Freestyle Blunder Jet

Aquaholic

Aquaholic

World's Oldest Teenager
Location
San Diego, CA.
I'm very sorry for the delay. Winter is looming. So, hopefully SoCal will receive the forecasted El Nino rains and I'll finally have time to locate that lost tape.

OK, Where were we? I had to go back and read through 5 pages of threats, haggles, teases, etc. to find where I left off.

To recap: I finally had the Blunderjet uncrated, fired off, and Colorado river water coarsing through her virgin water jackets.
You know the feeling that you get when you finally light off your new custom build with high zoot, whiz bang motor? It's a giddiness that is unrivaled, right? So, multiply that feeling by a gazillion. Because this was one BADASS Mofo. My weener instantly felt 5 inches longer.

So, now it's go time. I idle away from shore, giggling like a school girl...slowly, cautiously, nervously, blipping the throttle. Unsure of what was to come. Would I actually be able to hang on to this throbbing 550cc of PJS muscle? I did a few back and forth passes and once properly warmed up, I started to crack the throttle. Let's see what this beast has to offer.

Imagine my surprise when I gave it a strong tug on the throttle and....Blehhhh. No punch. No kick in the ass hit. No arm stretching, hold on for dear life, "OMFG I'm going to die" sensation. Just the opposite. Totally UNDERWHELMED. WTF??!!!? Is thing thing running on 1 cylinder? Perhaps it will come alive after it's got some time on it? Something's off.

The powerband was light switchy. No bottom end, whatsover. NADA. Then, mid throttle, say 3500 rpm or so.....WHAAAW-ROOOM. It would sorta ,kinda wake up. Nothing to write home about, though. Certainly not even close to what the magazines had promised. Jeff Jacobs described this boat as being able to "win at closed course... right out of the box".

REALLY?

My impression of the Blunderhull... was that it was super wide, long and ultra stable. Just like an aircraft carrier. Noticeably wider than the new Kawi 750 SX's that were now becoming popular on the race scene. The handle pole, however, had it's pivot point much farther back from the nose, than on my JS550. The result was an odd, muted sense of steering input. I tried to fly it and do my 180 stabs that I had long since mastered on the 550. But, this big behemoth wasn't having any part of that. I couldn't get my weight over the front end. My heart instantly sank. Was it heavier than my 550? I'm not sure....but it sure felt like a pig. I could tell immediately, that this was not the playful, nimble, flickable weapon, that my 550 was. I tried to talk myself into liking this thing. "Just give it some time" I muttered to myself. What had I done? Despite not being wowed in the least, there was no turning back. Perhaps, I just needed to get some more tray time in, get aquainted with it, and it would soon start to click for me? I had just spent every last peso that I had on this thing. My 550 had been sold.
I was all in.

IMG_6125.JPG
 
Last edited:
swapmeet

swapmeet

Brotastic
Location
Arlington TX
giddy-gif.gif
 
Aquaholic

Aquaholic

World's Oldest Teenager
Location
San Diego, CA.
swaggggg said:
isnt the pic of an sx i though you previously had the red js
Click to expand...

Yes, good eye. More on that boat(JS550SX) later. I was trying to illustrate one of my favorite tricks. A deep stab, grab a handful of water as the boat pierces the water and the pump bites. A huge plume of water shoots high into the air. "Making it rain".

But, I digress.

The more time I spent on the Blunderjet, the more I realized that this thing was never going to be a freestyle boat. It had a collection of really innovative ideas, but they were just poorly executed. I would continue to make the 3 hour trek(from San Diego) to the Colorado river (Yuma, Az) each weekend. I'd played with the carb settings and jetting a million different ways and it was performing OK. I was finally getting some decent top end out of it. The one thing this boat did do well was track well at high speed. The length, width and weight made sure of that.

But, still...It was not playful, at all. Like I said, I wanted desparetly to stab this thing. But each time I tried to fly it...it usually ended badly. I think the 3rd time I took it out, and tried to huck it...the handle pole snapped off at the pivot. Game over. Another $^&*)@# wasted trip to the river.

Back up to Huntington beach on monday for a handle pole replacement.

Then, another 3 hour trip to the river the following weekend, only to have something else break. So, break something on the weekend, back to the factory on monday. This seemed to be the routine I was settling into. I lost track of how many trips up to the factory for warranty work, I did that summer.

It was always something. And, it was getting old.

Now, a new failure had cropped up that had me really concerned. During the week, with the Blunderjet on
the workstand...water was now dripping from the driveshaft area where the shaft enters the bulkhead. Not just a few drops, but more of a steady flow!


Note: The pics below are from Splash magazine (June 1988). The "Hydro Ski" was the prototype that Mardikian built. "The Ferrari of Watercraft". This was the precursor to the BlunderJet.
View attachment 291069 IMG_1086.JPG IMG_1090.JPG View attachment 291070
IMG_1085.JPG IMG_1088.JPG
 
Last edited:
Lumpy

Lumpy

Location
Iowa
So what you're saying is that you were driving 6 hours round trip every weekend to ride a brand new ski that broke on you every time you rode it? How was the warranty on that thing?
 
Aquaholic

Aquaholic

World's Oldest Teenager
Location
San Diego, CA.
JetFiend said:
He was riding that SX when I met him in 1993. We all called him "frisbee Steve"

He would do huge tail slides and all kinds of tricks as the frisbee was flying toward him and still manage to catch it most of the time. Try that one on a 550!
Click to expand...

Yep, I was getting ready to compete and was training every weekend at Hidden Shores. I remember asking you guys if any of you could throw a frisbee.

Lumpy said:
So what you're saying is that you were driving 6 hours round trip every weekend to ride a brand new ski that broke on you every time you rode it? How was the warranty on that thing?
Click to expand...

Yep, something let go everytime I rode it. Sometimes it was something minor, but, most times it was a DNF. Steering cable snapping, handle pole breakage, things of that nature. I think this was when I started to lose my hair. I want to say it had a 1 year warranty. The factory had about 25 employees and had a production/assembly line going. It was no 1 man garage shop. It looked to be a pretty legit operation.
IMG_4354.JPG IMG_4350.JPG View attachment 291079
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom