Some of the VERY best times EVER in my life were spent on my Sea-Doos
I owned 4 of them over about an 8 year period........many years ago. I have had fast road bikes in the past and also Go Karts ( rotax ) and NOTHING compares to a fast ski in the surf - nothing , not even doing upwards of 280kph on a road bike
( that was at Eastern Creek for any officers that might be viewing this
)
As Cavey said , if you are an IDIOT then these 'things' could be unsafe.
If you are RESPONSIBLE and know whats going on around you - you can have a BLAST.
I was ALWAYS an extremely responsible rider ( sometimes racer but not that often, mainly open water , bridge to bridge type stuff ) and ALWAYS polite to other water users, I recall towing a heap of surfers out to Windang Island one New Years day when the surf was MASSIVE and saving the guys walking out the rocks after each time they came in - I did this to help them , but also to show surfers that jet skiers were not all bad. Actually the worst and rudest experience I ever had was on my local lake ( Lake Illawarra ) when a 70 YO 'yachty' who was setting up his yacht for the day next to the boat ramp gave me a gobful as I pulled in and was winding up and spat at me, totally unprovoked , he just had set in his head that all jetskiers were dickheads ! Had he been 600 years younger I would have smacked him in the mouth.
We rode every weekend, summer , winter - the lot, sometimes both days, we went as hard as we could even in big big swells - not once did we ever get hurt.
Every single person I took out on it had a blast - family , friends, work colleagues ......and even Shannon Taylor for one day - thats a whole other story
I STILL pine for my jet ski's when I think about them.
Why did I get off them.................Carl Scully the ports minister , Bob Carr the premier and the useless NSW Government of the time KILLED jet ski-ing in NSW.
These d*ckheads couldn't work out what to do with a bunch of Lebbo's that were harrassing boaters on Sydney Harbour, so what did they do.........
a) banned all jet ski's from Sydney Harbour and also some other Sydney waterways
b) introduced a 'distance off' ( shore ) rule where you have to be 500 metres from shore when passing beach flags and ( I think ) 200 metres off shore at ANY other point, so there went the wave zone at ANY beach.
c) Introduced a specific jet ski licence , which is a good idea BUT - DOUBLED/ TRIPLED the cost of it compared to a standard boat licence, my 3 year licence went from something like $290 to a THOUSAND dollars overnight.
d) Doubled / TRIPLED the cost of registering a jet ski trailer..........and I could keep going.
I was part of a group that wrote and rode in rallies etc to stop these STUPID new 'laws' and we got ignored, Jet Ski businesses went under and got ignored and then guess what.............within a month , the NSW Government introduced commercial Jet Boating licences for Sydney Harbour tourism companies - ON SYDNEY HARBOUR
And I have a family member who lives right on the water in Gymea Bay, the first year they bought thier house we had Xmas there, and well guess what.....a jet ski went past and she says "damn those noisy things etc etc ( the same yatta yatta garbage you hear ) .........a few minutes later you could hear from WAY WAY WAY across the bay 2 x V8 ski boats - they were LOUD AS F*CK, and you could here em for miles - she said nothing.
THATS part of why I got out of them as well........hypocritical wanka's who simply repeat dull brainwashed 'sheep' statements.
I am sure I could go off and find links for deaths caused by cars, P -platers, V8 vehicles, motorbikes, go karts , pedestrian deaths , and god dam people killed by cooking appliances as well as injuries in the origami industry if I really wanted to !
It was a sad sad day when my last 'XP' was towed off behind the new owners car and I still think about what would have been had it not been for a few bad apples. Although the costs these days are extrememly prohibitive.
Some old shots for Cavey's pleasure !
When you COULD still go on Sydney Harbour - take a look at the size of me touching the hull of a car carrier !
My old SPX
Excuse the daggy comment - this is what you did in photo albums in 'the old days'
Finally , after my long rant -
I TOTALLY agree with the need to educate and licence riders and yes that WOULD lead to less problems as pointed out in Victoria, I truly dont recall the last time hearing about a ( yes PWC ) accident in NSW. Had our lunatic Govt at the time said they were doing the training/licence thing then I would have had no issue at all - but they went overboard at the time and destroyed the hobby up here for many FAMILIES.
And Cavey - even though I dont own a ski any more I still plan to get to Havasu one day - and I will
