Commentary: Marking Time With The 2022 Speed On The Water Year In Review Issue
The days are long but the years are fast. Such is the conventional wisdom passed from one generation of parents to the next, and it tends to be true. The same also hold true for the goings-on behind the scenes at speedonthewater.com.
Example? In January 2022, we found ourselves on scene at Skater Powerboats in Douglas, Mich., capturing principal footage for what would be the first episode of our second-year “In The Lead” video series. It was an experience we thought we’d never forget.
The new 2022 Speed On The Water Year In Review, which can be purchased by clicking the image above, started arriving in mailboxes late last week. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
But by the time we got to Key West, Fla., in November, to cover offshore powerboat racing’s annual grand finale just 11 months later, we could scarcely remember those cold Michigan mornings, much less all the news and feature stories we produced for the website during the year.
That is the nature of daily news. Despite the daily grind, it makes time fly by like a Class 1 raceboat at full speed.
So in no small way, our annual Year In Review magazine is our version of pumping the memory brakes. Producing this issue requires us to slow down and take many, many beats as we review the news of the year for inclusion in this issue. Even with 196 pages to work with in this oversized beast of a magazine, not everything we cover in the daily realm makes the final cut. From event coverage to new-boat releases and deliveries, not all stories are created equal, so we have to make some hard choices.
Producing the Year In Review issue would not be possible without daily reporting, without keeping our fingers on the pulses of the high-performance boating world every freaking day. And, starting with our chief photographer Pete Boden, we also couldn’t do it without an incredible group of shooters who help bring every story to life with vibrant action-packed images.
Those of you who’ve purchased this annual issue since we launched it in 2015 will notice something distinctly different about the 2022 edition. For the first time, just one boat—Mystic Powerboats M5200 center console No. 1, which is powered by four Mercury Marine Verado 600 engines—graces the cover. That doesn’t mean the 52-footer was the only noteworthy new model released in 2022. It does mean we thought that it alone was the most impactful choice for the cover.
Of course, we expect some disagreement on this decision, especially among brand loyalists. But that’s the nature of hard choices, right? The more difficult they are to make, the more controversial they are likely to be. Yet breaking away from what is safe, conventional and even traditional can produce spectacular results, and this Year In Review cover fits that description.
We’re sure we’ll get plenty of feedback and we welcome it.
But you have all year to get back to us.
Editor’s note: A version of this text appears in the introduction of the Speed On The Water 2022 Year In Review issue.
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