I want a Jet Ski

[GoGoGavin41]

...or a personal water craft if we're being politically correct.

I've been boating my whole life but none of my family or friends have had one. I first rode one a few years ago which sparked my interest, then went to a friend of a friend's house yesterday and rode a 2010 Sea-Doo 3 seater with a tow pole (not sure if motor size). 65 mph, jumpable, and capable of tubing and skiing behind. I need one of these in my life haha. They seem a lot more versatile than they were 10 years ago.

So, school me here. I know buying a boat is like throwing money into the water, but we're thinking about moving close to the NC coast and if that happens I'll probably want to get in on the ground floor with a used boat that will pull my 180 lb butt out of the water on the wakeboard without breaking the bank.

What do I want here?

[BikePilot]

If you wanna have fun get a standup ski (yamaha superjet, kawasaki SXR800), if you want the water-equivlent of a quad get a sit-down

They aren't too bad to keep running, not all that much worse than a motocross bike. Sit-downs are more expensive. Fuel burn is pretty crazy. You won't spend a fortune on fuel for a standup 'cause most can't ride one hard for very long at a time. On a sit-down especially expect to go through quite a bit of fuel.

Most all the current 3-seaters would pull you out of the water just fine, but it seems no one uses them for pull-sports (other than tubes). Not sure why, I've never skied/boarded behind one. About half my neighbors have sit-downs (I live on the water in FL) and I've literally never seen one used for pull-sports. I see folks skiing/boarding behind their boats pretty frequently though.

Very roughly, yamahas are considered the most reliable, Kawasakis the fastest and Sea-doo always has a following as well. They are all very similar so it doesn't much matter which brand you like best, not unlike motorcycles there Kawasaki has the Ultra 300 available and it scoots along pretty well (as you'd expect with 300hp on tap).

The two-strokes were a lot down on hp compared to the forced induction four strokes we have now, but they were typically hundreds of lbs lighter and work out to be pretty similar in speed. For an affordable, simple, used ski one good one to look at is the Kawasaki STX 1100 two stroke is a good all-around ski and pretty affordable.

[B-Rod]

After watching this video, I want a stand-up. I love to rip some slots on a hot day.

[BikePilot]

And there's a whole world of freestyle stuff to do that's huge fun and astounding exercise. Ride a freestyle ski much and you'll have a six-pack in short order See e.g., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyyC-PkmTss and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVHbI...eature=related

[RonS]

Buy a real boat. Decent ones can be had for much less than the price of a new jet ski. You'll have far more capabilities and capacity than you will with the jet ski and if you buy the right one you can get as good top end speed. Years ago I had a 16 foot fiberglass boat with a 90hp Merc outboard. That thing would pop out of the hole in mere seconds. I used to jump the wakes of large boats with it. The advantage was that I could carry the SCUBA gear for myself and my buddies and we would use it for a diving platform as well as ski behind it and jump big wakes with it. I personally get bored pretty quickly with jet ski's. Not everyone does however.

[eastwa]

something like this:

[BikePilot]

On the real boat vs ski, it's just two totally different things imho. My boat (a rather cool 27.5' Cobalt) compared to a freestyle ski is not unlike my Ford F250 compared to my Honda CR250R MX bike. The CR would definitely suck for hauling, well my CR, my F250 would also most definitely suck for racing MX.

FWIW I've known lots of folks to get board quickly on sitdowns, have not known anyone to get bored with standups.

[SnowMule]

Get a snowmobile instead.
If I lived somewhere I could actually use a jetski (florida, MN/WI, maybe CA but there's other reasons I couldn't live there) it might be fun, but I coul see getting bored quickly when there's only two axes of motion to play on.

Snowmobile + motorcycle = riding (and wrenching on something) year round.

[liquidsmile]

The thing I have learned about a jet ski is you are going to get bored by yourself. If you know someone who has one go for it.

If not, you will end up buying another one, so be ready to buy two of them.

[Tragic Image]

We had a Yamaha Wave Venture for awhile.

Used it 2-3 times a year. Boring as hell.

Yeah, we could tow you with it, but why bother when we could pull you with the boat instead, and carry more people to take more turns.

Couldn't really ski/slalom behind it because, where the hell would you keep the skis at when they weren't in use?

I don't think we ever tried bare footing behind it. And I know we didn't board behind it ever.

Tubing behind it was "meh".

[tommyg]

bought a 85 kawasaki stand-up 550 when I was in high school Used it alot when I was in my teens and 20s. Still have it and use couple times a summer. Thing is bullett proof its a detuned snowmobile engine. Stand ups are alot more fun than sit downs. Would be cool on a narrow river.

[Nut Clutch]

I had a tuned up Kawasaki 750 SXi Pro while I lived in an apartment on Lake Washington with my own moorage slip. I had it on a lift and used it quite a bit. It was great to be able to go out on it for 30 minutes or an hour. I've ridden lots of sit down PWCs and the stand up is so much more fun. Once I moved away from the lake I found I didn't use it that much and sold it. I never took it to the ocean to play in the surf, but that probably would have been a ton of fun. I still have an old Kawasaki js550 I share with a buddy, but this thing was an absolute rocket compared to that. I miss it.





Are you going to use it in the ocean or on a lake? Are you planning on going places with it or just playing around?

[P B G]

Originally Posted by GoGoGavin41

.

I've been boating my whole life but none of my family or friends have had one. I first rode one a few years ago which sparked my interest, then went to a friend of a friend's house yesterday and rode a 2010 Sea-Doo 3 seater with a tow pole (not sure if motor size). 65 mph, jumpable, and capable of tubing and skiing behind. I need one of these in my life haha. They seem a lot more versatile than they were 10 years ago. ?

Ugh...

I suppose you have to look at how much tubing or skiing you would be doing, and how many family members you have.

The 3 seaters aren't going to give you the same amount of jumping fun and maneuvering that the 2 or 1 seater types do. They tend to have good engines, but they have massive chines to make them super stable which is bad for the rest of things you might want to do on one.


Also if you want to ski or tube most juristictions dictate a spotter AND enough room on the vehicle for the person you are pulling. So 3 seater jet ski you can tow 1 person on a tube, not ideal if perhaps you have 3 or 4 kids, or your buddy has kids and you were planning to pull them together on a tube.

For wakeboarding/skiing SPEED CONTROL is a big issue. The driver is going to have to constantly fight with how much the speed changes on one of these things when you have a rider pulling, and there is not an electronics package doing this for you, so from pulling someone it is very challenging not to accidently have your rider being dragged across the water +/- 10 mph from where you wanted to be. Meaning wakeboarders dragging at 10 mph while the driver tries to accellerate, and 35 mph face plants.


Not that you cannot use them, but adverts of people having fun skiing behind 3 seaters are just wrong. Our family friends have one, they will ski behind it occasionally on a river. They do not bother bringing it to the lake because we have a ski boat. No comparison. BUT the jet ski 3 seater will be more ocean safe.

[troidus]

I have an '89 JS440 that I'm prepping to sell. I like it a lot, but don't use it now that I'm married. My wife doesn't like them, so no reason to get a second one, and I don't like to go to the lake without her. And with the pending move to Athens, the nearest lake will be too far away for an afternoon on the water, anyway. (I used to go pretty much daily after work during warm weather and quickly burned off 20 pounds of fat.)

[Desert Skies]

Originally Posted by eastwa

something like this: