The IJSBA shared some exciting news from Florida and Ohio. Mike Young’s Surf and Turf Promotions has partnered with Powerboat Nationals to bring three weekends of PWC Competition to Tavares,FL. This year’s event will not only feature HydroDrag Racing, Sparks, Sport Class, and possibly some other watercraft will be involved in some events.

The 10th Annual Hydro-Turf US HydroDrag Nationals and World Championships powered by Yamaha will return to Lake County for four events. These begin April 6 and will feature the “World’s Fastest Race on Water.” This event runs for two days and is sanctioned by the IJSBA of Half Moon Bay,CA. The HydroDrags feature a one of a kind launch pad and it will be set up directly behind Kalua Beach Bar. Five classes of HydroDrag Racing will be entered. These classes include Pro Stock Sea-Doo, Pro Stock Yamaha, Spec, Superstock, and Unlimited. Stock and Spec Classes run on Saturday and the more modified machines run on Sunday.

This is promoter Mike Young’s 32cd year in the industry and the 39th year of organized PWC racing. Young said, ”I enjoyed putting on the races in Tavares so much that I moved here from Bradenton and our relationship with the City of Tavares and Lake County Economic Development is excellent” With that being said, Young said that there will be 3 additional events held on May 18-19, July 18-19, and November 9-10. The May and November events will also feature the Powerboat Nationals Hydro Cross Classes; Sport and Spark, which will bring a lot more people to Lake County for the event as this series (powerboatnationals.com) goes to Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and West Virginia!

The Series attracts hundreds of racers from all over the U.S. National and local sponsors include Hydro-Turf, Yamaha, City of Tavares, Lake County, RIVA Racing, Greenhulkstore.com, Tiki West, Key West Resort, Blowsion, Jet Pilot, IJSBA, pipmthatride.com, 4-Tec Performance, Team Mean, MVP Production, and Jet Ski Daily. The events run from 9am to 4pm and are free for Lake County residents to attend. Non-residents can purchase a pit pass for $10. Surf and Turf Promotions has more information available on its website. Bleachers will be provided, however, attendees are urged to bring their own seats and ear protection. It will be loud! Free parking is available at the Tavares City parking deck.

This is a family-friendly event with a high energy vibe. Prepare to have fun! Drag Racing, Freestylye, and Closed Course racing will be on full display. Plenty of vendors will be on site and many restaurants are within walking distance. Uva Perez from U-Jet is the current holder of the World Speed Record in the Unlimited Class. The record happened in 2017 on Lake Dora and it was an impressive 127.7MPH! Are you ready Tavares, ’cause the 2019 Hydro-Turf US Drag Nationals and World Championships are coming back to town!

According to a report in the Press Telegram, Twenty-year-old Jean Carlos Cheryl was underway on his personal watercraft the morning of February 10th. He left Long Beach, California and was on his way to meet a friend on nearby Catalina Island, some 26 miles due south. When Cheryl failed to show up at the agreed meeting time, his friend notified authorities. Cheryl was last seen riding his red and white ski at 9:50 am.

The Coast Guard was notified at 10:40 am and dispatched two vessels and a helicopter to search for the missing man. LA County Lifeguards and other first responders were involved in the search as well. At 1:45pm, Cheryl’s watercraft was found 5 nautical miles away from the Long Beach Lighthouse. This news came from Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney.

Investigators from the Long Beach Fire Department have the craft under examination. So far no reports have come out as to whether the machine malfunctioned or if Cheryl suffered some kind of medical emergency. What is known is the treachery of the Pacific Ocean that threads between Catalina Island and Southern California’s coastline. Weather and water conditions can rapidly and unexpectantly change leaving an unprepared rider in dire circumstances.

Cheryl wasn’t located until almost 8pm. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted him about 8 nautical miles southeast of the Long Beach Lighthouse. LA County Fire Department Lifeguards reported his condition as critical. He was hoisted into the chopper and transported to the Long Beach Airport and then to Long Beach Memorial Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
This is a developing story and we will update you as we learn more.

Imagine for a second that you are a class-leading racer, racing your watercraft in a heat leading up to the national title race. You and the next best racer are battling it out. Coming around on the final lap you and he are head to head and as soon as you reach the last turn, he reaches over and yanks your safety lanyard instantly killing your watercraft. He breezes by and crosses the finish line ahead of you.

You look over and all the fans are jumping up and down screaming in dismay, the crooked act was caught on live television, and yet the sanctioning body officials do not know what the big deal is, the act is left unchallenged, and you just lost your chance at winning the national title race.

