Supra

Supra was founded on a defection. George Fowler left his management seat at MasterCraft in 1980 and set up in Greenback, Tennessee to build inboards against his old employer, keeping the tournament hull but dressing it — Supra was the ski boat with the runabout's comfort, and it sold well enough that Fowler later added Moomba as its plainer, cheaper sister. Both brands ended up with Skier's Choice of Maryville, Tennessee, the company Rick Tinker co-founded in the late nineties to buy them, and the pairing still defines the range: Moomba carries the price fight, Supra carries the trim, the horsepower and the flagship surf systems.

Those surf systems put the company in a courtroom, and the outcome is worth knowing. Malibu sued Skier's Choice in 2019, claiming the Supra Swell and Moomba Flow systems infringed its Surf Gate patents; the judge found one claim infringed before trial, and then in June 2021 the jury invalidated every patent claim Malibu had asserted, clearing Skier's Choice entirely. For a used buyer the practical reading is simple: the surf hardware on a Swell-era Supra is settled law, and the wave it shapes came through the industry's patent wars intact.

The honest costs: a Supra is the dear half of its own factory, so check what the equivalent Moomba asked before paying the badge premium, and on the 2000s boats expect the era's soft goods — vinyl, carpet, gauges — to show their age even where the hull does not. Buy one for tournament manners with the family aboard; buy its sister if the budget matters more than the upholstery. The whole tow fleet gathers on the wake and ski boats under $100k.

Sources: Skier's Choice company history; Wakeboarding Magazine on Rick Tinker's retirement; Malibu Boats LLC v. Skier's Choice Inc., E.D. Tenn., 2021 trial coverage; Supra owner forum threads.