their best years ever. <BR> <BR>I feel bad for alot of folks, nobody was giving them good advice, certainly not the sales guys anyway. It's a credit bubble, housing is just one part, recession is coming.

Yeah Josh, wait it out. Should not see bottom until next fall at the earliest, then a few years before any increase at all. There will be exceptions and areas where prices never really went crazy anyway, but I think all of Cali will get hit pretty hard, pricing is simply out of whack with incomes.

I'm in Redding and the shops selling '07 wake gear did so poorly over the summer that they had '08 snowboard gear on display before September 1st. Those are the sports stores. I'm not sure any of the boat shops carried '07 wake gear. Too much older inventory already in the shop. The guy at Shasta Inboards said exactly that when I asked him if he was going to carry the O'Brien Cartel. I know a guy at Oasis. He said they hardly moved any boats this summer. You are right Flux. It will be very bad here if we have another dry winter. Shasta looks terrible at 110 feet down. A buddy of mine ripped out his lower unit on an unmarked shoal near Sugarloaf last weekend.

Lotsa of inventory at the local dealers around here. I was hunting at the tail end of 05, and the the pickins instock were slim. It appears you can pick and chose now

that sucks. Cobe and Jared are really good guys and helped me out whenever i needed anything. Hopefully things will work out for them and i wish them the best.

even the used boat market is flooded 1 or 2 year old boats all over the place.

I'm not ignorant that people do...but who the hell in their right mind would lean on their home equity to go buy a loss leading rec anything? <BR> <BR>(anything = rv, boat, camper, etc) <BR> <BR>whoa. <BR> <BR>And yes, I am smack dab in the middle of it living here on the Peninsula in NorCal.

I think anybody who has a zest for getting the most out of life while they are here should borrow aginst the house. Hell, get that boat you always wanted or RV with your equity. Its better than wasting your life say I wish this.... or I would love to.....Dont wait til your old and broken or grumpy. but be smart about it. They say you only live once. Make yourself HAPPY!!! <BR> <BR>(Message edited by riverratboarder on September 17, 2007)

i agree aquahawk. doesnt make sense to me.

Just quit boat sales in sacramento. Bummed, but now I have weekends off! Best move ever!

Aqua, if you can pull it, home equity loan for a boat etc is the only way to go. You can write off your interest payments and if you do your homework you are likely to find a better rate than a boat or personal loan. <BR> <BR>That said, people who used the inflated home value to buy something that they could not afford without that inflated home value = not so smart...

You hit it right on the nail Manzo. Its not smart if you can not afford it in the first place and over extend yourself. Because in the long run it is going to catch up and bite that person right in the ass. Dealers are taking at least 10,000 dollars off thier new boats right now because of the slow down and it being the later part of the season here.

damn.. and I just saw Cobe up at WWA Reno Worlds a few weekends ago and it sounded like everything was going really well!

cnbc reporting today from the 'forclosure capitol of the country'... stockton, ca. 1 of 38 homes is forclosed. how does that happen to so many in one area? mentality?

I heard 1 in 20 homes. And for those in areas like Utah and Oregon and any other state you need to watch what's happening in CA right now because it is comming your way. I was just in Utah and I couldn't beleive how much their homes were. I found myself saying i could get that in CA for less.

As long as there are people who believe that it can't happen to them, there will be people who borrow against their homes for luxury items. Personally, I wouldn't be above borrowing against an investment property to buy a boat but the wife isn't too keen on that idea. I'll just wait until the boat market dies enough that I can pick up a respectable mid-to-late-90's boat cheap. I don't think that day is too far away.

Unfortunately for us.. there have been several foreclosures popping up in our neighborhood over the last month. The positive side is, we bought our house very cheap and well within our means so we aren't in over our heads. <BR> <BR>Still a bummer that we won't be moving out and upgrading any time soon.