Trait and I are on our way to a Yamaha Turkey Bass Smash event they’re putting on with their pro staff anglers. It’s being held in Del Rio, Texas, over the weekend. We’ll spend one day hunting turkeys and another fishing legendary Lake Amistad.
We’ve been with Yamaha for 10 years, and I couldn’t be more proud of our relationship. But, the details of that and of what we’ll be doing are not what I want to talk about in this column. I want to talk about the importance of cross supporting different outdoor sports and hobbies, actually all sports and hobbies.
Trait and I shoot a lot, but we are not hunters. We shoot paper and cardboard. This thing is, though, that one of my sponsors is Yamaha. They support and make products for a lot of different sports and hobbies. I want to see them succeed. If they don’t, I won’t either. Most import our country won’t. So we view this as a great opportunity to help them with what they’re doing in the United States.
You don’t have to be good at something, or even do it, to support it and understand what it means to other men and women. Example: I don’t play women’s volleyball, but I support it and hope it thrives. When it does we all gain something.
I wish more companies took the attitude that Yamaha takes. They’re going to support us with their ATV lineup of high-quality vehicles for the hunt and with their boats for the fishing.
We all know about the boats and motors they make. I don’t have to tell you that they are some of the best in the boating industry. No one who owns one isn’t proud to be seen in it. The thing I didn’t know much about were the ATVs. I looked around at what they have to offer, and I have to say that it’s really impressive.
On the internet right now they have 10 Utility models that range in price from a little over $6,000 to just over $11,000. That’s a pretty wide range and gives most outdoor people an affordable option. And, they have a number of sport models that are priced well below that.
My purpose in writing about this is not to advertise for Yamaha or to turn this column into an infomercial. It’s to demonstrate the importance of the companies we do business with and to support them whenever we are able.
It’s no secret that our economy has struggled over the past couple of years. For the most part, every sector has been hurt, and we’re not out of the woods yet. The outdoor industry has been no exception. The challenge for companies like Yamaha is to have forward vision, and for consumers to be smart enough to support their efforts.
The bottom line is that we should celebrate multi-sport companies. They’re the backbone of the outdoor industry and sports, and actually of all industry and sports in general. Without them we won’t be around long.
