An Updated-ish Woody Boater. Plowing Ahead Full Speed-ish!
Barnwood, Lake Tahoe,
Roughly five and a half years ago, I sat down and started typing. With no real forethought or ability to either spell or write. How much things have remained the same in 5 and a half years. And yet, how much they have changed. The first Woody Boater was a simple white header that just said Woody boats as I recall, no record if the image exists. The first story can be read here. Since that time we have made some dramatic changes, and tried new things that have failed, and done very well. The live streaming is one of the good ones, as is reader picture posting, like a microwave oven, what was life like before? We are trying to bring new learning and new fun ways to communicate with each other. Over the past two weeks we have been tweaking the design of the home page. A wider full bleed header, and a subtle shadow that divides the daily content with more permanent parts of the site. We are very happy to report that all 5 of the top sponsors have signed up for 2013 as have many of the other sponsors. Our sponsors are much much more than just companies buying ads. These are good helpful honest companies that we strongly support and believe in. We ask that you support them as well. Each year we have grown and last year, 2012 we are happy to report was our largest year, and 2013 is following the growth trend. Some boring stats. Roughly 2,000 folks show up a day to Woody Boater, they, you, click around about 3 pages. giving Woody Boater about 2 million views a year. And we are projecting around 2.7 million for 2013. We have tried to figure out how many folks out there in the world are interested in our glorious fun lifestyle. And to be honest, no one knows. We do know that for every 10 folks that show up to the site, 6 come back and stay. So, that says, they like the topic and we are all having fun. You like us, you really like us.
Thanks Sally, you can go now.
So whats up for 2013? Glad you asked, or your’e sorry you asked, or, you didn’t ask.. So what, I am the one writing this.. We will be at lake Dora for the big show, taking pictures, selling shirts, and going boating. ALOT! Then it gets crazy, we will be up in Michigan on Torch Lake for the cruise for the cure event. We are the Grand Marshal of the event. TAADA! The Woody Boatress is practicing her royal wave. She is demanding a tiara and a sash! Then we are off to Canada for the Poker run, and then in the works in August leading up to the Hessel Show a major event. It’s still in the works, but will be a week long event. Later in the summer we will also be headed to Idaho for the big International Show. We have always wanted to go there, so this year we are. Woody Boater is also moving it’s HQ in two weeks to Lorton VA. Right on the Potomac River next to the historic town of Occoquan VA. Waterfront property in DC? You bet. We have an entirely new world to explore and report on. We also plan or don’t plan on spontaneous fun events. We will making trips to visit Van Ness and take a tour of his new digs. Lake Mohawk, maybe some southern action, and defiantly some more west coast fun. Tahoe is ALWAYS refreshing in the summer. So stay tuned, send in your fun ideas and please keep commenting, your contribution to woody boater is the fuel..non ethanol fuel that keeps us going. Thanks again, Matt & Texx
Woody Boater is everywhere and always a click or two away. Whether I pass him on Greenwood Lake or on Route 287 it is always a pleasure to see Him out there doing the Wood Boat endevor. My mind is always in the same place when it has some free time. So thanks for the fun and a place to go when I can’t get on to the water, which is often, as evidenced by my frequent visits here.
Well I wasn’t going to check out WoodyBoater anymore but that subtle shadow thing between content and advertising really turned it around for me so I guess you’ll have to put up with me for another year. Keep up the good work.
LOL!
I would say it was the wider full bleed header that brings me back, but the width still seems to be the same as my browser window, and I have no clue what full bleed means.
Matt and Texx, my deepest thanks to you for all you have done to make WoodyBoater what it is.
You understate the value of this forum. Instead of asking what WoodyBoater was like before its improvements, you should be asking what classic boating was like before WoodyBoater. It was less connected, less relevant to the now, more confusing (especially to new entrants to the hobby), and much more seasonal. You’ve changed all that. I’m sure other commenters will add to that list of your impact.
On a personal note, this forum is a daily lift for me. It helps me make it through the too-long northern Michigan winter, and to remember Spring will come. Thank you.
Lastly, I read your first story… Our words and thoughts are “omportent” to you? Oh well, I suppose that’s better than impotent. Or is it…?
HA, spelling is so over rated, for those of you that are horrified by my bad spelling, I ask you this, maybe its your bad spelling, I speak and spell the official language of i dont care… Or Woodyboaterese. You can read the dicunary here. scroll down https://www.woodyboater.com/contact/
Matt: As I like to say ” I cant spell but I can sell”
Keep up the good work!
Matt, We will be glad to have you visit Coeur d’ Alene for the international show. You wont be sorry. A special part of the country, as I am sure Texx hast told you.
Lorton,va. Autotrain, drive on drive off. board at 4:30 p.m. arrive sanford, fla. 9:30 am alittle over one hours drive to Lake Dora. How easy can this be.??? super website, love it.
RiverRat, aren’t boat things supposed to be referred to in the female gender? Doesn’t that make WoodyBoater a “her” instead of a “him?”
And a capital H on “him?” Do you consider this forum a god? Or something more sinister?
Lorton Va. used to be famous for the “Lorton Reformatory”…a prison..no defunct
..but Matt is exempt, being beyond all reformation!
Thanks for all you do…still donot see HOW you manage it.
Going boating as soon as I get out of the bilge.
John in Va.