Okay so this story seems very far-fetched however if you were rooting for New Orleans leading up to this year’s Superbowl, then such a scenario is not too far from reality for you right now. If the sport of watercraft racing got as much national attention as the NFL, then rule change outcries would be heard from miles away.

All kidding aside though, every sport goes through technical and political changes and the rules must constantly be analyzed and changed if necessary. The IJSBA has already submitted recommendations for rule and policy changes in 2019.

The managing director has made a list of recommended changes and recently submitted them to the Board of Directors. All recommended changes can be seen below and if approved, could be in effect starting next year.

1. Recommendation that the Board of Directors pass a Ski Class rule change that formalizes the interpretation ruling that aftermarket hull and top deck configuration may be a maximum length of 97 inches from the furthest point of stern to the rear of the unit with an additional length of 5 inches, beyond the overall watercraft length, to be permitted for ride plate length and nozzle/venturi length. Under no circumstances will the combined hull/top deck and extension exceed 102 inches. The maximum engine displacement allowed will be: 1300cc if powered by a naturally aspirated two stroke engine; 1500cc if powered by a naturally aspirated four stroke engine and; 1100cc if powered by a four stroke engine that is equipped with any sort of forced induction.
2. Recommendation that the Board of Directors adopt the following policy for Runabout 1100 Open and Modified Classes: To utilize an aftermarket hull or top deck, a watercraft must be of one the following units: Sea-Doo Spark (any); Yamaha EX (any). All other units must utilize OEM hulls only. This ruling has no effect on existing 800cc based two stroke watercraft that are currently allowed aftermarket hulls.
3. Recommendation that the Board of Directors amend the Rec Lites category to allow the standard Yamaha EX but specifically exclude the Yamaha EXR.
4. Recommendation that the Board of Directors approve a policy that prohibits any type of Runabout seat or seat and accessory combination that allows the rider to lock into place while on the watercraft. Language to be developed that limits the degree of saddle characteristics to the seat. This policy will be in effect at the 2019 World Finals and must be adopted by all IJSBA Sanctioned Organizers by January 1, 2020.

In addition, the Board of Directors will be briefed on the following class changes at the 2019 World Finals:

1. Mod Lites to be integrated into the Womens Ski class. No change to be made to the Womens Ski Lites Class.
2. A Sportsman Classic Sport GP class to be tentatively added. Competitors may be allowed on an original Yamaha Waveblaster (also known as B1 Blaster) and original Kawasaki X2. The Sportsman designation will exclude Pro Licensed riders as well as riders who have earned World Championships or frequent podium finishes in the last three years. This will be a weekday class. Standard Sport GP to be moved to the weekend.
3. A tentative Classic Runabout 1000 class to be added. Two Stroke Runabouts up to 1000cc will be allowed.

 These will be the only changes and policies recommended to the Board. For any questions or comments regarding this press release, please email [email protected].

The sport of watercraft racing just got a lot more attention. The IJSBA has announced that for 2019, Powerboat Nationals events will be aired on the national cable channel Mav TV.

The IJSBA sanctioned event will be covered again this year by RMG Sports in its fourteenth season of coverage. This year however opens new possibilities. With Mav TV airing the coverage, it will bring viewership to millions of households across the United States and Canada.

Since the coverage will be available on DirecTV, Verizon Fios, and through many other cable providers, this will provide access like no other for all fans and enthusiasts.

For full details, you can check out the press release below.

RMG Sports has been working hard building on its success with Powerboat Nationals.

RMG Sports will return for its fourteenth season of covering powerboat racing and has put together one of the most robust production and distribution packages in the history of the sport.

In 2019, RMG Sports’ coverage of Powerboat Nationals racing will be seen in over seventy-three million households on nine television networks.

MAVTV, a cable channel dedicated to motorsports, will deliver Powerboat Nationals racing to nearly forty million households across the United States and Canada. MAVTV is available nationally on DirecTV, Verizon fios, and numerous cable TV providers.

RMG Sports has also negotiated deals that put Powerboat Nationals racing on multiple regional sports networks that include Fox Sports Southeast, Mid Atlantic Sports Net (MASN), and AT&T Sports Networks.

“We are proud to be part of the dynamic growth Powerboat Nationals has seen over the years,” said RMG president, Jarred Romesburg. “Our 2019 coverage will be seen in more households highlighting the racing teams, riders, and drivers while showcasing our host cities and promoting our sponsors like never before.”

