Wake of Fame - Lifetime Achievement Award Dave Sammons 2015

2015 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT – WAKE OF FAME

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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

DAVE SAMMONS

My Dad grew up in Oceanside, California USA and graduated from High School in 1952. He was a surfer and went on to become the City's first Lifeguard Captain and then their Aquatic Director. He joined the Oceanside Police force in 1960 and then on to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in 1967. We moved to Monroe Street 4 houses up from the "Forest" in 1964 (Just the stories about that place could fill a book!) I went to Magnolia, Valley, CHS, I graduated in 1978. I married my High School Sweetheart Julie Baur (also '78 went to BV for Elementary) Who would have thought a Football Captain and Cheerleader Captain would still be married after 35 years! My dad graduated High School with 'Mole" Huffman...Brent played football with me and Beverly cheered with my wife (I also coached her in Powderpuff football). Richard Rees was in my grade as well. We played baseball together all through school. He now owns his father's 7-11 on Palomar Airport Road and the 5. Rick Lathrop is married to Suzanne Huffman and I sure Fred Lathrop is still alive and living in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Lisa Schlimmer was our grade as well...played DB for me in powder puff! Mr. Hart was my teacher at Valley.

Bruce Bandemer graduated with me. His Dad, Otto, an attorney, defended me and my buddy Dave Hops when a Carlsbad Cop (Shipley) chased us from Chestnut to Alga in La Costa when we road raced all the way out there at over 100mph...Hops in his 1978 Trans Am and me in my lowered 1974 Chevy Shortbed. Charges included...Speed Contest, reckless driving, passing on the shoulder, passing in the center divider, and running the stop sign (no light back then) at Palomar Airport Road and El Camino...which we came to a full stop. 1968-1972 My first trip to the Carlsbad Lagoon was in 1968. We had a Glen L Hot Rod V drive flat bottom with Caddy Power (also my first River trip where we stayed at Big Bend Resort). In 1969, my Dad took the boat to the Litchfield brothers down on State Street in Carlsbad to have fixed Cavitation plates added.


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From that project forward our lives would be ever entwined in High Performance V Drives. In 1970 we purchased an all wood ‘wood decked Litchfield’ that had been used as their unblown Fuel Flat bottom. We installed a 440 Dodge out of a wrecked CHP car and my Dad promptly went out and won the 75-80 class at the drags in San Diego, California. The racing bug had bit him...we went to Ming and Long Beach also with this boat. But, it was mostly used for water skiing in Carlsbad. I remember the first time he nailed it with me in it...I wanted to jump out I was so scared!! (this feeling wouldn't last long) We were down there with many other families nearly every weekend in the summer, (unless we were at the Colorado River, Lake Mead or Lake Apache). We also water skied many afternoons after school. While most of my friends were Surfers...Myself and my brothers were "Lagoon Rats" at the Fox’s Ski Hut in Carlsbad Lagoon, California. The times were good, the boats were fast and I would not have traded it for anything! A mentioned, Foxe’s was run and owned by an old Navy Seabee, John Fox. He was a Beauty! The Ski Hut as mentioned was run by the Lathrop family. Rick Lathrop, the son, would go on to open R&S railers in Lake Havasu City, Arizona and after closing up shop opened a pool business which I think he still has. Lee Lathrop along with her husband Fred were the owners, and sadly Lee has passed on. Celebrating New Year’s Day was a big deal at the Lagoon. Every year the Flatty’s would come out of the garage...what a way to start the year!


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The Annual Polar Bear day (NYD) mandated that you water ski around the lagoon in a bathing suit and you had to deep water start as well! Once completed you got a patch with the year on it. My father was a bit competitive and always wanted to be the first on the water every year. For 5 or so years I had the honors of being the first water skier. My punishment for being the oldest of 3 brothers I guess Brother Rolf was typically second! On most weekends during the summer there would 50 plus different boats of all kinds...usually a minimum of 8 to 10 v drives. Just before sunset all the flatty’s would pair off on the back side and drag race...if there was an out of towner, he had to work his way through the field to get to the fastest of the day. In the summer of 1972 I went to work for Mr. Fox dumping trash cans and raking the place up as well as helping on the ramp and bumming water ski rides. Good times! By this time I was making wide open passes in the old woodpecker (usually out of sight of my father) and brother Rolf was not shy either. The day we sold it...My dad knew full well I could handle the thing so me and Rolf took it out for one last ride...after a couple passes I let him drive and I knew right then I was no good as a passenger! Of course...a new boat was on the way and Kawasaki Motors Corporation USA (KMC) was going to make our little lagoon ground zero for Jet Ski™ testing.

So late 1972 rolls around... We are building a new Glass Flat bottom. Still hanging out at the Carlsbad Lagoon and we hear that Kawasaki will be using the landing to test this new one man water bike like machine they are calling a Jet Ski™. Well of course as soon as they started testing the prototypes all us boys, who were already driving boats and skiing pretty fast, knew we had to get on them! In very short order those 2 guys from Kawasaki who were there everyday testing them figured out that us local kids could tear them up as well as they could! For the daily fee of a Pizzarino sandwich and a drink from the snack bar....we beat the heck out of those things...crashing them, blowing them up and just about every other abuse you could imagine! While the "test riders" sat on the beach drinking Coors.


