Old School Pics

balzack6

balzack6

Location
Kennesaw, GA
Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum and I'm getting back into riding. I was going through some old pics of my dad from back in the 70's. He use to be a tester for Kawasaki when the sport started to evolve. These pics are from where he tested in Daytona for a few years. It's amazing how the sport has evolved over the years. I can't wait to get back down to Daytona and hit the surf again. Its been way too long!!!

IMG_1734.jpgIMG_1735.jpgIMG_1736.jpg
 
K

knucklebuster

Location
Central MN
Way cool. My first ski was an old JS400 standup. No SMC to be found on that one. Cracked the pole once and just laid in some more glass like it should have been in the first place. If i remember right it had a plywood bulkhead and aligning the pump and engine combo sucked but maybe that's true for the 440's as well. Did he ever work on the sleds? There was a facility in Shakopee MN back in the day that did the sleds and some old timers I talked with mentioned they worked on skis up here as well, in the 73' to 74' timeframe. I think they put these sleds together for the 78/79 season, matched set of 10 if I recall. Saw them race in Alexandria MN back when SnoPro was still going strong. These were sort of like celeb. races back in the day. KawiTOCsled.jpg
 
balzack6

balzack6

Location
Kennesaw, GA
knucklebuster said:
Way cool. My first ski was an old JS400 standup. No SMC to be found on that one. Cracked the pole once and just laid in some more glass like it should have been in the first place. If i remember right it had a plywood bulkhead and aligning the pump and engine combo sucked but maybe that's true for the 440's as well. Did he ever work on the sleds? There was a facility in Shakopee MN back in the day that did the sleds and some old timers I talked with mentioned they worked on skis up here as well, in the 73' to 74' timeframe. I think they put these sleds together for the 78/79 season, matched set of 10 if I recall. Saw them race in Alexandria MN back when SnoPro was still going strong. These were sort of like celeb. races back in the day. View attachment 219173
Click to expand...

Yea man my dad was there during that time. He came from california to MN when kawasaki merged the two. It wasn't too long after that they moved everything to Daytona. He is going to dig up some more old pics. He has some where he is sky high off a wave and one where he is in a magazine with all the skis lined up on the starting line at Daytona which is pretty unique.
 
K

knucklebuster

Location
Central MN
Small world. The dude I know up here supposedly set up all the TOC snowmobiles. Showed me a bunch of jugs for Invader snowmobiles with quartz windows to study the flame fronts, etc. He said they had pallets with boxes of ported cylinders that didn't make the grade. In the late 80's he was setting jet skis up with pistons and rods from their 2 stroke bike line. He had a knack for all things Kawi, like what fit where, etc. I believe an H2 750cc bike piston with the skirts shaved a bit in a 400/440 gave you 474cc. Later Mariner/PJS and all the aftermarket houses came out with basically the kit version of this. I'll PM you the guys name so I don't out him w/o permission but I will pass along any cool pics you can come up with from your dad.
 
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