- Location
- Lake Havasu City, AZ USA
Bringing this old thread back to life today on May 12, 2008.
I have been on a fence about posting this, as this is potential ammo for law enforcement and the people in general that hate PWC for some reason or another. But I have decided to for major safety reasons... and for those that use a ziptie or have their lanyard attached but wrap around the bars and not on their wrists, this ones for you:
Well, after 17 years of freestyle type riding with 3 years of that competing and using no lanyard(ziptie), and having the idle turned down(turned up more for competition) on many different standups, this very same scenario Vumad just mentioned above happened to me yesterday.
I fell off my SJ and it didn't die within 2-3 seconds like usual. It started spinning circles around me. It was going rather fast(prolly 20 mph), I grabbed it and tried to hang on and shut if off. I had a hold of the back rail with one hand and my other hand grabbed inside of a foothold, but it was going to fast and was to strong, I couldn't reach up to shut it off. It then started going faster and faster around me, like 30 mph or so. One time it came straight at me and I had to get out of the way! :bigeyes:
It kept circling REAL fast like that and making a tighter and tigher circle. Finally it turned itself so tight that it turn subbed itself and powered under water for about 5-6 seconds. I didnt know where it was going to come up. I just hoped it wasnt up my arse.. I also thought "good" its going hydro lock itself and pop up on the surface and die. I was probably 200-250 yards from the beach at that moment....
But instead it shot perfectly straight vertical up out of the water like Shamu in a water show, then slammed flat on the water and took off straight for the beach where probably 20-30 people were hanging out. All I could do was sit there in the water with disbelief as people were grabbing there kids and running out of the way of a big bore, fully ported, total loss, RN missle running on 110 Sunoco that was now going straight for them at WFO.........
Well, my ski hit the beach and its at a pretty sharp angle and it launched into the air and flew like 30 feet into a bunch of trees/bushs. When it hit the trees and bushy area it was prolly like 4-5 feet up in the air. It flew in there hitting a big boulder and revving out like a mofo.
Fortunately, it did not hit anybody as most had seen me trying to get it when it was circling super fast. There were also a few boats parked there.
A friend ran up and tried to hit the stop button. That didnt work. He then took off the hood and pulled a plug wire off and he was wet and the MSD total loss spark threw him back on his azz. Another guy got in there and got the other cap off and got the shock of his life too, but it finally died.
I am just so thankful that no one was hurt or killed. I could never live with myself if I had killed a little person or anybody for that matter. Not to mention being sued for some kind of vehicle manslaughter possibly.
It took like 3 hours for my hands to stop shaking and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it either.... It was terrifying watching it all from out in the water.
Anyways, the problem was where the metal 90 degree piece on the cable is down by the carbs, the winding came out of the pinched/swedged end and got off sideways and opened the butterflys about 1/8-3/16", but with no rider that is all it needs to go WFO. I got it fixed and rode it and it seems like all the power is still there and it did not blow up the motor. Gonna do a compression check tomorrow. Also my new razor sharp impeller is dinged up too. I dont care, it could of been WAY worse.
LONG STORY SHORT: PLEASE WEAR YOUR LANYARD or you may suffer some VERY bad consequences .
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