Other how do you say no

[sethrrogers]

I only let people ride my ski if either A, they already own a ski and are a decent rider... And or B, I know they can afford to buy my ski outright..

Most the time I simply tell them I just put it back together and I'm still testing/tuning.

As to the above post..: I had two little kids suddenly fall in love with swimming around or on my ski while hanging out on a buddy's boat. The two young boys belonged to the couple on the boat with us so I didn't mind too much...I was enjoying watching them have a good time on it. Pretending the were riding around making noises. Until they rolled it over more than once. ( kids were ages 5-7)

 

[truerider411]

We are pretty bad up here for letting anybody and everybody ride our skis. Everyone is always very interested in them because they are pretty rare. We draw the line when 50 year old ladies who have never rode a ski ask to ride one of our 1100's. Most of them dont realize how much time and money that is invested in these things. I kinda wish i still had a stock superjet or something still laying around for them to use. but for the most part they have rode skis before and i know when my buddies bring out there new bobs or rockets they always let me ride them so i always return the favor. Its really good because nobody is biased up here (that i have met) and where all just trying to find the best hull that we like.
When people break parts it is a bit of a p!ss off but we have had fairly decent luck with them coughing up the dough to pay for them. Except xjcrawler kinda got screwed out of a ballistic battery or 2.
My wife on the other hand hates people riding or touching her stuff. She is very protective over all her toys. But she better know that i will be riding the hell out of that rok-r of hers. lol
kcco

 

[xXx Octane xXx]

Protect yourself and everything you own by adding the 650SX to your insurace policy.

 

[Balduccimoto]

Its simple, I know who I can let ride my stuff without getting screwed. I never had an issue because theres only a few people I can trust to pay if something did happen. Funny thing is, its only good friends (not family). One time at work, a coworker of mine asked if he could try my harley. He told me straight up he hasnt rode a motorcycle since he lived in russia. This guy is good as gold, so I told him go ahead. He was doing pretty good until we were goofing around doing stupid on it.. He locked up the rear wheel, panicked, hit a curb and flipped it. I was pissed until I realized it only needed a tire. He bought me a new tire. I still get a good laugh bc he was all cut up - he told his wife he got into a fight, otherwise she would never allow him to buy a motorcycle.

 

[lightweight]

I have the pirate ship look like runs like . It usually weeds out the wanta bee's . usually there done by the time they get going. Sure is fun watching them fallView attachment 218727

 

[makejetskiinggreatagain]

thanks for the advice guys. im gonna ride it one more time this weekend and then decide whether i'm gonna keep it and insure it or just sell it.

 

[Matt_E]

how do you say no

No.

 

[Sparkplug]

I let a dude ride one of my sjs before. He was like 110 lbs soaking wet prob. Yami has the trigger type throttle stock. Not good for a newb. I told him just dont let go. Wrong thing to say. He didnt let go, and instead grabbed the throttle and ragdolled for prob 300 ft, and almost plowed my ski into the other side of the river, we had to use another ski and go get him. Scary as hell.

That being said, at the lake, Ill let damn near anyone use my everyday sj if they want to try it. I love getting people into this sport. Gotten 4 into it enough to buy multiple skis, and ride with me regularly. I just make sure they know to start it waist deep, and I tell them to swim it back in or leave it out there and ill swim out and get it when they are done.

If I had a high dollar AM ski, no one would ride it but me, and close riding buddies. ( thats one of them things tho, alot of you guys on here have $$$$$$, and a AM ski to you, is prob the same as a SJ to a guy like me)

 

[mthomps]

I don't think I'd let a stranger ride if I didn't see them already on a stand up.

I encourage friends and family to try it...I just say not to punch the throttle. My brother did that and shot the ski close to our boat. There is a lot of torque even on a stock sj for a complete newbie.

 

[makejetskiinggreatagain]

I let a dude ride one of my sjs before. He was like 110 lbs soaking wet prob. Yami has the trigger type throttle stock. Not good for a newb. I told him just dont let go. Wrong thing to say. He didnt let go, and instead grabbed the throttle and ragdolled for prob 300 ft, and almost plowed my ski into the other side of the river, we had to use another ski and go get him. Scary as hell.

That being said, at the lake, Ill let damn near anyone use my everyday sj if they want to try it. I love getting people into this sport. Gotten 4 into it enough to buy multiple skis, and ride with me regularly. I just make sure they know to start it waist deep, and I tell them to swim it back in or leave it out there and ill swim out and get it when they are done.

If I had a high dollar AM ski, no one would ride it but me, and close riding buddies. ( thats one of them things tho, alot of you guys on here have $$$$$$, and a AM ski to you, is prob the same as a SJ to a guy like me)

I like that mentality. I don't have a lot of friends with skis right now so its tough finding someone to ride with. I'd like to get people interested in the sport enough to buy a ski. Its just too bad most of my friends are cheap and wont fork out the cash. I don't know if I will be letting friends of friends ride anymore though.... still deciding. maybe if I get insurance. I mean I picked up the 650sx for 1k so its not like I have a ton invested into it, but 1k is still some decent coin lost for me if someone ruins it.

 

[Sanoman]

Bring me your financial portfolio,a $5000 deposit,your ski,your ol' lady (only,if she is hot!) and you can ride!

But seriously,l'm going to the Carolina ride and bringing my freak.l have friends that l really don't care if they ride it,but l know they would feel responsible if something was to happen.But then you have total strangers that come up and ask.What do you do then? Refer to my first statement? Don't ask,newbies......

