I'm a Hydro Geek......

....and very proud to be one! Still am one today....maybe bigger now than when I was a kid. I admit it, I was a little hydro geek growing up in Owensboro, Ky in the 70s. Not hard to be one, "back in the day." All those piston powered unlimited hydroplanes making that wonderful noise a few miles from my house in June. My life long buddy, Jimmy (most of you know his wonderful hydro photographs under the name James Crisp), and I lived and breathed hydros year round. Our rooms at home were "hydro rooms". Nothing but regatta pictures, posters, programs and buttons. Buttons. We had lots. We lived for securing those collectibles. Back then each team would hand them out. It was so much fun getting all we could. Getting one was great. Extras were trade material for the collectors on the west coast. Some were hard to get, some weren't. Bud buttons were everywhere. Everybody had them, lots of them. I saw on Ebay that someone was asking $32 for one of those large Bud buttons. I thought he was crazy! Good luck on making that sale.

We had so much fun getting those buttons. Jimmy was much better at getting those hard to get ones than I was. I got a few, but he got lots more. After our regatta, and later going to Madison, we spent the summer and winter months making trades with guys in the Seattle area. Bob Senior comes to mind. With only pen and paper, "Back in the day", we wrote to Bob or whoever and offered buttons of east coast teams. They in return would offer west coast buttons. Needless to say, writing back and forth took some time--counter offers and the like. But, it's what we had and it was a blast!

Once in college, and when the teams stopped handing out buttons, my collecting days ended as well. Until this past year. I still had my collection in drawer. With ebay and the "Button Man", my desire to start collecting again was reborn. I try to get deals on ebay, buying "lots" of buttons, all those years I stopped collecting. I'd get an occasional button, but nothing like I was as a kid. It's fun again and I have a lot of catching up to do.

I mentioned the "Button Man"----Kerry Sauley. If you have ever been to Madison the last 8 years or so, you know him well. He was raised in Madison, nows lives in Baton Rouge, but comes home every year to the regatta. He makes, at his own expense, buttons and passes them out to anybody and everybody. For FREE!! They aren't cheapies either. High quality buttons. Mostly of the Oberto, U-3 and Formula. Lots of them. This year I asked. 10,000 buttons. Yes, 10,000 he made and passed out! There were 70 different varieties. Boat buttons, driver buttons, Madison Regatta buttons. You name it, he made it and gave them ALL away for free. Why? His passion for the sport and it's his way to help promote the sport. You must come to Madison next year. Guarantee your button collection will grow. I know mine did!!

I could write alll night long about this disease I have---being a Hydro Geek. Trust me, I could. More in later editions of the HydroNation.

Shameless plug time. The week of the Gold Cup this year, my buddy Mike (fellow Hydro Geek, business partner and friend) started the website for Ed Cooper. It's Go3racing.com. Please visit. It's for all hydroplane fans, not just those of Jimmy King and the Go3 team (that's the new name they want to get going, so we are pushing it here and on the site). We are fans of the sport. The website has come a long way in a few weeks, but has a long way to go. Hopefully the content we put there is stuff you want to see. We think it is, because it's what we want to see on hydro websites. Our goal and promise is to keep adding content all the time. Especially during the season. We'll be adding whatever we can---and video is our main goal. So far we have lots and lots more is on the way. Keep checking back.

This website is for you. We will not abandon it after San Diego and pick it back up next June. We'll be making monthly visits to Ed's boat shop in Posey County. We'll have something---pictures, videos, new information, but it will be alive during the winter. That's a promise.

Enough of my hydro geekness! Let's go racing!!