Oh how things have changed since the early days of Freestyle. In fact, it’s only in the world of closed course racing that people decry where the sport has gone. Freestyle, freeride, offshore racing and many, many other branches of jet ski performance have evolved into new and exciting sports in their own right. But we have to say that we see an exponential maturation within freestyle unlike anywhere else.
The machines of today’s freestyle athletes are unlike anything imagined twenty years ago. Made from lightweight carbon fiber and Kevlar composites, weighing fractions of what skis once did and delivering far more thrust and torque than even the gnarliest of close course racers years earlier, freestyle is an acrobatic dance that defies gravity and astounds crowds with each backflip, barrel roll and scarecrow.
World champion freestyle rider Ant Burgess was recently caught on camera training on his insane $50,000 custom-built machine over the Easter weekend at Kingsbury Lakes. Mind you Burgess is merely testing the ski out, gaining a feel for how it behaves. But in this routine, Burgess impresses all with a sequence of flips, 360s and six backflips in a row.
