Garmin joins Next Boat Journey to talk Signal VHF listen back, JL Audio sound, LiveScope 2 clarity and SPY Pole, and why simple tech keeps boaters out there.
Dave from Garmin can't remember his first day on a boat. There are pictures of him driving one before he was old enough to hold on to the memory. Growing up in coastal North Carolina, boating wasn't a hobby. It was just part of life.
The marine industry found him by accident. It started as a side job in high school, carried through college, and turned into a 14 year run at Boater's World. When that retailer closed in the 2009 downturn, Garmin came calling. "The rest is history," he says.
Today his perfect day on the water is simple: his three young boys on the boat with him. "I'm not a video game person," Dave says. "Nothing wrong with that, but they would rather be on the boat than doing anything else."
That's the boater we talk about a lot on the Next Boat Journey. Not the owner who goes out every weekend the first year and lists the boat for sale by year four. The one who keeps showing up, every weekend, making memories. Dave is raising three of them.
Signal VHF: never miss the call that matters
Picture a new owner's first busy Saturday at a crowded inlet. The radio won't stop chattering, the kids are running around, and somewhere in all that noise is a message they actually need to hear.
"Boating's stressful," Dave says, "and then you get in this scenario where you need to listen to VHF." Garmin built the Signal VHF around one idea: simplicity. You shouldn't have to relearn your radio every time you pick it up, especially in a critical moment.
The standout feature is listen back. Signal records roughly three minutes of radio traffic, so if you miss something, you can go back and hear it again. Add industry-leading noise canceling that handles squelch automatically, and you get a radio that does the hard part for you. Dave calls it "a pretty revolutionary product."
JL Audio and Garmin: where the music meets the water
This one hits close to home for us. "Music's emotional," Dave says. "You think of your favorite song, you probably have a memory to go along with that." Garmin wants boating to make that same connection.
JL Audio has been around for about 50 years, and Garmin acquired the brand roughly three years ago. Dave says the goal was to take a company that was already great at what it did and push it forward with Garmin technology. Expect a lot more from the pairing.
It fits right in with how many of our listeners use Dock Side Live Radio. They open the app, connect over Bluetooth, put the phone in the glove box, and let it play all day. Garmin's new JL Audio source unit is built for exactly that, with some of the best Bluetooth on the market. "Pair it, put your phone away and have fun."
LiveScope 2: two ways to see more
For anglers, Garmin now offers LiveScope 2 in two versions, because not every angler wants the same thing.
• LiveScope 2 42HD: built for anglers who care most about clarity. Dave says it's up to seven times clearer than the LVS34 (LiveScope Plus). Think of the crappie angler who wants to see separation, not distance.
• LiveScope 2 44: a hybrid that gives you the better clarity plus more range.
One tip for LVS34 owners who upgrade: start fresh. "You can't apply the same settings," Dave says. "It's new technology, new transducers, new everything." The payoff is detail you've never been able to see before. Live sonar has changed fishing more than almost anything in a generation.
SPY Pole: let the sonar and the trolling motor do their own jobs
Before SPY Pole, LiveScope usually rode on the trolling motor. The trouble is that on SpotLock, the motor keeps correcting, and the sonar swings back and forth with it.
SPY Pole lets the two work independently. The sonar searches while the trolling motor holds position. You can also mirror the trolling motor, or lock SPY Pole onto a single target and move the boat while it stays on that spot. Dave says it takes forward-facing sonar fishing to a whole new level, and he expects more features to come.
Learn more
Everything Garmin, including products, features, dealers and technical documents, is at garmin.com.
Listen to the Next Boat Journey
Catch Dave's full interview on the Next Boat Journey, Thursdays at 5 PM on Dock Side Live Radio, with encore presentations Saturday and Sunday at 5 PM. Listen free on the DSL Radio app for iPhone and Android, or at DockSideLive.com.
The Next Boat Journey is made possible by our partners: Big Bumper Company, Dockmate, SOS Boat Screens, Sirius Signal, Ocean Vault, Let's Go Boating TV, and Florida Mariner. Thank you for helping us bring these conversations to boaters.
Dock Side Live Radio. Where the music meets the water.