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Now they did put a heck of a lot of time on them themselves, and earned their pay. But we sure had fun! We rode hull numbers 1 through I think at least 15...One of the boats that we had crashed and taken the nose off of they agreed to sell to my friend Rusty Sharman. I worked with him to repair it and we were in the water by late 1973. I remember taking it to the Colorado River and be stopped by boats wondering what the heck it was as the production Jet Ski™ models had just been released.

Meanwhile things at the Carlsbad Lagoon remained about the same. We continued water skiing as much as we could, fishing in row boats and under the 5 freeway bridge and generally having fun. I was still working for John when needed and spending most Saturdays at Litchfield's shop sweeping the floors and helping out. Then head down to Snug Harbor for a little fun and maybe a Jet Ski™ ride. The flat bottom craze was in full swing at this time with al ot of new boats showing up to race the locals...you had to have been there to believe it! The Lathrop’s were Jet Ski™ racers and Rick was pretty darn good, so I started Jet Ski™ racing as well. We would go out and run at least 20 laps around the Lagoon. More often than not there were certain people up on the hill that would call in noise complaints to the City while we practiced. One guy filed a lawsuit against my Dad just because he was a CHP. Nothing ever came of it. By 1975, we had a Runner Bottom Litchfield that ran a legitimate 100moh and changed at the drags. My dad was driving other people’s boats at this point at the races. He still enjoyed our boat, but it was cool because I could drive the thing pretty well and when an out of towner showed up and called him out, more than once he sent me out to race him telling him: "If you can beat my 15 year old kid, then you can have me" Good times!

Some of the other fellas would have me drive their boats and make passes as well...more good times! We were still into the Jet Ski™ stuff and having fun as well. We formed the Snug Harbor Race Team and competed in the first ever races. We all did pretty well. In 1977...Tragedy struck...My father passed away from injuries sustained in a Roadside scuffle with a drunk one day after the incident from a blood clot that came up and closed a valve in his heart.


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As terrible as it was my "family" at the Lagoon helped get me and my brothers through it. Late 1977 was a blur, but I and my brother Rolf picked back up the Jet Ski™ racing; he in the Lightweight Class and me in the Heavyweight Class in both Modified and Superstock. By this time 1978, because of noise and insurance the end of the V-drive era came to an end. And really the general water ski boat count started to drop rapidly as well. North County Jet Ski™ has been gone for years now. Dan, the owner had a hell of a run. Economy finally caught up to him. He built many Personal Water Craft (PWC) for me. I won the World Final in Lake Havasu City Arizona, USA in 1989 on a 650 Dan built. I then went on to win numerous state championships on 750s. He then built me a Yamaha at his Kawisaki dealership for me, a Waveblaster™. Again more state championships, and a few nationals.....Then off to Factory Sea Doo......the rest is history. End of a era that will never be forgotten by those of us who lived it. I wish there was a way I could fully convey how special of a time/place it was.

That's 2 of the early prototypes right there from 1972. There were 2 different bottoms...an A and an AB if I remember...the AB hull was a little more rounded and a lot more squirrely and when Production started in 1974 you could order one or the other. By 1976 the flatter, more forgiving of the 2 was the only one available and stayed that way all the way through the 550JS era.


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FLASHBACKS 1978 Race. The boat to beat was the "Shuttle" which was rode by the great Steve Stricklin. You can see the one boat with the custom paint and upturned rear of the hood cover. The builder of the boat was Ed Losinski, of L&S Engineering who was a drag racer from the 1960's that really was ahead of us in terms of tuning (and stretching the rules). Ed Losinski also had casted the first aftermarket exhaust manifold. One of the few with a helmet painted to match the boat...guess that was my boat racing background. The talented Rusty Sharman was the painter

Testing my Modified class Jet Ski in '78. It was bored to a whopping 474 cc's and featured a rear exit exhaust that Rusty Sharman designed after we saw it on 'The Shuttle". I also put dual carbs on the thing...we actually took 2 stock intake manifolds and cut the opposite ends off, welded them up and built a linkage between the 2 carbs...pretty exotic for 1978! OH...and before you all start laughing at the kneel down position most racers were using...Remember Stand Up racing didn't start till 1979, the same year they did away with the weight divisions...which ended my riding days and turned me into the guy they started to call "Tuner Dave”. A little later I became “Race Director Dave”.