HA, yes it was, it’s now a massive arts center, very cool actually.
http://www.workhousearts.org/
Hey everyone……if you click on the link to the 1st story you can still comment. I left a message there for the 2007 Matt. Wow time travel is possible because it looks like he took my advice. Matt, you’re welcome.
I once heard that good spelling just showed a “lack of creativity”…
Woodyboater is one of the most creative sites anywhere. Keep it up!
This is an overdue “Thank-you” for one new to woodyboating. I wish all were as easily approachable and welcoming. Funny, this site feels more like home than my local club. You have been an endless source of information and inspiration. Now I am up to three boats. It must be your fault.
Unfortunately we will miss Lake Dora this year as we are heading back to Canada tomorrow for medical reasons. Oh well, no t-shirt either from woody boater or from Sunnyland.
When you are tired from all that sensory stimulation and sit for a pint at that Irish pub, I’ll be thinking of everyone there !
Wow, thanks everyone, I am always surprised when folks get something out of the site. We try very hard to make it fun and creative. It aint easy mispelling words
Well, maybe it’s those ‘creatively’ spelled words that have kept WB free from the clutches of InternetBrandz and the other ‘conglomerators’…thank the godz for that! Still pure as a can of freshly opened varnish…
mispelling is mispelled(sic)
Matt and Texx,
From one old varnish head to two others, keep up the fine work. We really appreciate what you do, and remember that classic boats are supposed to be wet, and make a lot of beautiful noise!
Like a Microwave lol, I like that, and it is also how I feel about this site and all the great friends I have met on here. WHAT DID WE DO BEFOR WE FOUND WOODYBOATER???
It is the first site I click on each moring and return a couple of times a day. Habit forming, more like interesting stories, GOT to get more, type of thing.
Like Alex, said, before I found this site. it was hard to figure out where good intresting classic events were, I knew very few people in the hobby and did not have alot of people to share stories, expierences, and photos with.
Keep up the great work, I also do not know how you do it and keep ruining an ad agency.(opps RUNNING an ad …)
Hal I knew you were out there!
You guys are my Guilty pleasure!
I can’t wait to see what everyone is saying, can’t thank you all enough for the laughter, witty comebacks, knowledge and yes even the tears when we have to say goodbye to one if our friends who we’ve come to know and love.
And like so many others thank you for the guidance to those of us who were once ourselves, woobies!
Matt and Texx, My wife thinks I spend more time with you guys than with her. Keep up the good work.
Wow! Five and a half years, and it keeps getting gooder and gooder every year!
You had us at AHOY!
Cheers! to all things WB!
Well, I just received my “official” e-mail for the 2013 Woodyboater/ACBS-Toronto Poker Run!
I replied as quick as I could… and I hope I`m IN the first 20 boats to RSVP. (really have to finish the motor swap now)
But, you can be sure I’ll be wearing my Woodyboater Hagerty wind-shirt thingy no matter what happens.
Great! I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever see a headline like that… It is shaping up to be a “classic – fun” event.
ME TOO, I am number 2 on the list, can’t wait to cruise thost beautiful waters.
ooh ooh eee eee!
Loved seeing the first story, not sure I had seen it before. It was almost exactly 2 months to the day after I had bought my first wooden boat, and 11 months before I attended my first ever classic boat show. Time REALLY flies……
Congrats on WB, it is changing the hobby.
In regard to spelling;
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”.. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kanhave one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”.. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kanbe expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kanbe dropd from vordskontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
Tonight I’m in Flagstaff. I’ve driven 600 miles from LA this morning. Tomorrow we drive another 600 miles towards Nowhere Oklahoma to shoot a TV ad.
I’ve not seen a single Woodyboat in all those miles.
Last thing before bed check Woodyboater. What a fantastic header!! Love it. Goodnight.
Philip,
You have the perfect opportunity to cruise old RT66. Check it out if you have time.
Have a safe drive tomorrow Philip. No direct flights from LAX to OK City? or Dallas? or is this one of those “See the USA in a Chevrolet” deals… where you end up in Lake George, NY again?
Philip – Here’s a YouTube video you can play (over & over & over) when you are passing through New Mexico tomorrow… Trust me, you will need it.
Ha! Thanks everyone. We are filming a truck with a container on it driving to the middle of Nowhere so I just can’t see me getting any boating in this time. Did see some enormous fiberglass race boats near the Hoover Dam but that’s about it.
Maybe it’s just me…
Okay everybody grab your smarter than me phones and pull up this story. Doesn’t Barnwood coming at ya look like OoRAH going away with its bimini top up?
Last night I thought maybe its the wine but noooo!
Matt, Texx, does the web site have a discussion of your backgrounds? I read the “About” page but there is not much about you two. I’ve got to believe that you are comedians who happen to like wooden boats. Do you perform anywhere or just at this site?
Seriously, I migrate to this site numerous times a day for information and entertainment and welcome the opportunity to know you guys. Perhaps I might even get to meet you at an event. Keep up the good work, you are providing a great service to the boating community.
I had a Stem Cell Transplant on 11/12/12, and have been in recovery mode ever since. My friend Wil Vidal told me about this site and I have been a faithful poster and viewer. Thank you so very much for the effort in this site and the enjoyment it brings to me while I’m in quarentine in the house for the last 94 days. My Doc says I’m doing better every time he sees me, and I am looking forward to the next GLACBS event that I will able to participate in. Texx & Matt THANK YOU!!!
Thanks for the update Jay and glad to hear things are improving.