I thought it would be super cool to have a thread dedicated to people sharing what got them into standup jetskis and how it's affected their life(besides just draining the wallet!!).
Here's mine! It may be long but I think it's worth the read
Honestly, this is long over due. But I owe it to the x!
A little bit of background about me: I got into motorsports super young and always have had a love for anything with an engine. I got my first threewheeler(I think it was a suzuki trailbuddy), when I was less than 5 years old. From then on, I moved to little Eton fourwheels, eventually to a yamaha blaster, and then a honda 400ex. I also had a Kitty Kat snowmobile, then moved up to a snoscoot(which we never would have sold them, they are one of the most fun things to ride), and now a Yamaha vmax 600. My dad owns a business that sells and fixes landscape equipment so he had an interest in engines to begin with, but the reason I was able to get into motorsports was because my dad was capable of fixing pretty much anything since he's been a mechanic his whole life. Sometimes it meant buying something that was an absolute POS and restoring it, or waiting years to find something at the right price, or not getting something top of the line. I'm extremely lucky to be able to get involved in motorsports!! Doing all of the maintenance yourself saves a ton of money too..I also have a mechanical background. I started working at the shop since I was about 12 when I first learned how to rebuild a carb on snowblowers haha. I absolutely loved taking things apart and figuring out how they work.
I went on ATV trips, snowmobiled upnorth, and occasionally road my sitdown jetskis about once a year when we go to celebrate labor day up north with friends and family. I liked Atving and snowmobiling, but not enough that I became a diehard fanatic. Riding snowmobiles on narrow upnorth trails scared me for a lot of reasons. Not only were you very close to traffic going the opposite way when you're pinning it around a turn, but you've got tons of people that endup going to the bars and getting on the trails and being stupid. There are so many horror stories played out on the trails. ATV's were pretty fun, but I only got to ride them a handful of times every year and the good trails were hours away.
Flash forward a bit, and my family and my uncle went in together on a lake place after searching for years to find one that we could afford. The cottage is on a small 80 acre lake(perfect for tuning and just bombing around and working on flatwater tricks!), and then you can cross the street to a 1000+ acre lake that's full of HUGE wakeboard wakes and all kinds of fun stuff. It's full of loaded rich people with killer boats and a killer atmosphere. I believe this happened a little over two years ago. Since I was on the lake, I saw some sit down jetsis and I really really wanted to get one. I was constantly looking on craigslist with my dad, but we didn't have too much luck. Later that month I ended up going on a kayak training camp with my grandparents, and I absolutely dreaded every second of it. I was so bored and it just wasn't fun at all. When I came home the day of the end of the trip, I went straight to our lake place and went down the stairs..What did I see? A Polaris Virage 700 sitting right in front of the pier! I was geeking out and so freeken excited it was ridiculous. It was after sunset but I didn't care, we had to take it back to the launch anyways so I took it for a good rip. It was fast, went about 50 MPH but it was so relaxing. I would endup spending hours out on the lake just bombing around going WOT around the little 80 acre lake. I started getting really bored of that, so I started doing those super fast hard turns where the ski pretty much does a 360 and breaks lose. Except this ski was so heavy and big it was kinda hard to throw around. I eventually tried to get air off of my own little setup wake, and me going constantly around in circles pissed the neighbors off! I had the cops called on me a couple times even though I always kept my distance. It's a quiet lake and people got pissed off easy. I would go through a 15 gallon tank really fast, and it was really expensive. Then I saw this guy on our lake just doing little bunny hops on this wierd thing standing up and I thought it was super cool. It was the first stand up jetski I ever saw. My dad and I thought it was pretty cool, and I thought maybe since it's smaller it would save gas. Plus, I was getting bored of my sit down so maybe a little variety would be good. Honestly, my idea of a standup jetski saving gas what a major reason I wanted to get one lol.
