Sorry, I didn't have time to read all the posts. Here's my 2 cents. I was there through the boom of the '90 s when all you had where small fun skis. Everyone wanted one and the lakes where packed with skis. The big skis did not come out of demand. Actually, in 1996-97, several laws where passed that forced the manufacturers to chose between blasters and super jets and SXIs or X-2s. They where only allowed to sell one regular two stroke and only 200 or so each year. Also, skis like the 440, 550, and FX-1 where killed off for the same reason. The stand ups and small skis sold well then. There was no need to kill them off. Polaris was barley able to convince the EPA to let them make the Octane, much like the way the SJ is barely hanging on today for "Race use only" EPA averaging laws meant that the manufacturers could only make one high emissions ski each. This meant 4 strokes, injection, and big bulky catalytic converters on everything else they made. The industry moved to the bigger hulls to compensate for the heavier, bulkier engines. If Yamaha or Kawi had their way, the inexpensive to produce stand up and small PWC would still rule. That's why you saw the blaster 3 and gen 2 X-2 over seas and not here. There is only one thing to blame for the death of our favorite skis, its the big brother, left wing EPA. Any other explanation ignores the facts of what happened due to goverment controls.