RMG Sports is the sports production and distribution wing of Romesburg Media Group. Headquartered in Somerset, Pennsylvania, RMG is an award-winning, veteran-owned digital media production company. Learn more at www.rmgtv.us.

Powerboat Nationals is a national touring series that provides world-class tunnel hull powerboat and jet ski/PWC racing on rivers and lakes across North America. For more information, please visit www.powerboatnationals.com.

 Photo captions (photos courtesy of Powerboat Nationals):

ProTunnel1 (PT1) Series drivers Jeff Shepherd (38) and Lee Daniel (2) compete at a Powerboat Nationals race in 2019.

Powerboat Nationals’ Mikey Young and RMG Sports’ Jarred Romesburg interview ProTunnel1 boat driver Mark Jakob after a race in Marietta, Ohio.

There is quite a bit of planning that goes into a huge power sport tour series. The team of tour officials must heavily coordinate the activities and dates and work with state and local officials for securing event spots.

In some cases for whatever reason, the event dates must be revised. Such is the case with Powerboat Nationals who recently announced a few changes to their 2019 schedule and global championship date.

It seems that all changes were accommodated with relative ease in this case and now everyone is on the same page for the 2019 schedule. Also joining the fun for this season will be the new ProSpark and ProSport series. This should make for an exciting year.

For confirmation on all changes, check out the press release below: 

(Columbus, OH) Powerboat Nationals announced today that changes have been made to its 2019 schedule and season-ending Global Championship weekend in Naples, Florida.

The event at Sugden Regional Park, which was originally scheduled for later in October, has been moved up to Columbus Day weekend. Powerboat Nationals’ 2019 Global Championship at Florida’s Paradise Coast will now be held October 12–13, 2019.

In addition to the ProTunnel 1 and ProTunnel 2 series racing in Naples, Powerboat Nationals has added Hydro-Cross to the schedule. The ProSport (SportGP/Spec) and ProSpark (Runabout Rec Lite) series will be joining the fun and concluding their 2019 seasons on Lake Avalon.

Powerboat Nationals also made a change to the 2019 Hydro-Cross schedule moving their November 11-12 racing event in Tavares, Florida to earlier in 2019. The ProSport and ProSpark seasons will now start on April 6-7 in Tavares. This change allows for all four Powerboat Nationals racing series to conclude their 2019 schedule on Global Championship weekend in Naples.

“We thank everyone with Collier County and Florida’s Paradise Coast for their help with the schedule change,” said Powerboat Nationals Managing Director, Dan Bunting. “Everyone should be making plans now to join us at the season finale in Naples as this year’s Global Championship event at Sugden is going to be epic.

Complete, updated 2019 race schedules for the PT1, PT2 and HX series are available on Powerboat Nationals’ Facebook and Twitter pages.

Powerboat Nationals is a national touring series that provides world-class tunnel hull powerboat and jet ski/PWC racing on rivers and lakes across North America. Their racing will be seen on nine television networks in 2019 to include the national motorsports channel, MAVTV. For more information, please visit www.powerboatnationals.com.

Coming back for Spring 2019, Sea-Doo demo rides will be offered again. So what’s the catch? Well it’s not a national demo tour and it will only be offered on select dates, but other than that, there are no gimmicks.

If you remember from last year, we did a re-cap of the Sea-Doo demo rides offered through Lake Norman Powersports at Lake Norman in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina area. Well for 2019 they are back.

There will be two separate boat shows in April. The tentative dates will be April 6 at Peninsula Yacht Club followed by April 13 at King Point Marina on Lake Norman. Both shows will offer free demo rides on select new Sea-Doo models.

All demo rides are free and offered to the general public so anybody is welcome to come. For this year Lake Norman Powersports will be working with Sea-Doo in attempts to get factory demo models.

In past years, the demo units were strictly floor models, which were for sale so this sometimes limited the inventory that was available to ride. At the show you will also be able to check out and demo Scarab jet boats as well as other dealer models. Details are still being worked out so stay tuned for further information.

Slowly but surely The Pro Watercross has been announcing tour dates for the different series of events. Official tour dates are now posted and while there are still a few pending location announcements, the official event schedule has been released.

That’s right; get your skis ready and pencil in those dates because this year the National Tour will feature up to seven packed events throughout the country with numerous event locations in each tour category.

You can check out the full release and dates below. For all the latest information be sure to visit prowatercross.com.