I decided to research "standing up jet skis", and I started watching some youtube videos and I was so pumped to try one! I was honestly amazed when I watched the 2012 world finals video. I looked on craigslist, saw some kawis that were around 500-800$ and I thought that would be a good start and something I could afford. Shortly after, my dad said that he thought our neighbor across the street at home had a standup jetski that he never used anymore. It sat outside under a cover so we had no idea what it was. One day I finally worked up the guts to go ask him about it. He said he'd maybe sell it. He took the cover off of it, and it was this Yamaha Superjet. I told him I was really interested and he said he'd get it running and I could take it for a ride to see if i want it. Couple days later he had it all good to go and he said I could take it for the day and just return it when I'm done since he trusted my dad and I. I was already in my truck ready to go to the lake, and my dad was still talking to him. All I overheard was my dad asking how much he wanted for it, and then my dad saying that we're probably going to take it. I had no idea what the price was. We took it to the lake, and holy crap was it hard to ride!! After like 15 minutes I could get up and stand up and go in a straight line, but turning was a no go. I was riding on my knees and doing sharp turns and just fooling around. I fell off about a million times in 1 hour, but it was so worth it. I told my dad that I absolutely have to buy this thing no matter what the price is. I'll work tons of overtime if I have to because I've never had more fun in my life. We get back, and I go to talk to the guy and ask him what he wanted for it. He says "I know what these go for, and I know you're going to have fun with it. So with the trailer and everything, you can have it for 300$ with the trailer. " I did some research before and I was totally fine with spending 1500 on it if I had to. I continued to ride the hell out of it for a couple weeks, and then suddenly it would die after riding for about a half an hour..I ended up finding PWCToday and was doing a bunch of research on it to figure out what it could be. I foundout I needed a cdi for my 650 cc engine. Little did I know that I sure as hell didn't have a little 650 in there... Turns out I had a 1995 yamaha superjet 701 cc with a limited b pipe, extended ride plate, ocean pro steering nozle, and UMI steering. All that plus a cover plus a trailer for 300$!!! When I found out how much a b pipe was worth I was so ecstatic. I ended up selling the nozzle for 150$ and that extended ride plate for 80$! I knew I got a deal, but didn't know I got that much of a deal. I only got to ride it at the end of august and beginning of september before school started, but even after that I knew that I wanted to mod it. Then I stumbled across the x, and that's where the fun began. Honestly, I was a little intimidated to post here. Everyone was more into freestyle and an advanced rider, and I'm just this little teenager that just got into the sport a few months ago!
That winter I tore the tray apart and installed footholds and did turf for the first time. Also added a bilge pump. That season my riding progressed sooo soo much it was insane. I ended up getting a hooker prop, cdi with a raised rev limiter, putting on a scoop grate and d cutting my ride plate which blew me away. I had no idea how much I was missing with that stock aluminum prop. I had some hiccups that season like coil wires needing to be cut back, bad tank valve, etc. But towards the end of the season, my ski started having symptoms like bad coil wires. Eventually I'd ride and it just wouldn't clear up. I came in, replaced the plugs. One plug had some like metalish looking deposit and the other was fine. I didn't think anything of it so I just popped new plugs in it. It ripped for a little bit, but then ran like crap. I was idling right next to the pier when all of the sudden I felt a clunk and my ski shut off. I figured maybe it was just the drive shaft that got locked up somehow due to something in the prop. My dad put his hands on the cases and he said they were EXTREMELY hot. They actually burned his hand even though he barely put his hand on them. I got a little worried, and then I took the plugs out and looked down one hole. One hole was fine, but the other hole had chunks of aluminum in it. It was that moment that I knew I was effed..Like seriously, I still had 2 months of ride season left and school hasn't even started, and I wrecked my motor? And I'm broke and I can't even afford to rebuild it right now before I payoff some other stuff.. I'm not gonna lie, a couple tears fell! I was so pissed. It was my baby! It sure was enjoyable to be towed behind a boat on plane while I'm standing up going crazy though. It was a good last ride of the season
Story continued on next page...