Like I said earlier, me and Rolf and the Snug Harbor Team were pretty competitive and had some fast equipment. I'm going to veer off lagoon history, for a bit because what happened the next 2 years ties back into it... End of Summer 1978 I got a call from Larry Hardy from Orange County Jet Ski. Him and his partner, Ed Miller had split up (Ed left to open Westcoast Jet Ski). Larry wanted me to run his racing program...which sounded great, so the deal was that Rolf and I still got to race, while I maintained and improved his boats. Things went OK and then I got a call in early 1979 from Robert Montgomery, who owned the largest Jet Ski™ dealer in


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the United States. He wanted me to head up his service department and build/manage his race team at Trans World Recreation (TWR). I was done racing due to the elimination of the weight classes and my ability to compete with some of these guys as a Stand Up rider! The dealership was located in Newport Beach, California and he had another one in Hawai’ Kai, Oah’u that also had a rental operation. So I took that deal and everything was great.

TWR Racing in Alabama

I was teamed up with Doug and Billy Silverstein as riders as well as Bruce Sternjstrom (who in 2017 is still with Kawasaki). Turns out we did pretty well hitting the Regional Championship events and even though there was no official National Champion...Doug scored more points back then than anyone one else...so we thought that was pretty neat. Robert ‘Monty’ Montgomery then sent Julie and I to Hawai’i to button up the rental operation and do some high performance work for the local boys there. We were there for 6 months.


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Dave Sammons and Mark Dickinson of Dickinson Designs

Upon return, it was time to race in the first National Points Championship Tour that was spread across the United States over a 2 month period...we raced every weekend hitting spots in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Florida for a few weekends. Seems like a couple others as well (I think the Championship was in Lincoln Nebraska). Anyway, Doug Silverstein and I won the first ever High Points and I think Billy Silverstein was fourth. Doug was so smooth on a Jet Ski™...Don't think I ever saw anyone like him...It was fun working with him and his brother. So toward the end of 1980...Lee and Fred Lathrop were giving up the lease on the Carlsbad Lagoon location and I convinced "Monty" that it would be the perfect place to open up a second TWR dealer and rental operation. Of course my motive was to work back in Carlsbad and be able to test new ideas and products 100 feet form my Shop!! But before that happened I got to go back to Hawai’i at the request of Kawasaki (KMC) to build and tune all the Jet Skis™ for the first ever ‘Race Of Champions’that was held on the North Shore of Hawai’i and featured the top ten riders from the season. I think Steve Strickland won the thing. The event was shown nationally on NBC Sportsworld with Bruce Jenner as the host (got a couple good stories on him!).

Upon my return, Monty had got the deal done with the doctor who owned the land and TRW was going to Carlsbad!


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Team Trans World Recreation 1979...Regional Championships, Birmingham, Alabama: Doug and Billy Silverstein, Bruce Sternjstom, Me and Vello Lippand with his girlfriend.

So we take over Snug Harbor, do a remodel on the place, build a rental barge, set up shop and off we went. Doug also relocated down to Carlsbad...he fit right in! It was great to have a testing facility right out the front door! I spent most of my time in Carlsbad, but still had to go the Newport Beach store on occasion. By this time we formed Banzai Performance Products and began producing parts as well. With the ability to test anytime we wanted, I could try all kinds of things.

We designed and built some pretty cool parts including the first aftermarket head, that featured a KX 250 chamber, an aluminum cylinder with some port changes for performance and could be bored into the high 500 cc's. We also worked real hard to perfect Mechanical Fuel injection using Hilborn parts. The injector worked very well and was superior to the diaphram carbs. Also, our owner was a surfer and he was intrigued by the "Surf Jet" concept. We became a dealer and I was given the task of improving them as well. Got the unit working better with what I had. I think he now owns the whole company. Then before you knew it, it was time to go back on "Tour".


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Great times out on the road as always (we even got asked to leave a town in South Dakota by sundown!). We transported all the set up equipment for the USJSBA racing association and had to be at every stop early so Doug Silverstein and the guys could do all the TV stuff. We also added a great rider named Brian Bendix to the team...what a character he was. The book that could be written about being on "Tour"! WOW!! I flew back and forth a couple times during the racing season to handle things at the shop. We had a good year. Doug Silverstein won the high points again and I think Brian Bendix was third. Back in Carlsbad I came up with the idea to put on a Winter Series. But I wanted to do some different things beside the normal events. Besides the regular closed course stuff we ran, and as far as I know the only time this has been done in watercraft racing, side by side slalom racing with jumps, as well as Speedway style racing with the heats run exactly as they did at the OC Fairgrounds. It was a great show and a big success. Around the middle to the end of 1983 things started to unravel with the business and TWR moved out of Snug Harbor. Greg Rusing who ran the Ski Adventures Water Ski charter took the landing over and had it for many years and then the folks who are in there now took it over. They look to be doing pretty well.

WAKE OF FAME INDUCTION

Dave Sammons was inducted into the Wake of Fame in 2016, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay in San Diego California.

He was inducted into the Lifetime Achievement category with many of his fellow peers.


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Written by Dave Sammons

Transcribed by Shawn Alladio

February 6, 2017

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Wake of Fame - Lifetime Achievement Award Dave Sammons 2015