We love following Dean Baynon and his family’s exploits, and the newest adventure is definitely one to enjoy. He and his wife board their Yamaha WaveRunner to explore Hen and Chicken’s Reef and Mar Bar Tavernier. Dean himself is a talented swimmer, diver and spear fisherman, and has regaled his YouTube audience with several instances of diving down through turquoise waters and sprawling coral to chase an elusive fish or bring home still-snapping lobster.
Dean is happiest spending some quality time with the wife and kids fishing and playing on Yamaha WaveRunners in the Florida Keys, and it truly shows. You’ll also want to pay attention to the incredibly thorough additions and modifications Dean has made to his FX Cruiser HO, including manual toggles for running lights, additional bilge pumps and more. It’s truly impressive to see in action. Again, while many of us are braving winter’s chill, Dean is showing us the good life free diving off of the Florida Keys.
So what happens the world’s most popular personal watercraft magazine launches a 100-percent free YouTube series that pairs its industry-leading reviews of the latest PWC models, as well as its stunning and exciting adventure rides? You get insightful, fun and entertaining information that not only equips you with the right knowledge to make a smart purchase, but also gets you excited to hit the water as soon as possible.
When The Watercraft Journal launched its YouTube channel, we did so under the title “Long Haul” as that was the name of our initial adventure ride – what is known now as Episode 1 of Long Haul. We continued in this pattern for two years, producing new and fresh episodes on a monthly, and soon bi-monthly basis. With just under 40 episodes, and well past a million and a quarter views, we were pretty dang happy.
Yet, there was one small problem. Folks who were searching YouTube for info on the newest personal watercraft were finding us, but with zero understanding that Long Haul was part of The Watercraft Journal! They had no clue we were a magazine offering far more information than what we could cram into a short video. Despite the hyperlinks, mentions in the video or otherwise, we couldn’t convey the message that Long Haul and The Watercraft Journal were one in the same. Something had to change quick.
So alas, the decision was made late last year: the “Long Haul” title had to go. Now, we want to introduce you to The Watercraft Journal. The show is pretty much the exact same thing as Long Haul, just under the magazine’s proper name. Well, sorta. For 2019 and beyond, you’re going to see a far higher quality of video with more descriptive graphics, data and pop-up captions. There’s a lot of information to be shared, and frankly we want to elevate our game.
Below is the official video introduction for the new The Watercraft Journal series. Enjoy!
The Pro Watercross tour has been making some serious announcements lately. According to the latest releases, Pro Watercross is in the midst of the most active expansion campaign for personal watercraft events.
To add to the growing list of events, they have just announced that Michigan Wave Makers will be joining Pro Watercross with its Brave The Wave event. The race and freestyle event which is held on Lake Orion in August, has seen a spike in interest in recent years and will now be joining the Pro Watercross family.
To read all about it, you can see the press release below:
Pro Watercross, in the midst of the most active expansion campaign for personal watercraft events has seen in several decades, announced this morning that Michigan Wave Maker’s has joined the Pro Watercross family with its Brave the Wave event held in August on Lake Orion in Michigan.
Ryan and Terri, co-owners of Michigan Wave Makers LLC, have brought a surge in interest and participation in competitive personal watercrafts in the Great Lakes region over the past two years with the popularity of the Brave the Wave race and freestyle competition.
“We are excited about Michigan Wave Makers joining with us in our mission to grow the sport and the PWC community in 2019,” said Pro Watercross CIO Jennifer Handler. “Ryan, along with his business partner Terri Nallamothu, will be bringing the annual Brave the Wave under the Pro Watercross banner in 2019, and we are proud to be a part of this great event.”
“We started Michigan Wave Makers LLC to help promote the jet ski sport in the state of Michigan,” Terri said. “Since we are the ‘Great Lakes state,’ we figured what better place to promote people using jet skis to enjoy their lake life a little more each year.”
Boasting not only a perfectly-situated venue and well-organized competition for freestylers and ski-class racers, but some of the largest prize money in the region, Brave the Wave continues to gain attention, and Ryan is expecting 2019 to be the largest turnout yet. The Third Annual Brave the Wave will take place on August 10, 2019 on beautiful Lake Orion in Michigan.