Here's mine! It may be long but I think it's worth the read
Honestly, this is long over due. But I owe it to the x!
A little bit of background about me: I got into motorsports super young and always have had a love for anything with an engine. I got my first threewheeler(I think it was a suzuki trailbuddy), when I was less than 5 years old. From then on, I moved to little Eton fourwheels, eventually to a yamaha blaster, and then a honda 400ex. I also had a Kitty Kat snowmobile, then moved up to a snoscoot(which we never would have sold them, they are one of the most fun things to ride), and now a Yamaha vmax 600. My dad owns a business that sells and fixes landscape equipment so he had an interest in engines to begin with, but the reason I was able to get into motorsports was because my dad was capable of fixing pretty much anything since he's been a mechanic his whole life. Sometimes it meant buying something that was an absolute POS and restoring it, or waiting years to find something at the right price, or not getting something top of the line. I'm extremely lucky to be able to get involved in motorsports!! Doing all of the maintenance yourself saves a ton of money too..I also have a mechanical background. I started working at the shop since I was about 12 when I first learned how to rebuild a carb on snowblowers haha. I absolutely loved taking things apart and figuring out how they work.
I went on ATV trips, snowmobiled upnorth, and occasionally road my sitdown jetskis about once a year when we go to celebrate labor day up north with friends and family. I liked Atving and snowmobiling, but not enough that I became a diehard fanatic. Riding snowmobiles on narrow upnorth trails scared me for a lot of reasons. Not only were you very close to traffic going the opposite way when you're pinning it around a turn, but you've got tons of people that endup going to the bars and getting on the trails and being stupid. There are so many horror stories played out on the trails. ATV's were pretty fun, but I only got to ride them a handful of times every year and the good trails were hours away.
Flash forward a bit, and my family and my uncle went in together on a lake place after searching for years to find one that we could afford. The cottage is on a small 80 acre lake(perfect for tuning and just bombing around and working on flatwater tricks!), and then you can cross the street to a 1000+ acre lake that's full of HUGE wakeboard wakes and all kinds of fun stuff. It's full of loaded rich people with killer boats and a killer atmosphere. I believe this happened a little over two years ago. Since I was on the lake, I saw some sit down jetsis and I really really wanted to get one. I was constantly looking on craigslist with my dad, but we didn't have too much luck. Later that month I ended up going on a kayak training camp with my grandparents, and I absolutely dreaded every second of it. I was so bored and it just wasn't fun at all. When I came home the day of the end of the trip, I went straight to our lake place and went down the stairs..What did I see? A Polaris Virage 700 sitting right in front of the pier! I was geeking out and so freeken excited it was ridiculous. It was after sunset but I didn't care, we had to take it back to the launch anyways so I took it for a good rip. It was fast, went about 50 MPH but it was so relaxing. I would endup spending hours out on the lake just bombing around going WOT around the little 80 acre lake. I started getting really bored of that, so I started doing those super fast hard turns where the ski pretty much does a 360 and breaks lose. Except this ski was so heavy and big it was kinda hard to throw around. I eventually tried to get air off of my own little setup wake, and me going constantly around in circles pissed the neighbors off! I had the cops called on me a couple times even though I always kept my distance. It's a quiet lake and people got pissed off easy. I would go through a 15 gallon tank really fast, and it was really expensive. Then I saw this guy on our lake just doing little bunny hops on this wierd thing standing up and I thought it was super cool. It was the first stand up jetski I ever saw. My dad and I thought it was pretty cool, and I thought maybe since it's smaller it would save gas. Plus, I was getting bored of my sit down so maybe a little variety would be good. Honestly, my idea of a standup jetski saving gas what a major reason I wanted to get one lol.
