As I perused my fellow blogger offerings here on Powerboat magazine’s Web site, a common theme appeared—an optimistic outlook on the year ahead.

I could not agree more! Besides the birth of my son last February, 2009 was not such a great year for my family, as well as many others. The economy, deaths in the family and other unforeseen hardships put a major damper on the “good time meter.” Reflecting back, I realized that my family did not take one trip the entire year (boating-related or otherwise), several poker runs were cancelled and, to top it off, water levels at several local lakes were so low they were virtually unusable. I can literally count on one hand how many times I got my Cigarette wet over the past year.

So here we are, three months into 2010 and I can already see the silver lining. From talking with friends who are in the real estate market, I hear things are moving and prices are stabilizing. People I know in the retail manufacturing business tell me things are starting to pick up. And from speaking to friends in the marine industry, sales are happening and builders are staying afloat.

Not only have the West Coast poker runs that were cancelled last year returned to the calendar for 2010, including Southern California Offshore Powerboat Elite (SCOPE) and Big Cat, a new poker run was added—the Bayfair Storm in San Diego. And of course Lake Havasu’s Desert Storm is back, bigger and better than ever. Even Mother Nature chipped in to start 2010 on a positive note by dumping so much rain in Southern California that most lakes saw a rise, making them usable seemingly overnight. And now I read that OSS and SBI have agreed to come together in some part to race together (Click here for the story).

I personally am geared up and ready to hit the Desert Storm poker run, San Diego’s Bayfair poker run is on the agenda and we’re working on getting out to Key West (Florida) for the Worlds in November. So I’d have to agree—2010 is already shaping up to be a great year! Let’s all put 2009 behind us and look forward to the offerings of a great year to come.

Whether things truly are looking up or not, I applaud the optimism. As it was once intelligently written, “It’s better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right.”

Looking forward to seeing you all on the water this season!