Other Where is jetskiing going?

[NVJAY775]

It is an expensive sport. As a business owner I understand what an owner feels a product, or service is worth for you to provide.

I've bid jobs that people have said were too high. Well... That's what it's worth to me to get the job done right. And to a certain extent, you get what you pay for.

I think there's always going to be people that can afford the high dollar motors, pumps, hulls etc. Luckily for others there's vendors here on the x that have affordable options for the other 90% of riders to still get out and have a ton of fun on a budgeted ski. No offense to anyone, that's just an opinion... That may change lolol.

Bottom line for me, is it's so much fun, that I will always figure out how to ride and continue the good times.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I have been riding skis since 1986, I believe I got my first ski in 1988, a 440 in pieces in many boxes, I built that ski, sold it then built a full custom 550 with a brand new reed motor and every bolt on part available at that time. I had that ski or at least the engine to it till this Summer. I have watched all my friends get into skis spend tons of money and get back out, all that time I had my ski and rode it, usually by myself.

I approached the sport a little differently spending money on the best parts and only doing it once.When I show up at a freeride my stuff runs and it runs well. I have been very lucky to find a group of friends here that I can ride with from time to time and I will be riding ten years from now. I may not have the fastest or newest stuff but to me thats not what its all about, I am in this sport to have fun, as long as it remains fun and I am physically able I will still be in it.

 

[Boris]

I threw mu ski into my lake for a couple hours today.
No surf insight, not a single cruiser wake, absolutely zero mangroves, just a small, flat lake (OK, so it is a retention pond but it's all mine). Boy was it fun.

 

[Tyler Zane]

I threw mu ski into my lake for a couple hours today.
No surf insight, not a single cruiser wake, absolutely zero mangroves, just a small, flat lake (OK, so it is a retention pond but it's all mine). Boy was it fun.

nothing wrong with that, i ride by my self all the time on a spring thats 6ish miles long by 75ish feet wide and i love it. there are a few cypress knees along the edege that i swerve threw for fun and always a few boats to throw me a beer or two. suck when you hit cypress knee WOT thou mfg:

 

[smoofers]

My afternoon zen ride is out my back yard - the lower San Jacinto River. A good day for me is getting home from work (ski was put on the lift the night before), grab my gear and head to the dock. The ski starts floating, I strap on my jacket and after a minute or so of warmup I head up river. I usually go about 10-12 miles up the river and then turn around and come back. SOme days I'll run into wakeboard boats, other days it's calm as glass. But either way, i get a good 45 minute cruise of a ride, great scenery, and I get to go as slow or as fast as I want.... No waiting up, no hurrying up. Just me and the ski. By the time I get back, the sun is going down, crack a beer maybe burn one, and watch the sunset....

Perfect way to clear my head. Now I want to go ride...

 

[OCD Solutions]

My afternoon zen ride is out my back yard - the lower San Jacinto River. A good day for me is getting home from work (ski was put on the lift the night before), grab my gear and head to the dock. The ski starts floating, I strap on my jacket and after a minute or so of warmup I head up river. I usually go about 10-12 miles up the river and then turn around and come back. SOme days I'll run into wakeboard boats, other days it's calm as glass. But either way, i get a good 45 minute cruise of a ride, great scenery, and I get to go as slow or as fast as I want.... No waiting up, no hurrying up. Just me and the ski. By the time I get back, the sun is going down, crack a beer maybe burn one, and watch the sunset....

Perfect way to clear my head. Now I want to go ride...

I so miss living on a lake. I used to come home exhausted and sit down at my dining room table and eat dinner while looking over the lake. I would end up rushing to finish dinner and head to the lake for an evening ride and the exhaustion would just melt away.

 

[Flash-FX]

My first ski was a shiny new red Kawasaki 550, in 1985. As a overview from then to now, "jet Skiing" has been a lot of fun. Met a lot of new friends and cool peeps that enjoy the same thing, getting out on the water and shredding!

Unfortunately, politics is going to slowly kill off this sport. That's evolution....

 

[jetpilot08]

Unfortunately, politics is going to slowly kill off this sport. That's evolution....

Screw evolution! It is time for a revolution. Our freedoms are slowly being stripped away from video games to censored music and TV. Now they are going to start banning 2 strokes on lakes. We need to realize that this is unacceptable and act quickly otherwise we may be stuck in our garages staring at our jet skis making brap noises.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Went riding yesterday just cruising around and jumping some cruiser wakes,I had a damn good time. I have a very nice lake 10 minutes from my house and three skis that run, really the only reason not to ride more than I do is me being a pu$$y.

 

[227]

I don't know where jetskiing is going, but I do know that I am going jetskiing. :Banane09:

Yeah x3! No matter what the ECO Nazis or other Hater groups do I’ll just figure a way to get around them. I’m here for the long run.

 

[kraqus]

I went riding today and the Rickter is an awesome ski :arms:


Benny

 

[freestylist69]

You guys realy make me want to just go to the harbour and RIDE my 785cc Rickter! Hopefully tommorow, going hunting in the desert today with Falcons ! lol Its great to be an arab:sasmokin:

 

[Tyler Zane]

You guys realy make me want to just go to the harbour and RIDE my 785cc Rickter! Hopefully tommorow, going hunting in the desert today with Falcons ! lol Its great to be an arab:sasmokin:

lol, i have never seen someone so enthusiastic about the desert... what do you hunt?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Here is what I want to see happen, I want to see a lot more guys get into the hull building business. This would accomplish two things, competition and availability drives prices down and since the OEM's are backing out of it that creates a market that could actually survive. It is coming down to either you ride an old ski or you buy a new aftermarket hull and build your own ski. I would also like to see some American companies building turn key skis the way Laser Jet Performance did back in the 90's, just hopefully build something better than the Laserjet when you do it.