I decided to research "standing up jet skis", and I started watching some youtube videos and I was so pumped to try one! I was honestly amazed when I watched the 2012 world finals video. I looked on craigslist, saw some kawis that were around 500-800$ and I thought that would be a good start and something I could afford. Shortly after, my dad said that he thought our neighbor across the street at home had a standup jetski that he never used anymore. It sat outside under a cover so we had no idea what it was. One day I finally worked up the guts to go ask him about it. He said he'd maybe sell it. He took the cover off of it, and it was this Yamaha Superjet. I told him I was really interested and he said he'd get it running and I could take it for a ride to see if i want it. Couple days later he had it all good to go and he said I could take it for the day and just return it when I'm done since he trusted my dad and I. I was already in my truck ready to go to the lake, and my dad was still talking to him. All I overheard was my dad asking how much he wanted for it, and then my dad saying that we're probably going to take it. I had no idea what the price was. We took it to the lake, and holy crap was it hard to ride!! After like 15 minutes I could get up and stand up and go in a straight line, but turning was a no go. I was riding on my knees and doing sharp turns and just fooling around. I fell off about a million times in 1 hour, but it was so worth it. I told my dad that I absolutely have to buy this thing no matter what the price is. I'll work tons of overtime if I have to because I've never had more fun in my life. We get back, and I go to talk to the guy and ask him what he wanted for it. He says "I know what these go for, and I know you're going to have fun with it. So with the trailer and everything, you can have it for 300$ with the trailer. " I did some research before and I was totally fine with spending 1500 on it if I had to. I continued to ride the hell out of it for a couple weeks, and then suddenly it would die after riding for about a half an hour..I ended up finding PWCToday and was doing a bunch of research on it to figure out what it could be. I foundout I needed a cdi for my 650 cc engine. Little did I know that I sure as hell didn't have a little 650 in there... Turns out I had a 1995 yamaha superjet 701 cc with a limited b pipe, extended ride plate, ocean pro steering nozle, and UMI steering. All that plus a cover plus a trailer for 300$!!! When I found out how much a b pipe was worth I was so ecstatic. I ended up selling the nozzle for 150$ and that extended ride plate for 80$! I knew I got a deal, but didn't know I got that much of a deal. I only got to ride it at the end of august and beginning of september before school started, but even after that I knew that I wanted to mod it. Then I stumbled across the x, and that's where the fun began. Honestly, I was a little intimidated to post here. Everyone was more into freestyle and an advanced rider, and I'm just this little teenager that just got into the sport a few months ago!
That winter I tore the tray apart and installed footholds and did turf for the first time. Also added a bilge pump. That season my riding progressed sooo soo much it was insane. I ended up getting a hooker prop, cdi with a raised rev limiter, putting on a scoop grate and d cutting my ride plate which blew me away. I had no idea how much I was missing with that stock aluminum prop. I had some hiccups that season like coil wires needing to be cut back, bad tank valve, etc. But towards the end of the season, my ski started having symptoms like bad coil wires. Eventually I'd ride and it just wouldn't clear up. I came in, replaced the plugs. One plug had some like metalish looking deposit and the other was fine. I didn't think anything of it so I just popped new plugs in it. It ripped for a little bit, but then ran like crap. I was idling right next to the pier when all of the sudden I felt a clunk and my ski shut off. I figured maybe it was just the drive shaft that got locked up somehow due to something in the prop. My dad put his hands on the cases and he said they were EXTREMELY hot. They actually burned his hand even though he barely put his hand on them. I got a little worried, and then I took the plugs out and looked down one hole. One hole was fine, but the other hole had chunks of aluminum in it. It was that moment that I knew I was effed..Like seriously, I still had 2 months of ride season left and school hasn't even started, and I wrecked my motor? And I'm broke and I can't even afford to rebuild it right now before I payoff some other stuff.. I'm not gonna lie, a couple tears fell! I was so pissed. It was my baby! It sure was enjoyable to be towed behind a boat on plane while I'm standing up going crazy though. It was a good last ride of the season
Story continued on next page...
