Same deal as many of you guys, I was out on the water at age six/seven without supervision, in a aluminum boat with a 5.5 Evinrude, then the 13' Whaler after that. Still as a kid I would get top drive the 16' & 18' Donzi, 20' Cigarette, and as a young adult the 24' Pantera, and the 27' Magnum. On my own, another 18' Donzi, lots of hours, two summers, every chance I could in Avalon, NJ in the late 1980's. I have less than 100 hours of actual seat time, driving/throttling the 34' Phantom. All told, thousands of hours total boating time. I am age 44, and have been on the water before I can remember. Pictures of the early days, 1965 and later, and the Phantom as of last weekend.
I am the little guy in the Donzi picture, probably taken in 1969. The hot-rod tunnel boat was taken in 1968.