Catching Up With Eric Colby—The Passion That Drives Offshore Racing’s Finest Reporter

The moment I walked into the Ventura, Calif., offices of Powerboat magazine in early November 1993, I knew I had to work there. The quality of the magazine, which I thumbed through as I waited for my interview for the role of managing editor—a gig I knew well from my newspaper and trade magazine days—was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Powerboat was magazine art, plain and simple.

Eric Colby, who ran of a half-season in what would become the Super Stock class and two seasons in V-bottom classes, brings real-world experience to his reporting. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Eric Colby, then the magazine’s editor, brought me into his office overlooking Ventura Harbor for our interview. Colby wasn’t a warm fuzzy type, but he was polite, direct and clear about his expectations for a managing editor. A few days later after his No. 1 candidate dropped out of the race, he offered me the job.

Colby mentored me. He pushed hard. He shared his knowledge. He was—and is—a skilled reporter with a killer worth ethic.

Those skills shone brightest in his offshore powerboat racing coverage, which was unmatched. Colby didn’t just know the sport, he breathed it. He covered every detail of every race, but he never missed the big picture. His work was impeccable.

So a few years ago when the chance arose to hire him to cover offshore racing for this daily news site, I jumped at it. Colby is hands-down the most talented and knowledgeable reporter covering the sport and we are blessed and honored to carry his stories.

Combined with Pete Boden’s images, Colby’s offshore racing coverage is once again unmatched.

Earlier this week, I caught up with my former boss and longtime friend and asked him a few questions. Here’s what he had to say.

You are so passionate about offshore powerboat racing and it shows in your coverage. How did that happen?

I grew up boating and I loved watching almost any kind of racing on TV shows like Wide World of Sports. I remember seeing the Gold Cup races and then I started out in powerboat racing covering Unlimited hydroplane racing for about four years for Soundings magazine and then Powerboat. When I became editor of Powerboat, I moved over to offshore and traveled the country with photographer Tom Newby for about 10 years. My passion for it was almost instantaneous but I also threw myself into it because I wanted to do the best job that I could covering it. This was in the 1990s before the current online coverage. People were impatiently waiting to read about those races so I had to give them as much detail as possible.

No editor in the history of Powerboat magazine covered offshore powerboat racing better than Colby.

You did some racing yourself. What did you learn from it?

I raced two seasons in Offshore A class, one in Offshore B with Craig Archer when we won the APBA Western Division championships and about a half-season in what is now Super Stock. It gave me a better understanding of what the competitors go through and I think it helped from a credibility standpoint. I understand the strategy and can sometimes see what a team is trying to do on the course. When I was doing the livestream for Sarasota in 2021, I could see the way that Wayne Valder and Grant Bruggemann were eliminating the dogleg in the course and working that to their advantage.

What are the biggest challenges facing the sport next season?

The team that ran as Huski in Class 1 will be sorely missed if it doesn’t find new sponsors and it would be bad for the sport as a whole for Steve Curtis and Gary Stray to not be part of it. The same goes for 222 Offshore Australia if they don’t continue their relationship with the Royal Australian Navy. Darren Nichols, Giovanni Carpitella and Muddy McGrath would be sorely missed.

On a different note, I wouldn’t call it a challenge so much, but I think it would better for the sport if the promoters/sanctioning bodies could work more collaboratively instead of competing.

The word “politics” gets tossed around a lot in the racing community. What does that word mean to you?

Petty BS power grabs, whether it’s a competitor trying to wield his/her power in a given class to gain an advantage or a promoter/sanctioning body trying to throw around his/her weight to show he/she is in control. At the end of the day, as the veteran racers say, they’re just racing for a plastic trophy.

What do you enjoy most and least about covering offshore racing

It might sound like something from ‘Captain Obvious,’ but I love seeing a boat and team dialed in like Graydel announcing its arrival with its Skater 388 in Super Cat in Cocoa Beach in 2022 or When Brit Lilly and one of his handful of throttleman have his 29-foot Extreme set on kill in Mod-V. The boat and team seem to be operating as one. I’m also so grateful to Todd Swofford and Larry Bleil for giving me the opportunity to join the Race World Offshore livestream team this year. I think Todd and I make a good team and feel that we were well-received.

Colby and his two children, Makenna and Blake..

The least favorite thing was the helpless feeling sitting in the helicopter waiting for a beloved veteran like Tom Gentry or Joey Gratton to emerge from the cockpit of his or learning of an accident like the one that Ryan Stahlman and Reef Delanos had this year in the same turn. They’re the same age as my son.