“One cannot stand alone to be great, but with community, greatness is unlimited,” Ryan said. “Brave the Waves will be teaming up with Pro Watercross, because we felt our event fits the professionalism and growth that Pro Watercross provides our industry! We will continue to carry the slalom courses and freestyle like we did in 2018, and we are adding a few more categories, which we will announce soon.”
Like many other PWC events throughout the country, Brave the Wave is about fun, adrenaline, and good-natured, but fierce competition, but it is also about family and community, and Michigan Wave Makers donates a portion of the proceeds from Brave the Wave each year – adding more than $1,600 in support to local charities since the event’s inception in 2017. In 2018, Brave the Wave supported the McLaren Oakland Foundation – an organization established in 2004 to ensure that everyone, regardless of age, race and financial status has access to state-of-the-art health care services. In 2019, the Brave the Wave official charities will be McLaren Charity and Rainbow Connection Children’s Cancer Wish List.
“With three classes of freestyle competition, including the Stock Hull 800 Class, and five slalom race classes, including a vintage class, open class and 4-stroke class, Brave the Wave has something for every stand-up rider and fan”, Ryan said.
As Pro Watercross continues to increase its promotion of the PWC lifestyle across a wider range of activities, and a larger region, the Brave the Wave event is a perfect addition to the Pro Watercross family, Handler said.
“Grassroots racing is the true backbone of racing and without it there would be no consistent support for any kind of racing,” she explained, saying that regional events are vital to the national Pro Watercross tour, and to the sport, as not only a low-barrier entry into the sport, but as a means of bringing the PWC lifestyle to the attention of a whole new sector of people that may not have known of the sport before – and especially bringing the next generation of racers into the sport.
For more information about the 2019 Brave The Wave competition, and to register, visit www.facebook.com/MichiganWavemakers and www.MichiganWavemakers.com, and keep up with all the Pro Watercross news at ProWatercross.com, or by clicking any of our social media links.
Listen, there’s this new sport that combines the speed and excitement of a PWC, and the age-old profession of fishing, it’s called PWC Fishing, and if you don’t already, your gonna love it. Chances are you have run across somebody that has embraced this new sport or seen a picture of that guy out thirty miles rolling in the chop fishing tuna. Well get ready to experience the best of both combined worlds, peanut butter and chocolate, baby.
There are so many up sides to PWC fishing it’s hard to know where to start, and over the next few months we’ll tackle each and every topic to get you, as a rider, in the fisherman’s seat. Be careful though, once you bring in the first 15lb salmon jumping 5 feet from your toes, a 65-pound sturgeon tugging for the bottom like a mad man, or that 250lb Goliath pulling your PWC around the bay, you’re going to be hooked on the sport. There’s nothing like the excitement of a rod going off inches from your finger tips and the fight is on, then landing that prize right at your toes. You are immersed in the action, the adrenaline and dopamine release is addictive.
Let’s just touch on a few advantages for those of you not convinced that fishing from a PWC doesn’t have a world of advantages over fishing from a boat. I’ll be preaching to the choir for most of you, but let’s start off on the right foot. How about the fuel bill for a day on the water. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, when I was a proud boat owner, it would cost a minimum of one hundred dollars in fuel bills, and that was for a quiet, reasonable day on the water, it just went up from there. I’ve spent upwards of two hundred dollars water skiing for the day, which would be close to three hundred at these fuel prices today.
I was fishing out of Marathon, Florida last year, and a gentleman came up to me asking about my rig, I get that constantly 24/7, he asked me about my fuel bill and what I was fishing for, he pointed to his boat with the twin 250’s on it. I told him I was out 15 miles where the green meets the blue, trolled and jigged some humps for the day and I just filled up for twenty five dollars of premium, his jaw dropped, he said, and this is a quote, that he can spend up to seven hundred filling his boat up after a full day on the water. We’ll touch on more advantages in the next series of articles, but I bet you can name a few already, send me an email if you have some ideas, we’ll get them written up for our readers.
To tell the story of PWC fishing, you need to start from the beginning so we can move onto the future. Back in the early 2000’s, there were a few fishermen that owned PWC’s that had such a love for both sports that combining them was a natural progression. These hot spots were mostly concentrated to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and North America. I personally caught the bug over ten years ago while I was on business in Miami, Florida. While down there I decided I needed a vacation, so I bought a used 2007 Yamaha FX HO with 20 hours on it. From Miami I headed down to the Keys, as I had never been, and my curiosity was killing me.
