In John Roth's LOTO article I mentioned that I texted Tom "Skater shoot at WCD on Thursday" and he responded back with "What's WCD?" I talked to him later and made a reference out of one of my favorite movies "Swingers." I said "All the cool bars don't have signs on them. It's kind of a Speak Easy thing, when you tell someone you've been there it's like a right of passage." Tom being a bit of a movie buff was picking up what I was putting down. Ironically enough, West Coast Drives is one of the, if not the nicest shops in Havasu, and much like my movie reference there's no sign on the building.
Vern is quick to tell you that his business is very niche with jokes like : "If you show up here on a Friday looking for a water pump you're probably in the wrong shop. If you show up here with a runabout and family in tow you are definitely in the wrong shop." It's not that he doesn't like normal boating, it's just not what he works on, and he's earned enough stripes that he doesn't have too.
To be very specific about what Vern does at West Coast Drives would be to say He is a Speedmaster Outdrive Expert. Most think that all he works on is number six drives, and while it maybe true that is the vast majority of his work, I can tell you he works on and knows all Speedmaster's. He has an incredible amount of # 3 and 3A parts laying around his shop to this day.
What he is most known for is manufacturing and installing the only "True Dry Sump system" for the # 6 drive as an upgrade. With the upgrade you decrease the amount of parasitic drag from the drive, the drive runs cooler, and there is less wear and tear so you increase life on the internals. It sounds simple enough, but implementing a gear driven oil pump and all the internals inside of a Number six,