Under the same family ownership since 1979, RIVA Motorsports and Marine has grown from a mom and pop shop to a two story, five building Powersports superstore with over 100 employees.
After moving from New Jersey, Steve and Lynn Bamdas opened a small business in Pompano Beach, Florida. Showing their passion for motorsports they named it Lambretta South after the Lambretta scooter line. In 1983, Lambretta South picked up the venerable Yamaha Riva scooter line and adopted the name RIVA World. It didn’t take long to run out of space with so many lines of scooters and karts. It became clear that RIVA World needed a bigger facility. A large parcel of land was available just blocks down the road. The family knew this was their passion, so they took the leap and construction began. The new, larger showroom, parts department and service center gave RIVA the room they needed to become one of South Florida’s top dealers.
In 1987, soon after moving into their new and larger facility, Yamaha approached RIVA World with an exciting proposition to sell WaveRunners. It was a challenge to introduce a sit down personal watercraft in a stand up dominated market, but before long, RIVA World found a way to make both the WaveRunner 500 and WaveJammer a huge success. In short order, RIVA became the top WaveRunner dealership. In 1997, Yamaha designated RIVA as its official Factory Race Team. Team managers quickly began building a super team that went on to capture a record number of US National and World Championship titles, becoming the winningest team in personal watercraft racing history. In the Pro Runabout 1200 class, team rider Chris MacClugage set an unprecedented record by winning 10 out of 11 rounds on the US National Tour.
As the business grew so did the need for space. Not wanting to stray too far from home, RIVA broke ground on a new superstore just a few blocks further down the street. Soon after the grand opening, RIVA took on Honda motorcycles and Sea-Doo personal watercraft. Never one to back down, the Bamdas family acquired several more Powersport lines in 2007 and expanded its facility to 40,000 square feet, making it the Ultimate Motorsports Superstore.
Today, RIVA is recognized both locally and internationally as the world’s largest personal watercraft dealer, the premier source for personal watercraft performance parts and accessories, and South Florida’s largest motorsports dealer. To this day, RIVA is still family owned and operated, providing Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade customers with sales of both new and used street bikes, dirt bikes, scooters, personal watercraft, ATVs, side-by-sides, jet boats, and generators while providing a complete parts department and unrivaled customer service. RIVA features top quality brands like Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, Sea-Doo, Can-Am, KTM, and Suzuki. Visit RIVA’s incredible superstore in Pompano Beach, on the corner of Sample Road and Dixie Highway and make sure to tell them that Coastal Angler sent you.
RIVA MOTORSPORTS
3761 North Dixie Highway
Pompano Beach, FL 33064
954-785-4820
www.RIVAsuperstore.com