There’s so much going on across the world of jet skiing its all but impossible to keep up with everything. We recently caught up with Cargo Wave‘s Paul Thomas who let us know, “Paul Sucharski (who has been organizing events for 25 years) runs the Badgerland Jet Pilots Club and sites, and for four years has been running a Freeride at Dells or elsewhere and of late, it has gotten too large to manage.
“Right now, unfortunately [there are] no plans for next year, so it was a bittersweet week for many of the 300 plus in attendance. It is operated to benefit food shelves locally, and does not [bring in a] profit. Prizes are provided by many sponsors [including Cargo Wave, Watcon, and JetLift] and the grand prize is a fully restored 1993 Yamaha SuperJet with a 701cc motor installed, as well as side sponsons and many other aftermarket goodies added hand-built by Paul himself, and some sponsor supplies.
“[The] weather did not quite cooperate on the weekend Saturday, but much riding was done during the week prior starting on Tuesday and the weather was very nice then!” Held at the River Bay Resort, The Dells of Wisconsin also had some great surprises including a very well preserved original 1968 Sea-Doo, which Thomas joked would look good towing one of their watercraft trailers, of which, two were on display for onlookers to review.
With a few buoys set out for quick laps and plenty of space to get out and stretch your ski’s legs, the Freeride at Dells was a success for those who were present and all of us at The Watercraft Journal hope to see its return for 2016.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the very nice article. In the interest of accuracy, my name is spelled with an i at the end and not a y 🙂 . The grand prize raffle ski this year was a fully restored 1993 Yamaha Super Jet with a 701 motor installed, as well as side sponsons and many other aftermarket goodies added. Lastly, this was our 4th annual Wisconsin Dells Freeride and only the 4th event that I have personally organized, although I have been riding stand ups and attending various types of organized pwc events for 25 years.
Thanks again,
Paul Sucharski
Badgerland Jet Pilots
Paul, thank you for the corrections! Hopefully the changes made just now to the story reflect these.