Jet Skis

[Pintoxicated]

If you are going to spend that sort of money on a jetski (which personally i despise as 80% of people that i have interacted with on the water with jetski's are complete aqua bogans - just tear up the water and drive dangerously close to other water users), why not get a boat?

We have a solid ski/wakeboarding boat for well under those $$$ - its an older model, but is still 270HP, can fit 7 people and puts up a wake the size of more recent boats that cost $70 000 plus.  Very quiet inside, and the wake flattens out at faster ski speeds for slalom skiiing.

I just think for a family that a boat is a much much better option as everyone can enjoy it.

This is our boat below - we have about another 5 families that regularly join us for days on the river.  Its an american built Ski Nautique and way better quality build than any Aussie boats

We have terrible problems in Vic with jet ski operators.

I agree with you - a family boat which you and the family can all enjoy together without having a huge impact on those around you...

Marty.....we have a terrible problem with Victorian PWC operators in NSW  (The correct term is PWC - Personal Watercraft.  Jet Ski is actually a Kawasaki brand name that they hold the rights to) They are way over represented in our serious injuries and fatalities on the Murray River at places like Echuca/Moama and Mulwala.  How many examples would you guys like?  The Vic licensing systems is rubbish and we have been asking the Vic powers to be to bring int into line with the NSW licensing system/testing.  PWCs are starting to out number ski boats now at Moama on big weekends like Australia Day and summer holidays. 

Off the top of my head just this season.....young girl had a foot partially amputated after being run over by a PWC which resulted in her foot getting stuck in the intake grate.  Two guys collided with a house boat last weekend - internal injuries.  A kid on a PWC (who simply cannot be trusted riding a missile like a PWC) thought it would be a good idea to try to spray his mate who was trying to get back on another PWC.  He stuffed up, hit his mate and squashed him between the two PWCs.  Once again internal injuries and a broken leg I think from that one...that was a week or two ago as well at Mulwala.  All parties were Victorian.

Anyway, it keeps me in a job and gives me a few trips down to Melbourne each winter to investigate the incidents.

As well as PWCs now being a pest on our waterways, ski biscuits are almost as bad and again feature heavily in the injuries and fatalities stats.  e.g. 2011/2012 season, child killed after being whipped into a snag (tree) which was being towed by a PWC at Moama.

[MartyJ]

As Blair mentioned serious injuries (often life long injuries) don't get news time or even stat worthy in some instances.  Having said that no different to cars..

[Caveoftreasures]

where is the parental supervision ?  where is the common sense ?

I have never had a friend/family member or racing colleague ever have a single incident in 15 years, but I will tell u, I am safety paranoid when I am on the water. I value my life and others around me. In NSW when i raced n mostly jetski-ed for many years the waterways people were strict, and it was the water users themselves who policed the waterways as well. The moment we saw someone doing something unsafe, we didnt wait for the law, we acted ourselves. Everyone has a interest to keep all of the waterways safe.

QLD waterways doesnt suffer fools either, they are strict up here to keep the tourists safe. Most people act quickly if someone acts like a goat. Its too dangerous to let things go. But on the whole, most people dont have problems because most people use common sense and obey the laws ofcourse.

[Wotto]

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  




 



 

[Wotto]

The moment we saw someone doing something unsafe, we didnt wait for the law, we acted ourselves. Everyone has a interest to keep all of the waterways safe.

As did we mate 

[Pintoxicated]

Don't get me wrong guys, the first thing that I owned on the water was a Kawasaki 650SX stand up jet ski.  Wotto - I cut my teeth out in the surf at Bellambi for many years. That's the real deal, jet skiing on a stand up in the surf but something like an RXP can be just as cool and takes you places and on waves that the stand up couldn't - you can't fall off em.

You are mostly spot on as well Wotto.  I stopped renewing my PWC licence and sold my ski when all the prices went up.  The fines are also double in NSW compared to vessel offences e.g. tow without an observer vessel = $250  PWC = $500.  There have been injuries and fatalities in NSW, typically in places Revesby Beach - Georges River where Aussies using ski boats no longer exist.  Was the whole thing a knee jerk reaction...yes and no, was it politically motivated by politicians who resided on or around the harbour - yes.