Look at Hornedogg's new ride.Not many on this coast have rode one yet and lots of guys want too.Got an awesome paint job form Steve too.So how should he handle that?
hmmmmmmm

 

[98gti]

I dont think ive ever had a stranger ask to ride, I think thats pretty damn ballsy and rude actually. I'd have no problem telling a stranger to pound sand. (no pun intended)

 

[Yami-Rider]

I only let people ride my ski if either A, they already own a ski and are a decent rider... And or B, I know they can afford to buy my ski outright..

Most the time I simply tell them I just put it back together and I'm still testing/tuning.

X2

I have too much money into my SJ to let just anyone ride it.

 

[ProSouth]

Get the dumbest, ill handling, shortest ski you can find. So they can't even get on it long enough to ride it. Or, Get a Rok-r, take the ride plate off, and put a standard length pole on it. Lol

 

[Scraggly]

ive let lots of people ride my skis over the years, even some complete strangers at the ramp. but never have i just handed one over when asked. the ones that hang for while talk about it with you and generally seem interested and aren't complete idiots i will offer it up. only once i did have to swim out about half a mile to re start my old 550 for a friend of mine. i wouldnt be handing over a nice flatwater boat to just anyone though. generally my skis are old and suck, if i ever pony up for a nice a/m hull and decent engine it will be competent riders only.

 

[kcmasterpiece]

Im a surf only rider. Ive gotten good at saying no. I dont even try to be nice about it anymore. Im just honest and tell my friends "We make it look easy. you wont be able to do it and will probably sink my ski. Sorry". it works great, and they dont get too upset. When im honest, it keeps them from continually bugging me if the ski is running well enough to ride yet, or the surf is flat, how bout now....

 

[Vumad]

So I took a buddy to the lake this weekend and I brought along my 650sx for him to ride with me (I rode my other ski). he brought about 7 friends of his as well (I wasn't expecting it). Naturally they all wanted to ride and honestly at the time I didn't care much. I got back to work today and told a couple of my coworkers about our time at the lake and they got these surprised look on their face. They were amazed that I let people I didn't know use my ski. what if they wrecked it or something? would they pay for it? its doubtful right??? Thinking back I don't know how I would have even said no. I don't want to seem like a selfish jerk. What do you guys do? Have any of you really had any bad experiences with people messing your ski up? How much can really go wrong? I want to try and walk the line between being a jerk and just being naiive. Advice is much appreciative.

I know that people are always hungry for a free lunch. I work much harder than most people to have the things I have, yet they all wants to borrow my toys and my tools. They complain about how they are less fortunate when I know they are really just less motivated. I work 60+ hours a week at work or school, a number of people I know who think I'm stingy sometimes spend 60+ hours a week playing video games. Greedy lazy people have found that they can take advantage of hard working people by accusing those people of being selfish. Well, I don't bite.

I only let people I know ride my skis. I only let people at the lake that I have ridden with many times to ride my ski. I only let strangers ride my ski when we are trading ride time (My SJ for their SXR, B1, etc). All of my friends know the 1st ride is free, and after that, they need to chip in on gas, after a few rides of paying gas money, they need to be buying their own stuff. I will let people try my stuff if they legitimately want to get into the sport with money in hand (my ski not for sale but I didn't have the opportunity to try before I got into the sport so I like to make that available to others.) There is of course the exceptions of people who do me favors, and ride time is one way I use to repay that, but those are obviously not the free-ride kind of people.

Call me cynical but most people only care when the ride is free, and they don't care if they break your . For years I've let people ride my quads, got no gas money, specifically said "Don't take it in the mud" to spend the next day pressure washing 2" of mud and replacing brake pads on a quad I didn't ride. No help, no money, just being taken advantage of.

The answer is "Sorry, I don't let other people ride my skis".

You should also tell your friend that invited his 7 friends that he should not abuse the friendship, and feel comfortable telling those 7 people you didn't invite them and are not comfortable with the situation. Anyone who can't comprehend your situation, should not be on your ski anyway, because they don't appriciate the cost, the maintenance work or the liability you are facing. If they can't comprehend it, why should you trust them.

It's easy... Just say no.

 

[swapmeet]

x2 on getting people into the sport. If a buddy hadn't let me ride his ski (even though i'd never ridden a stand up before) I might not have ever gotten into this expensive ass hobby lol. Seriously though, we have a lot of riders in the N.Texas area simply because a friend of a friend let someone take out their ski.... Ride it once... Boom, hooked, hunting CL the next day for the next SN to pop up.

Get the dumbest, ill handling, shortest ski you can find. So they can't even get on it long enough to ride it.

1976 JS440. My first ski... What a giant POS... 26hp, like riding a bar of soap. Never ran right.

I'm fine with slow and ugly, even ill handling. But it needs to be the most reliable ski on the planet, last thing I want is ANOTHER ski to wrench on.

Interesting topic.

 

[High Speed Industries]

I say no to complete strangers.

But I do have a 550 as a loaner ski for people I know. Sometimes friends of friends can ride too, depending if they are relatively smart. If my loaner ski had more power I would adjust the throttle so there was no way to be pinned.
There is nothing wrong with getting new people into the sport, but you do have to draw the line. If they ask to ride a nice ski I say "it's not running right" or "it's way too fast for a beginner"

 

[shawn_NJ]

I have only ever loaned it out to the local crew knowing they are very good riders.... or a close friend, and only if conditions are safe and its a good location. Anyone else, a very easy "no". Even if you have the ski insured, its WAY to much liability risk, not to mention hulls/motors are expensive.