Pro Watercross is proud to announce the official event schedule for the 2019 season.
2019 PRO WATERCROSS NATIONAL TOUR

• May 4-5, 2019-Pensacola Beach, FL
• May 11-12, 2019-TBA – Florida
• June 1-2, 2019- TBA
• June 8-9, 2019-TBA
• July 13-14, 2019-Racine, WI
• July 27-28, 2019-Lavonia, GA (Lake Hartwell)
• August 10-11, 2019-National Championship
• Oct 26 – Nov 3, 2019-World Championships-Naples, FL

The Pro Watercross National Tour will feature of up to seven jam-packed events starting in May through November, ending with its World Championships in Naples, Florida. “Pro Watercross has become the largest and most popular watercross series in the country and this season’s schedule will continue to bring growth to the sports, thanks to a great group of tour partners and host cities with fans all looking forward to our watercross race events,” said Jennifer Handler, CIO of Pro Watercross.

We apologize for the delay in the release of the tour dates; Pro Watercross is reorganizing its business strategies, this will enable us to better serve our athletes, sponsors, host cities and fans…

We look forward to a great year of racing and please join Pro Watercross at any of its Grass Roots Racing events or Recreational Tour events this season…

2019 TEXAS H20 RACING

• March 2-3, 2019-Lake Fairview, Orlando, Florida
• April 6-7, 2019-Lake Stuart, Stuart, Florida
• April 27-28, 2019-Orange, Texas
• June29-30, 2019-Marine Creek Lake, Fort Worth, Texas
• August 17-18, 2019-TBA
• December 7-8, 2019-TBA – Florida

2019 GREAT LAKES WATERCROSS

• Coming soon…

2019 NATIONAL RECREATION TOUR

• January 17-20, 2019- Daytona Freeride-Daytona Beach, Florida
• April 12-14, 2019-Wave Daze-Virginia Beach, Virginia
• May 18-19, 2019-Dunedin Invasion-Dunedin, Florida
• June 15, 2019-Operation JET-EX-TBD
• July 6, 2019-Strong Island Poker Run-Freeport, New York
• August 3, 2019- Broward MTS Rec Ride-Key Largo, Florida
• September 7. 2019-JetFest-Mayfield, New York

2019 WEST COAST RECREATIONAL RIDES TOUR

• March 9, 2019-Ironman Ride-Chula Vista, California
• April 12-13, 2019-Pirates Cove-Needles, California
• May 16-19, 2019-Down on the Delta-Brentwood, California
• September 14-22, 2019- Lake Powell to Rock Creek-Page, Arizona
• October 11, 2019-Ultimate Ride-Lake Havaus, Arizona

2019 MID-WEST RECREATIONAL EVENTS

• May 30-June 2, 2019-Jet Blast-Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
• August 10, 2019-Brave the Wave-Lake Orion, Michigan
• August 22-24, 2019-Twin City Jet Pilot Sortie-Lake City, Minnesota

2019 US OPEN TOUR | HYDROFLIGHT & SUPXROSS

• June 22-23, 2019-Erie, PA
• July – TBA
• Aug 31-September 1, 2019-National Championships-Washington, DC
• Oct 26 – Nov 3, 2019-World Championships-Naples, Florida

All of us here at The Watercraft Journal are pretty big fans of what Randy Cabrera and team at the Florida Ski Riders have been up to. The Florida-based riding group has managed to rise above the mayhem and build an organization that is inclusive to all types of riding. Best of all, they’ve shown incredible professionalism; building relationships with major companies like RIVA Racing, local powersports dealers and even major manufacturers. It’s something you typically don’t see with a PWC club.

For 2019, Cabrera and crew have launched a whole new “invasion tour” that will welcome riders from all over the state of Florida (it is a statewide organization, after all). These invasion rides tend to be pretty popular, so it’s wise to plan ahead, get the site early and be prepared for a huge party.

To help keep a bit of cohesiveness with its group rides, Florida Ski Riders also has a surprisingly vast array of riding apparel (much more than we do!). They’ll even customize a riding jersey so that it’ll carry your name and print in colors to best match your own personal watercraft! It’s pretty cool stuff.

They wrote recently, “Have you gotten your gear for the Invasions? Make sure you go to www.flskiriders.com and order your apparel. I’ve seen those looks when people see those awesome FL Ski Riders Shirts. Then they ask where can I get one of those? I know it happened to me. Well just go to the site and order it. www.flskiriders.com.”