There are plenty of small waterways out in the sticks here where I rarely patrol, as you mentioned, the locals look after things very well themselves. 

Am I a fan of PWCs - hell yes but the cowboys have simply ruined it for others.

Attached is a toy I get to play with at work, it is an old pic but you get the idea.   

[robm]

Nice boat what engines in it?

Peter
[/quote]

Pete - its got a 351 Windsor in it.  It has excellent soundproofing on the engine cover, so at wakeboarding speeds you can have a normal conversation in the boat.  But when you open her up for fast slalom its got a beautiful note to it - the exhaust does mainly port into the water, so its not like the bogan ones that have pipes that go straight over the back!

Since the others have put a few good jetski pics up, i'll throw a few of me having fun!

With the bigger wake on these boats, at mega slow speeds you can surf the wake which is fun.  I mainly wakeboard (sometimes badly as seen in the stack pic!) but also enjoy a good ski and even a run on the tubes when there are no other boats around


 

[Caveoftreasures]

Wottos, Blairs and Robs posts were excellent.  

I used to jetski in sydney harbour alot. It was hectic for sure, even for the most experienced riders, it was certainly not a safe place for any novices. The govt ferry boats, old diesel types and the new jet boats literally would aim straight for you, and they wouldnt stop at all if u got in their way, or if they got in your way. I saw a bloke get run over by a 60 ft jet ferry, luckily he was able to dive deep enough and he didnt get hurt, but his ski sank, never to be seen again.

Jetskis n sydney harbour was always going to end with a ban so the ritchy people could enjoy breakfast wiothout jetskis. But the powerboats were twice as loud, work that out ! I know how fun going out to the oil tankers used to be as well, we used to ride our skis (I had a XP and a GTX Limited 3 seater - I would swap between skis depending where i took them, and my brother owned a XP and a 3 seater as well).

The oil tankers were huge. It was fun seeing just how big they were. The crews used to wave, and sometimes ask for a double. We had lots of fun. I used to ride the georges river system starting at Revesby and ride all the way to the ocean at botany bay via captain cook bridge, then out to the heads with the oil tankers etc. I did see my fair share of large white poointer sharks over the years as well. That used to scare the living shit outta you. These monsters were huge. It always reminded me not to fall off in certain areas, or u became shark food. Some people never even had a idea that sharks were even around.  Fun times.

In QLD, the jetski stuff is much easier than the NSW laws, but u still have to play safe, and then u can have a absolute blast as Wotto said, and the jetski's are just sooo much fun. Definately my aim this year is to waterski and jetski alot more often, starting with the new ski I am just looking at.

[Cow Corner]

Not a fan of jetskis at all.
Aqua bogans is a very fitting tag for the majority of knobs hooning around the waterways on these stupid things.

[GORGAR 1]

Great info guys cheers, guy at work has a ski boat 350 Chev he reckons boat stands for "borrow a nother thou" lol

Peter

[Pintoxicated]

Yep, one big hole in the water that you just keep throwing money into but they are a great thing to have.

[Caveoftreasures]

Some people like me rarely drink alcohol, and I dont smoke, never have, so the one hundred a week saved pays for jetski-ing which is one of the best n fun hobbys out there.   The minority of 1 percent are aqua hoons, if it even reached 1 in a hundred.

Getting out n about in the sun and great waters of the gold coast is exceptional most of the year round. Its better than sitting behind a computer desk which some people do and never expand their horizons. The vast majority of people who go out n enjoy jetski-ing love it and cant wait to get involved.

[Wotto]

Not a fan of jetskis at all.
Aqua bogans is a very fitting tag for the majority of knobs hooning around the waterways on these stupid things.

You make a good match for my cousin that lived on the water in my main reply above 

[Caveoftreasures]

    theres a big difference between disliking jetskis and the people who ride them.

Picture a non jetski fan walking up to a jetski and him telling the jetski he doesnt like it, jetskis reply is silent.lol 

A Jetski is also very intelligent, it has a 23 modes on its electronic dash to start with, plus a inbuilt computer.lol Probably as smart as most people. 

[Cow Corner]

I have seen too many knobs riding these at speed around swimmers and board riders like they own the ocean to know the majority are moronic individuals.