After more than a year of development, WakesideRides.com is ready to launch at midnight on April 8th, 2005. WakesideRides is the first community website fully dedicated to owners of all makes of wakeboard and waterski boats. It was designed and built as a place where boat owners can interact with all who share a zeal for watersports and the thing that makes it all possible - their tow boat.
The goal of this project was simple: create the most valuable boat owner community possible. WakesideRides boasts many unique features that will plug you into the boat community. You can add your ride to show it off to the world, rate other rides or and participate in online discussions on specific rides. You can stay connected by tracking your favorite rides, and stay knowledgeable by browsing boat-specific or general forums. The site will be updated continuously with industry-specific news and resource articles submitted by fellow boat owners. A powerful database search tool allows you to quickly and easily retrieve and organize all the information in any format you wish.
The vision for WakesideRides came from a slow afternoon on the web. A couple of the Wakeside guys were checking out CarDomain.com, where over one million car enthusiasts show off their rides, maintain a guest book, vote on rides, and have access to powerful search features. Boat owners typically use forums to post their images and show off their rides. Unfortunately, forums were never designed for this purpose and don’t work nearly as well as CarDomain.com works for cars. The obvious question was then asked, “why not create a similar community for boat owners?” But there wasn’t anybody on the Wakeside team that could take on such a project. A brief brainstorm identified the need to team up with somebody else who did have the time and talent to make this dream a reality.
The obvious choice was Jason Craveiro of MalibuBoatOwners.com. Members of MBO know him well; he spearheaded the first boat owner community website dedicated to owners of Malibu boats. MBO has been operational for several years and, under the leadership of Jason, has continued to grown in members, content, and quality since its inception. Jason wanted to offer similar websites for other boat makes but resources did not allow it.
Clearly, a unified effort between Wakeside.com and MalibuBoatOwners.com was the way to go. The Wakeside.com and MBO joined forces to accomplish the vision and created WakesideRides. Jason will manage the direction and operation of WakesideRides going forward. Several leading boat manufacturers and boat accessory manufacturers have enthusiastically endorsed this endeavor and have signed on to be sponsors.
To help launch the new website, WakesideRides sponsors have offered valuable prizes to be given away to everyone that creates a member profile and enters their Ride. Prizes include a Boss B530 wakeboard tower speaker system, a Fusion T-Series Combo wakeboard tower speaker system, a Skylon Deafcon Reference V wakeboard tower system, and a Titan Series II wakeboard tower. Other smaller prizes will also be given away. All you need to do to enter the contest is create a Ride anytime between April 9, 2005 and April 30, 2005. For more contest information, visit WakesideRides.com starting April 9th.
The partnership of MalibuBoatOwners.com and Wakeside.com is sure to result in a successful community that boat owners everywhere can enjoy and learn from. As the launch approaches, prepare to show off your ride and enter to win some beautiful products from the industry’s top manufacturers.