Taylor Doll lives and breathes the boating lifestyle. Credit: Dockside Marine Centre

July 15, 2025

By Mathew Channer

Taylor Doll’s smile is unmissable when he greets you, and it only gets wider when we head out onto Okanagan Lake, B.C. for a test run of the new 2025 Chapparal Surf 26. Doll loves boating and, as General Manager of Dockside Marine Centre in Kelowna, BC, counts himself among the luckiest people he knows.

“Not a lot of people can say they’re excited to go to work and be with their friends and coworkers,” he said.

What makes Doll so passionate about boating is not just that he gets to enjoy it but that he gets to help others enjoy it too. He is a family man who brings his love for boating to his office, the shop floor, and onto the water, who says the best part of his job is when “Mom and Dad come back with photos of their kids”.

“We deal in experiences and memories,” he said. “The boat is just a tool to make that happen.”

Moments later, Doll proudly shows me a photo of his daughter on his boat, taken the day before.

“This is my favourite photo in the world now,” he said.

Doll began preparing for a career in boating from an early age when he started working in his family’s engine machine shop. His first job outside the family was at a marina in Osoyoos, B.C. He later represented Canada as a technician at the 2015 World Jet Boat Championship in Peace River, AB, where he was headhunted for a mechanic position at Dockside Marine by the then general manager.

Doll had higher ambitions, and after a stint with Dockside Marine eventually opened his own mechanic shop. But the company wasn’t ready to let him go, and headhunted him once again, this time for the GM position. Doll returned and has been at Dockside ever since. 

With a background in service, Doll is a people-person, and under his leadership Dockside Marine has flourished into a service-oriented business that focuses on people and is supported by the dedicated team Doll has helped to curate. Doll says this human element within the company makes Dockside special and is something he will continue to nurture into the future.

“I want to grow with the people that make Dockside what it is,” he said. “I’m nothing without the people at this dealership.”

As a key regional figure in the recreational boating industry, I was curious to hear Doll’s thoughts on one of the biggest industry topics of the year: tariffs. His response was both positive and refreshing; that Canadians should take a wider perspective and remember what matters in the long run.

“Twenty years from now when you look back at the photos of you and your kids on the boat, you’re not going to be thinking about some tariff that probably only lasted a few months,” he said.

“This industry builds memories and relationships, and a tariff isn’t going to stop that.”

With Doll at the helm, Dockside Marine remains a cornerstone of Okanagan boating. And with his optimism for the future and his people-first approach to boating, it’s easy to see why.