So? Where's this Alberta Place?

and why do they sell so many boats!?!?

Oh hi! Wait! I'm from Alberta!

It's quite the interesting demographic up here, according to our lovely friends over at the provincial government and Wikipedia....

Population of approximately 3.5 million
Area of approximately 255,500 sq mi
I couldn't find the number of lakes available but there's quite a few.
You can find us on a map of North America by finding Montana and heading north into Canada!

The boating season ranges from approximately the beginning of May to the end of September with those of the more adventurous crowd on a good year venturing from mid April into the end of October (although some years the lakes don't open until mid may and can be frozen as early as mid October). Summer temperatures do get into the low 90's and are complimented with sunlight from approximately 05:00 to 22:30 hours near the solstice.

The largest driving factor to boat sales would have to be the thriving oil and gas sector. Some people (myself not included) have far too much money to burn and do so.

At least two dealers; Hyperactive Watersports in Calgary (Tige) and Wizard Lake Marine in Calmar which is just southwest of Edmonton (Malibu/Axis) are continuously winning sales awards.

That said... as one member on the team of event organizers we continue to see a decline in contest and event participation. Part of the reason is that with the short season many people simply don't want to give up a single day of summer to come out to something where they may only ride once or twice. There's also a misconception surrounding contests, people thinking "I'm not good enough" even though the Provincial tour is designed for riders of all levels, abilities, and ages. It can be a bit hard on the organizing team and supporting sponsors when we hold an event just out side of Calgary and only see 20 competitors even with a few hundred spectators. Contest dynamics however do seem to echo through to the National level where we again saw reduced participation in Kamloops, British Columbia, another thriving area of wakeboarding activity.

Some people complain that they cannot find the information, in many cases I would say "you're not looking hard enough for it" we are a small group of volunteers trying to promote a sport wherein we see continuous high boat sales. With an area of 250,000 sq miles the ten to twenty of us simply cannot get the information out to everyone that wants it gift wrapped and packaged for their doorstep.

That being said I keep hearing that wakesurf sales are way up and even killing wakeboards in some areas.

We've tried to do "Spring Ride" type events in the past and had dismal attendance. The challenge with 3.5 million people over 250,000 sq miles is that many people store their boats at their own cabin/lake. Many people are hesitant to do anything other than go to their cabin or the few overcrowded lakes that are about 30 minutes away. It seems we all struggle with the "me" mentality when we're trying to promote an "us" community.

So there's a little bit of info on Alberta and some of the inherent challenges the wakeboarding community up here faces.