Tell me your worst broke down story

[Freakrider]

June 2005 T.S Arlene hit Mobile, AL, The day it approached the shoreline there were perfect 10 foot waves breaking inside the jetty at St.Andrews Park near Panama City Bch....best formed huge waves I have ever been in...was anyone on here out there that day ? had a blast and will never forget it...Anyways...next day still 5 footers rolling in....so my friend and I ski 5 miles down the beach hittin the shore break takin pics when all the sudden his ski would not crank...went up on the beach tried everything no luck...nobody around at all...on an island beach 5 miles from ramp...so I did have a tow rope stowed but I thought how am I going to tow a ski past a steady 5 foot shore break...well I manage to get on the outside of the break while my friend walked way down the beach to the jetty...There, I found a guy on a couch ridin in the jetty who gave my friend a ride across the 1/4 mile wide jetty...then I towed him on ski for about a mile...that day suxed !!!.....BTW problem was a bad positive lead wire...But tell me your worst ski day ever regarding broke down and wondered how you would make it back.....:usa2:

 

[crammit442]

Riding at Orange Beach with Tricky and crew. I run out of gas just inside the pass. Tricky tows me for half a mile or so and then he runs out of gas. Luckily I stashed fuel at Meadlock's so we end up walking down the highway in all our gear, get gas and the story ends well.:smoker:

 

[ATS_Aaron]

Lake Lewisville in May this year. I let a friend ride my wife's ski.....that day it decided to snag BOTH top rings and catastrophically died...about 3 miles from our boat ramp.

Worked out though, I replaced her race ported 81.5mm 62T cylinder with a freestyle ported 84mm 61X cylinder and it runs GOOD now.

Aaron

 

[ger87410]

I was riding Kim's 1992 XP, chasing boats at Caballo.

I get roughly 3 miles south of the ramp, and she starts running VERY rough. Won't idle or rev worth a darn and the back of the ski starts slowly sinking..

Turn around and get her 1 mile back, still in the middle of the lake when the back finishes sinking and the carb takes a big drink of water. Unwilling to completely abandon the ski, I start pushing the (barely floating) ski to the nearest shore.

Get her to shore, bilge the water out, and inspect her to find the intake hose has popped off the pump body.

I found that attaching a rope to the ski and then swimming out to the end of the rope and reeling the ski in seemed to work better then just straight pushing it.

 

[SuperJETT]

Wife and I were on my 550 mod and 750 ltd somewhere north of Tampa on the Gulf. We were headed down the coast and the 750 died. No tow rope for some reason, so I had to go back to get one. I left her standing in 4 feet of water holding my ski and headed back, got a rope, came back. Turns out while I was gone some dudes in an extremely loud airboat stopped and asked if she needed help.

So, I left my (then girlfriend) standing in the ocean, wondering if there are sharks, and some random rednecks in an airboat fly up to her to 'check' on her. It wasn't too bad for me until we got back to shore, then it became the worst tow back ever.

 

[djkorn1]

I towed some dude down the Niagara River with a broken Coupler. That was pretty shady.

I've also been towed back in 6-7 footers by Ski4 back in the day on my 750. That sucked too.

 

[yamanube]

Blew a lower rod bearing that took out my topend, had to tow it back up the river 4 miles or so....took in water and sunk the ski while towing. Drug it under water for a mile or so in 1" chop and gave up, brought it to shore, tipped it over and dumped it and towed it back with an SXR.

 

[brett]

chris (ox111,) andrew (wydopen) and i were riding down in sb. the break was a couple miles from the beach we launched at. i was riding chris's back-up/girlfriends ski, and ridin was goin great. then while in the surf, the ski wouldnt turn over after i bail so i swam it in. chris came in to help and i think we got mine started, then his wouldnt start. we were goin through the whole debacle switchin batteries and all that, when i look over and saw a wave push over the ski i borrowed onto a 4x4 stickin out of the sand, puttin a whole through the side, right through the glass.:shocked:i havnt felt so bad.

we ran over and picked it up. then went back to fixing chris's ski. eventually we got his ski goin and then it was time to get through the breakers to start the long journey back, and that alone was a pita. once we were at sea, the tow strap broke twice, incidentally saving me from passing out due to carbon inhalation :doh:

then to top it all off, as we were comin to shore with a now extremely short rope,a wave rips the ski from my hands and slams it right into chris's back and almost tangling us both in the rope, finishing off a wonderful day of riding.

im sure this incident had something to do with chris having his electrical system being pimped out by jss on his current setup:biggthumpup:

 

[Waternut]

Heck I consider breaking down and getting towed in a semi-win. Before I knew him, I had pabloescobar come out of his house and tow me in one day....really good guy. Same lake in GA, I broke down out in the middle and 20+ people passed me swimming and not a single person even asked if everything was ok. They just kept on driving. Ended up taking me about 30-45 minutes to swim to shore and another 20-30 minutes to walk it down the shoreline to the boat ramp...So much for southern hospitality.