After being on the water for only a few days, my love of fishing started to creep in, so I headed to West Marine in Marathon and picked up some fishing gear. Within the first few minutes I realized that a factory PWC was not the best laid out craft for fishing from. Stowing away gear, which was the first problem that needed to be crossed. No problem, that engineering degree kicked in and I soon had a series of brackets and bags developed, we’ll start to get into gear in our next article, but what I did realize is that these obstacles are not insurmountable.
I was sold on PWC fishing within the first day of being on the water, I couldn’t believe I was the first guy to ever think of this, turned out, I wasn’t. Trolling, which is my favorite part of the sport, was definitely out, as there wasn’t any way to hold the pole and control the craft, we later fixed that with the Maverick bracket system and addressed the storage with the Maverick bags. Those first few days were a real education of which I was regulated to jigging and casting, still productive, still a bunch of fun. Florida is such a fantastic place to fish, I could free dive off the machine and literally go down to the reef to see if I was in a good spot for jig fishing, the water was that clear and warm.
One thing I’d like to mention is that when you’re in the Keys and you’re on a PWC that’s dead in the water as your happily jigging away, every law enforcement boat, search and rescue, military and government vessel on the water will come over to see that everything’s alright, they are just not familiar with seeing a PWC sitting still in the water. Some of the looks I get these days, when they see my fishing rig now and how far this thing of ours has come, is downright hilarious, they just can’t believe what they are seeing.
PWC fishing has come a long way from those old days when four strokes and stable hulls were making their first debut, with a multitude of gear suppliers to get you on the water quickly and easily, this unique experience is but credit card swipe away. We’ll touch on all the methods to get you on the water fishing, so stay tuned for future articles. We’ll cover all the set ups from coolers to bags, GPS, fish finders, tackle suppliers, you name it, if you need it for PWC fishing, we’ll address it. I want to officially welcome you to the world of PWC fishing here on The Watercraft Journal, soon to be your number one hot spot for PWC fishing, tight lines my friend.
Brand new from the RIVA Racing family is the Generation 3 Power Cooler Kit for your Yamaha SHO/SVHO powered Waverunners.
This redesigned intercooler packs an extreme performance upgrade compared to the stock unit and squeezes even more power when compared to the previous Gen 2 Riva Power Cooler. Rated for up to 600 horsepower, this is the ultimate intercooler.
New for the Gen 3 design is an even more efficient core which provides a standard twenty horsepower increase over the OEM intercooler. The new kit also features an integrated mounting bracket as opposed to a separate bracket on the old design.
Unlike the old kit, the Gen 3 kit now includes a TiAl Blow-Off Valve which improves reliability of your supercharger. Of course all hoses, hardware, and quick flush system is included in the kit as well.
If you’re looking to reliably increase the performance of your supercharged Yamaha WaveRunner, this easy-to-install Power Cooler Kit is a good option and gives a relatively large power boost for the price.
So head on over to rivaracing.com to pick up yours today and as always take advantage of free shipping on this order. Be sure to check out the video for all of the details.
Are you wanting to see and meet some of the leading racers in the industry and see some of the up and coming racers? If so, mark your calendars for February 8, 2019 and be in Orlando, Florida as Powerboat Nationals will be holding its 2018 awards presentation. The presentation awards ceremony will be crowning the winners of each of the three Powerboat Nationals series it held in 2018.
Lee Daniel for the second time out of the last three seasons will be crowned for the Powerboat Nationals’ ProTunnel1 Series (formerly known as Formula 2). Residing from North Augusta, South Carolina, he was able to beat out rival Mark Jakob at the North American Championship in Wisconsin. In Powerboat Nationals ProTunnel2 Series (formerly known as Formula 4), Atlanta, Georgia’s Jason Nelson was able to pave his way to a commanding lead after securing the first three races at number 1. After that, Nelson never let off the throttle and proved he was the champion.
