The Best Time For Lake Life
Starting next month with happenings from the Cigarette Owners Rendezvous and the Support Our Troops Poker Run produced by Big Thunder Marine to the Power By Performance Invitational and Outboard Fun Run organized by Performance Boat Center, the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri will host more organized go-fast boating events than any waterway in the country. If you planted yourself at the lake for the summer, as more than a few powerboat owners, do, you could run with an organized pack almost every other weekend leading up to the annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in late August.
If you haven’t experienced the Lake of the Ozarks in the spring or fall, you’re missing the best of it. Photo from the 2025 Performance Boat Center Spring Fun Run by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.
But if you really want to catch the lake at its finest, spring and fall are your times. Even on the weekends during the “shoulder seasons,” the water doesn’t become a psychotic jumble of boat wakes. The daytime temperatures are delightful. The mornings and evenings are cool enough for windbreakers, but far from cold.
Having just spent a week at the Lake of the Ozarks, which started with the Spring Fun Run and ended with a lunch run in a Waves And Wheel Edition Doug Wright 39 Carbon catamaran, I can vouch for the shoulder-season experience. I’ve never enjoyed what the locals call “lake life” more.
Read More: The Best Time For Lake Life
Related stories
The Ultimate Toy Barn
Quick Take—Digging The Waves And Wheels Edition Doug Wright 39 Carbon Cat
Springing To Life At The Lake Of The Ozarks—Performance Boat Center Family Style
and then