‘Wake the Lake’ returns to Lord Fletcher’s in Spring Park

River Valley Marine hosted its 8th annual Wake the Lake event on June 14-15. They continued the decade-old festivities (they took two years off during the COVID-19 pandemic) once again at Lord Fletcher’s Old Lake Lodge in Spring Park.

John Gooden, owner of River Valley Marine, said his plan for Wake the Lake over 10 years ago was to put the fun back in the boat business. “We had just ground through the recession. It was over in 2012 and one of the OEMs said to us, ‘I think we all forget that the boat business is supposed to be fun.’”

Rather than only hosting an indoor event during the winter, like the Minneapolis Boat Show, Gooden wanted to host a fun day in the sun. On Friday, they hosted an in-water boat show with 33 boats, live music, a VIP party for prospective boat buyers, and capped the night off with a fireworks show.

The fun continued on Saturday with a Bloody Mary bar and special demonstrations by professional wakeboarders including Parker Payne, Danny Hampson, and local sibling duo Ava and Tyler Stewart.

Lord Fletcher’s was packed, but that’s what Gooden was hoping for. “We’ve grown from hoping and praying we’d have 100 people show up [in year one] to year two and three being overwhelmed where we have too many… it ebbed and flowed and this year we just kind of said, ‘you know what, what’s the worst that could happen if two or three thousand people showed up tonight?’