2018 was a big year for the Powerboat Nationals as they offered jet ski racing with its Hydro-Cross series. In the ProSport Series (formerly known as SportGP), Dawsonville, Georgia’s own Kyle Hayes was able to finish first. He had been battling with veteran-rider Brian O’Rourke through the whole series but O’Rourke was unable to secure the win.
Below is a list of everyone being honored at the Power Nationals 2018 Awards Ceremony taken from Romesburg Media Group LLC:
Powerboat Nationals Sportsman of the Year – Jake Alkema
ProTunnel 1 Series Champion – Lee Daniel
ProTunnel 1 Rookie of the Year – Rick Young
ProTunnel 1 Best Dressed – Jim Kerr, Team Racecraft
ProTunnel 2 Series Champion – Jason Nelson
ProTunnel 2 Rookie of the Year – Jake Alkema
ProTunnel 2 Best Dressed – Jake Alkema, Team Racecraft
HX ProSport Series Champion – Kyle Hayes
HX ProSport Best Dressed – Brian O’Rourke, Team Faith
Powerboat Nationals Best Looking Watercraft – Jason Nelson, Screaming Eagle/Wyatt Nelson Architect Racing
The most hardware decorated athlete for 2018 is rookie Jake Alkema riding for Team Racecraft’s. He earned PT2 Rookie of the Year, Best Dressed Team for PT2, and selected by his fellow competitors, 2018 Powerboat Nationals Sportsman of the Year.
The ProTunnel 1 Series will kick off in Knoxville, Tennessee with the ProTunnel 2 Series will be held in Parker, Arizona and Hydro-Cross will start in Tavares, Florida.
Claiming the title as “the world’s largest Yamaha dealer” of both WaveRunners and Jet Boats, Clearwater, Florida’s own Cycle Springs Powersports is truly making waves. In addition to Yamahas, Cycle Springs is also an authorized dealer for Kawasaki and Sea-Doo, as well as Suzuki, Polaris – meaning they also move plenty of motorcycles, ATV’s, Side-by-Sides and Slingshots. Additionally, Cycle Springs is the nation’s only powersports dealership with a LifeTime Engine Warranty and Money Guarantee on extended warranties.
Because of the massive volume of watercraft and vehicles pumping out of Cycle Springs Powersports, the dealership saw fit to begin expanding – and at a rapid rate. A satellite service center was one of the first expansions, and now Cycle Springs is proud to announce its new north showroom. Providing all the service capabilities and informed staff as the main showroom, the north showroom is to help provide a better, more personable shopping experience, and shares the same 29703 US Highway 19 N address, so you can’t miss it.
There’s a lot of cool things happening at Cycle Springs and The Watercraft Journal will have articles highlighting their growth and expansion in the coming weeks and months; 2019 is going to be a big year. So buckle up, buttercup.
The 2018 race season was undoubtedly exciting for the P1 marine motorsport brand. Between the sanctioned events of P1 AquaX, JetCross, and Powerboat Superstock, the organization had a successful year.
Well for the 2019 race season, P1 has announced the biggest-ever race calendar. Between April and November, P1 is unveiling more than twenty international events that will take place on three continents.
For more details, you can read the press release below or check out the full calendar here. As always, stay tuned for the latest details:
The world’s leading marine motorsport brand has unveiled an extensive 2019 race programme that will see the international promoter stage more than 20 events on three continents from April through to November.
The season will comprise powerboat championships in the United States and personal watercraft racing in the shape of P1 AquaX action and the Jetcross stand-up ski series in a total of nine countries.
Announcing the calendar at P1’s race headquarters in Florida, P1 chief executive Azam Rangoonwala said: “Since we began racing in 2003, we have staged more than 600 races in 18 countries and, without doubt, the coming season is going to be the most challenging, competitive and entertaining. Our aim has been to put together an expanded programme of powerboat action, featuring one-design and multi-hull offshore racing, and personal watercraft racing across our two disciplines.”
A significant development this year for P1 is a new partnership in the United States with the Offshore Powerboat Association to create the APBA Offshore Championship. The aim is to strengthen the future of racing in the country by delivering an expanded, cohesive, world class race series split equally between northern and southern states. The six championship venues feature major, high profile events in Florida, Missouri and Michigan, with the action kicking off at ‘Thunder on Cocoa Beach’ in May, and the belief is that the partnership will deliver significant results commercially and also in terms of the sport’s organisation and profile.