 

[Frosty]

April 23rd this year - Proformance1 and I hit our first ride of the season. Water temp - 42 degrees, air temp in the 50's. 25 minutes into our ride and i lose power about a mile off shore.

Brian pulls me back to shore on his SXR - no tow rope. super long ride. My feet were numb, and I was frozen.

Broke my cylinder...

 

[Rickster]

Two years ago, towed in a 22' center console, 6 people aboard, with a stock 650 superjet!

:Banane01:

Distance was about 2.5 miles...

:headbang:

 

[tmetz]

got towed in by a seadoo

 

[snowxr]

FreeStyleFest 07. Put a hole in my carbon hull, and sank on the way back to the launch IN THE GIANT WEED FIELD. Luckily Steve802cc came along with LAMEY POWER!!

 

[SuperJETT]

I just remembered another. I got a call one evening from a buddy and got roped into going to help. We rode about 5 miles upriver to a boat harbor, and had to tow a 97 Sea-doo XP back to the ramp for a buddy.

Ever see a SXi up on plane towing a XP up on plane after sunset doing about 25-30mph? I was scared to death I'd hit a wave and the thing would run me over since I was using a very short rope.

 

[hangtime]

How did you manage after that ?? Did you need counseling ,meds or both .

got towed in by a seadoo

 

[tor*p*do]

That sound like a fun place to break down!!!
Your broken down, but at least you have WEED!!!:biggthumpup:

FreeStyleFest 07. Put a hole in my carbon hull, and sank on the way back to the launch IN THE GIANT WEED FIELD. Luckily Steve802cc came along with LAMEY POWER!!

 

[Jawbreaker]

Riding Orange Beach and the ski starting dying... I babied it around the rocks with huge swells. Tricky followed me for a little while and then took off once he thought I was ok. As soon as he turned around, it quit running and wouldn't start. I washed up against the sea wall, got towed in by a tug boat to the Coast Guard station, and sat there for a couple hrs untill my buddies got my message. It sucked... I could see them riding in and out the inlet. I'd wave but no one would ever look over to the Coast guard boat dock. Always have a wing man...

Another time I was riding the local lake with some buddies and my steering broke. I let my buddies know that I was headed back to the ramp on my side of the lake using my foot to turn. They decided to go to get something to drink on their side of the lake and the ramp where they put in. My ski died about half way back. I had to swim about 100 yards to the shore and pull my ski up onto the bank that was about 3ft higher than the water. I scratched the piss outta the bottom of the hull in doing so. I then asked the guy that was mowing his grass if I may use his phone, I called a cab, got a ride to my truck, went home and picked up my beach cart, and went back to get my ski.
Always have a wing man...

 

[Freakrider]

another broke down story....riding Ponce Inlet a couple of years ago (Daytona bch inlet to the south)....the ocean was really mean that day...5-6 foot sets that would not let up...my friend riding a blaster 2 floats in engine dead to the beach...of course beach patrol says " you are not supposed to be in here. " We had a tow rope set up with those large aluminum quick snap on hooks on both ends. I tried to tow the ski around the inlet but it was too big out there...a big wave hit his ski on the way out and broke the weak snap hook (should have tied just the rope ends) ...back to shore again...so I look around up on the beach for guys to carry it...I find a huge body builder dude that we call to this day Hercules and two other guys.....five of us carry a 396 pound (plus fuel) blaster 2 down the beach and across the jetty...seems easy right ? no it was tough to walk a long way and hold up that weight...except for Hercules...:banghead:

 

[DAG]

~5 years ago, ran into a flooting stump in the middle of the main channel on lake norman on a waverider 760xl , knocked a slit into the hull and nearly sank it. only thing above water was my buddys and my heads, and the hood/handlebars of the ski. ~5pm rushhour channel time, had one boat skim us on the right and another cabbon cruser swerved last minute. (thanks to whissles and splashing water. we wernt stuck but for 5mins and got it towed in. was 17 at the time. and nearly died twice. come to think of it, my buddy has not been back out with me... having a huge cabon cruser nearly cream you was a life changing expereance for sure. never could report the 2 boats for not stoping to help:moon:

 

[felix5oh]

Sebastian Inlet when a coupler spun while going thru the cut.

I was almost rock shredded and not to montion all the marine life there,Barracuda,Sharks.