Gallery Of The Week: Desert Storm Street Party Busts Another Block

Like the number of registered boats for almost all poker runs, the size of the fleet at the Desert Storm affair Lake Havasu City, Ariz., varies from year to year. But the now-27-year-old event hasn’t dipped below 100 to 120 entries since its early days.

Headquartered in Lake Havasu City, Interceptor Custom Boats supported the local event in fine fashion. Photos by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.

The Anderson Powersports Desert Storm Poker Run remains the most popular performance-boating event of its kind in the West. For performance-boat fans in the Midwest and East, it put Lake Havasu City on the map—and to some degree keeps it there.

The Desert Storm Poker Run Street Party, which took over a mile of McCulloch Boulevard last night, also has seen some variation in crowd size since it was added to the event schedule more than a decade ago. But for the most part, its trajectory has been vertical. Attendance estimates have gone as high as 20,000 visitors, though most have fallen in the 10,000- to 15,000-person range.

A first-time exhibitor, South Florida’s Angle of Attack Marine brought a Mystic Powerboats C4000 catamaran to display in Lake Havasu City.

Regardless, that’s a giant, semi-captive audience for any downtown street to hold, much less one in a desert city that has less than 60,000 full-time residents and is more than two hours by car from from a major airport. The high-performance marine industry recognized the street party’s marketing value almost immediately. Longtime stalwart supporters, from DCB Performance Marine—a presenting sponsor along with KICKER Marine Audio—and Eliminator Boats to Mercury Racing and Teague Custom Marine, never miss it.

A Performance Powerboats P280 catamaran was among the beauties in the Performance Boat Center display.

New exhibitors such as Miami-based Angle of Attack Marine arrive every year and—like Waves and Wheels of Osage Beach, Mo., after its first Desert Storm experience—become devout repeat customers. Company principal Justin Wagner, the primary backer of the Shootout On The Strip street party and exhibit during the annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri, loves the event.

Enjoy more images from the 2025 Desert Storm Poker Run Street Party in the slideshow above.

As does speedonthewater.com contributing photographer Jeff Helmkamp, who is in Lake Havasu City this week to capture the action. The Missouri-based shooter hit McCulloch Boulevard yesterday and, as usual, left with some gems. And he’ll be back at it when the poker run opens today at 11 a.m.

“It was hot yesterday, of course, but I also would say it was maybe 10 degrees cooler than years past,” Helmkamp said. “The street party was pretty much like it normally is, meaning once the sun went down everybody came out.

“The variety of boats at this street party is unmatched anywhere with all the different manufacturers out West coupled with MTI, Performance Powerboats, Sunsation Powerboats and others.” he added. “Even Deep Impact came all the way from South Florida to be at the event.”