This year the P1 Panther race boats in the SuperStock USA national championship are going to look very different. Following the P1 fleet being fitted with new carbon hulls a year ago and the announcement last June that the boats will be repowering in 2019 with the new Mercury Racing 4.6L V-8 four-stroke 300R outboard, P1 announced plans to revolutionise the one-design series and attract a new set of racers by converting the Panther to a canopy race boat. That upgrade programme is in full swing, with on-water testing in Florida commencing later this month.
The SuperStock series will run from May to September, with racing on East Lake Tohopekaliga in Central Florida getting the season underway before the action moves to Cocoa Beach a week later. In early July the teams will head to southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast where the 35th Annual Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix Festival will once again attract tens of thousands of spectators to enjoy the outstanding racing and carnival atmosphere.
In some American venues this year, P1 will serve up a double bill of powerboat and personal watercraft AquaX racing. Global Head of P1 AquaX, Lisa Barsby explained: “In the eight years since its launch, AquaX has grown significantly and achieved its goal of staging a world championship event in 2017. Discussions are taking place to stage another world championship in November and we will be announcing details within the next few weeks.
“It’s been a natural progression from the opening race season in the UK in 2011 to the series expanding to the USA two years later and then into mainland Europe in 2017. The rapidly increasing number of riders, partners and fans has been tremendous and our close relationship with the leading manufacturers has added considerably to the legitimacy of our series. We attract world class riders to all our championships in the USA, Europe and UK, and we are expecting a great response from riders to the season opener in Daytona Beach in mid-April and to the first round of the EuroTour in La Seyne-sur-Mer in south-eastern France in early May.”
The 14-event AquaX calendar includes four race weekends as part of the EuroTour, with the riders competing in countries across Western Europe including France and Spain. The Sprint series will feature at several events in Florida and Europe. Feeding riders into the EuroTour, the UK race series will consist of three rounds, with Colwyn Bay in North Wales hosting an AquaX event for the first time.
Continuing to reinforce P1’s growing personal watercraft presence in Europe, the Jetcross series features stand-up circuit racing on rivers, lakes and the sea. The French-based personal watercraft promoter joined the P1 family of marine racing brands in July 2016 in a move that was a significant statement of P1’s commitment and expansion plans for personal watercraft racing.
P1’s European Head of AquaX and Jetcross racing, Julien Bastien comments: “We enjoyed significant growth in the number of Jetcross riders last year and expect this to continue. We are delighted to be returning to La Seyne-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast for our season opener and later in May we will head north to race in Basse-Ham on the river Moselle. The calendar will also include race events in central France and Belgium.”
“Building the reach and credibility of our race series and growing the marine motorsport sector are priorities for P1” added Rangoonwala. “Partnerships are at the heart of our business, and our events are designed to excite and entertain, ensuring spectator enjoyment and sponsor value with a significant impact for the local economy.”
“We’ve had [a 2019 Yamaha FX SVHO] in the hands of our development team – Bruce Clarkson, Mark Nystrom and Jesus Garcia – for a while now,” RIVA Racing’s Dave Bamdas prefaced. “Getting performance out of the SVHO (Super Vortex High Output Yamaha Marine 1,812cc Marine Engine) was easy with our Maptuner X software, but getting the speed and more importantly, the handling right took some doing.”
Bamdas was careful not to echo some sentiments swirling around the performance tuning threads online. Doubters and naysayers blithely crow that the new Yamaha FX platform is slow, some going so far as to call it a step backwards. “Not so,” Bamdas defended vigorously. “But to get the ski to stay consistent at higher speeds took quite a bit of testing and development to get right.”
In the past two years, aftermarket performance enthusiasts have become spoiled by the immediacy of 80-plus-mph speeds provided by the Yamaha GP1800 – and now GP1800R – with solely a couple of modifications. “We were hitting 78 miles-per-hour with pretty much just an ECU reflash,” Bamdas recounted. “It didn’t take much at all. And we hadn’t even touched handling components. [The GP] didn’t need it.”
