It’s no secret that Los Angeles Boat Show attendance has fallen off in recent years. That’s a shame, because there are bargains, especially in the West Coast custom boat and aftermarket products realms, to be found there. Every major West Coast custom boat builder and parts supplier such as CP Performance, as well as major high-performance engine builders including Ilmor Marine, Mercury Racing and Teague Custom Marine displays at the L.A. Show.

So I have to take my hat off to CP Performance for offering free tickets to the 2010 L.A. event, which will be held Feb. 18-21 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with every $50 purchase. To be frank, it’s not exactly hard to drop 50 bucks on aftermarket parts so I expect that CP Performance, which is based in Rohnert Park, Calif., and is reportedly the world’s largest retailer of aftermarket powerboat parts, will give away a lot of tickets. A whole lot of tickets.

You could say the giveaway is self-promotional for CP Performance and you wouldn’t be wrong (just cynical and short-sighted), but show me a “giveaway” that isn’t self promotional. Frankly, I applaud any effort to keep the West Coast’s largest boat show alive and well, and I applaud CP for the ticket giveaway.