The concierge service and transportation manager for Deep Impact Custom Boats and all-around great guy, John Wittenberger turned to me at lunch on Harbour Island during our last day of the Florida Powerboat Club Bahamas Poker Run earlier this month and grinned.
Captured here at the Rockin The Harbor Poker Run in Baltimore earlier this month, John Wittenberger (left) works closely with Deep Impact Custom Boats company owner Mark Fischer.
“I want your job,” he said, then shook his head. “You get to go to all these amazing places, ride on all these great boats and write about them.”
I smiled and responded the only honest way I could.
“Yeah, it’s pretty great,” I admitted. “I’m very lucky to do what I do for a living. I don’t forget it.
“And I definitely don’t work as hard as you do, my friend,” I added, then laughed.
A multi-talented guy, Wittenberger has been on the road since spring hauling Deep Impact center consoles to events around the country. Once there, he represents the brand, which he knows inside and out, answers questions, offers demo rides and even helps owners of other powerboat brands with maintenance issues.
The heaviest thing I haul around all season is a 13-inch laptop. Bridge clearance-heights, wide-load permits and such do not concern me.
Like me, Wittenberger is headed to the Boyne Thunder Poker Run next week. He’ll be showcasing a Deep Impact 399 Sport model in the Northern Michigan. Also like me, he’ll head for the 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run the following week. Once again, he’ll have the 39-footer in tow.
Once again, the heaviest thing I’ll transport is my laptop. Though to be “fair,” I have a stop—the HK Powerboats Land and Lake Poker Run in New Hampshire—sandwiched between the Boyne Thunder and 1,000 Islands Charity events.
Poor me, right? Cry me a river.
Wittenberger, as well as folks such as Andrew Imhof and Mitch Kramer of Maryland Offshore Service and Christian Marquez and Michael Hall of Angle of Attack Marine hit the road every season to represent powerboat brands, as well as their own businesses. They are the true road warriors of the go-fast boating world.
And unlike me, they don’t travel light.