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Almost 35 million Americans went fishing in 1975. These figures appeared in the January issue of The Boating Industry, which also reported that 48,700,000 people participated in recreational boating aboard one of the 9,740,000 pleasure boats that plied U.S. waters. Since Texas has more surface water than any other state except Alaska, plus 624 miles of meandering Gulf shoreline, it is reasonable to conclude that a large chunk of the U.S. water recreation took place on Texas waterways. Forty years ago the water-based recreation concept in Texas was as remote as SSTs and coed dormitories. Stockponds with crude diving platforms served rural swimmers.