 

[tom21]

Here is what I want to see happen, I want to see a lot more guys get into the hull building business. This would accomplish two things, competition and availability drives prices down and since the OEM's are backing out of it that creates a market that could actually survive. It is coming down to either you ride an old ski or you buy a new aftermarket hull and build your own ski. I would also like to see some American companies building turn key skis the way Laser Jet Performance did back in the 90's, just hopefully build something better than the Laserjet when you do it.

I dont see the price of hulls going down. its a lot of work to do it right, and how long you can sell cheap crap...well?

 

[Nascency Chris]

I dont see the price of hulls going down. its a lot of work to do it right, and how long you can sell cheap crap...well?

What about "stock"-ish hulls? Not the super lightweight deals, but maybe base materials for hull building with slight reinforcement to certain areas? That being said, I know absolutely zero about hull manufacture so this truly is a question, I know I could be way off base...

a low cost kit boat would be cool for new riders who don't need all the bells and whistles yet. As an example, you could order a complete boat online that is a few industry manufacturers products all put together... a "stock" fiberglass hull from say, Trinity (just an example), a nice slightly worked over 701 or 760 from Scream, and various parts from others... but it all shows up at your door in boxes for you to assemble (you know half the fun for everyone is wrenching and tuning lol). This might keep costs down in the manufacturers cases because they are just boxing and shipping parts. If a group of manufacturers can communicate and guarantee that everything would be solid on the final fit and finish I feel like you could make a solid push to bring it to market at a lower price point than currently exists... in my mind (thats a scary thought isn't it lol) I could see it like buying a bike for your kid at Toys R Us... you could pay extra to get them to put it together or do it yourself, you could pay extra for custom colors if you want, but you can get a bone stock deal just as easily. Another added bonus is that it gets people into the sport on brand new equipment, instead of something beat that they found on craigslist or something, where the history and maintenance could be dubious at best...

Again, I could be way off base and there are alot of fundamentals that get ignored in this situation (liability issues with end users building their own boats, etc) but it could also be a huge opportunity for the industry to grab hold of things and move it into a fresh direction...

 

[tom21]

I am not trying to bring things down, trust me I would hope only quality parts ever were made.

just as an example, I am molding an fx hull right now. So far its taken 12 yards of mat, 1 yard of 10 oz cloth, 6 gallons of resin and 12 man hours to just mold the bottom of the hull. its not done yet as its a 3 part mold due to the tubbies being built into the mold.

this does not include all the little things or the time and materials to modify the hull like we have. I still have to do the top and the hood and a bearing support. then I can begin to make the parts. dont forget time to sand and polish everything. its a huge investment.

I could have used a little better materials and I could definitely used worse(cheaper). not including all the time and materials to make the mold I hope in the end I will be just slightly higher in materials to lay up my hull than to buy a ski and mod the pump, add tubbies and widen the tray.

So if you "could" make a hull where the materials cost approximately what a stock hull with mods cost then the only thing left is the labor. I still have so much to do I havent even thought about a layup schedule or if I will bag it. but just for a point of reference using the mold numbers it would take approximately 25 hours just to lay glass. this is not including mold prep, cutting materials(sounds like nothing but it takes more time than you would think) popping and trimming parts. drilling all the holes for fittings.

we have seen all the builds and top deck swaps and that is what lies ahead. Not a very cheap propasition. I know I dont want to do it for 15 and hour. furthermore I cant afford to. this is assuming everything goes perfect lol. or that the builder knows what they are doing and if they are building the best possible product or just trying to pass it off as an affordable alternative. we have seen how that ends.

How many of us would be in this hobby if we had to pay 6K just to get a hull?

Im not scared though, cause if all that was out there was couches you can damn sure bet I would take a sawzall to it and carve me out a 4stroke superjet from that pig.

 

[SuperJETT]

I can see it now, 10 years from now standups will be in the X-Games finally, and they'll be talking it up big time "look at the sport these guys have resurrected using old parts pieced together", just like street luge got in because guys were modding skateboards and going fast. Who is going to be our Biker Sherlock?

 

[subseawellhead]

I am guilty of being a slacker superJET, site traffic on my fave Lone Star Freeride Threads is just a fragmented group of posters now. When we had freerides there twice a year everybody was stoked and posting. I think everybody is still riding just not as a group anymore and communicating via the boards. The hurricane slammed our traditional riding spot so that hurt our group as much as anything. I promoted the event after Shawn but it was'nt the same without Crystal Beach, it was just so damn comfortable!
The ride at Surfside and Port A "the best surf" were great get togethers but no driving force now to organize a ride.
I'm gonna try to pimp a ride there this spring because I really enjoy riding and partying with these clowns:wiggle:

 

[sxi steve]

I started stand up jetskiing in 1988, rode till 2000 then got out, due to lack of local riding buddies. In aprox 2005 I purchased the SXI-Pro and discovered the X. The internet sites have been very valuable to me because of the ideas, knowledge shared, used parts, and the inspiring videos plus I have rode and met some good buddies. I literally love to ride and be in the outdoors (on the lake), it's a passion, a release from the daily grind, and a great workout. I actually enjoy wrenching and making improvements to my ski and the knowledge and confidence learned was from alot of you. I'm 45 years old and don't forsee an end for me in this sport. I live in Michigan and the season is 5-6 months long, maybe that helps, by March or April your on the edge of your seat ready to fire it up. I'm in it for the long haul! BTW- I'm on the X alot, usually just read and peruse the threads, so I'm here!