The new full-sized, 3-seater FX though, proved not as responsive as its smaller sibling. From the showroom floor, both craft clocked reasonably identical (sustained) top speeds: a fraction over 68mph. Although the new FX borrows heavily from the GP’s successful hull design – particularly below the splash-deflecting chine – the added 50-pounds (769 vs. 818-pounds) and length (131.9 vs. 140.9-inches) does increase the FX’s running surface, and thereby surface tension (ie. drag), considerably.
“We had to get the nose up,” Bamdas explained. “In its stock configuration, the ride plate works great. But once we got up into the mid-70’s, we knew changes needed to be made.” Reshaping the ride plate began with an extended planing surface, altering the attitude of the FX. This raised the nose from plowing, and placed a greater emphasis on the center and rear of the hull, and consequently, decreased purposing in rougher conditions.
Additionally, deep concave channels improved the hydrodynamics of the ride plate, giving the FX superior traction in lean-in cornering. In all, developing the RIVA Yamaha 2019+ FX Performance Ride Plate (PT# RY21120) became one of the single-most important steps to unlocking the FX’s hidden potential. “It not only opened up an extra 5mph, but was a quantum leap in top speed handling,” Bamdas concluded. “It’s allowed us to take the FX to a whole new level.”
That “new level” is RIVA Racing’s Stage 1 Plus Kit. The yet-to-be-officially-priced package delivers a massive performance gain, both break-neck acceleration and race-winning handling – all with a top speed increase of 12mph. And all with half a dozen simple bolt-on parts and RIVA’s MaptunerX Yamaha 2018+ 1.8L Bundle(PT# RY110SC-B-1) ECU reprogrammer. No cutting or permanent changes are needed (meaning you can reverse the changes back to stock at anytime).
Beneath the seat, a Maptuner X reprograms the factory ECU (Engine Control Unit) for instant horsepower. RIVA’s team labored to write the air-fuel curves to perfectly match the performance kit. The reflash itself is responsible for an incredible 9mph top speed gain – and all done with easy-to-use and easier-to-follow prompts on a full color, touch screen display.
Owning a Maptuner X also includes full access to RIVA’s World Famous Tuning Library and RIVA’s unmatched technical support. Users can switch between different performance tunes quickly and easily, download new tunes from RIVA, and even restore their ski’s stock tune settings if going in for scheduled service or warranty work.
With the engine’s ECU unrestricted, the rest of the engine is opened up via a RIVA Yamaha FX SVHO 2019+ Power Filter Kit (PT# RY13120) accessing greater air flow for added throttle response and top speed; and RIVA’s Engine Breather Upgrade Kit, 2012-19 Yamaha 1.8L (PT# RY19040-12-EBUK), which according to RIVA, “eliminates power-robbing crankcase emissions from your engine’s air intake. Increases horsepower by removing the engine’s requirement to burn relatively non-combustible oil.”
While not available just yet, RIVA expects to have its adjustable Yamaha 2019+ FX SVHO Pro Series Sponsons (PT# RY26120) in the coming months. These, like the Pro Series Sponsons for the GP series Yamahas, took a while to perfect, and RIVA’s team is whittling away to shape the blades and backing plates to optimize the FX platform as best as possible.
Lastly, RIVA worked closely with Solas to create a Yamaha 160mm Concord 13/18 Impeller (PT# YV-CD-13/18) that incorporates “a large blade area and superior hub design that delivers increased acceleration.” In total, the Stage 1 Plus kit promises a sustained 80mph at 8,300rpm all while radically improving handling and cornering, as well as straight line stability in a variety of water conditions.
While these performance numbers were stellar, RIVA wanted to confirm its findings and sought out a second opinion. Reaching out to RIVA Racing-supported National and World Champion Brian Baldwin, Bamdas flew the no-holds-barred racer from his home in North Carolina to RIVA’s test lake in Pompano Beach, Florida. There, Baldwin was given one challenge: “Break it.”
“A few weeks ago, before he got the handling down,” Baldwin told The Watercraft Journal, “Jesus got [the FX] to 80 and said ‘I’m not riding that thing again ’till we figure something out.’ At those speeds, the FX plowed the nose really bad and felt like it would spin out with the flick of the bars.” After riding the Stage 1 Plus-equipped Yamaha several hours, Baldwin beamed, “They nailed it. It’s absolutely perfect. It feels like a GP.”
Baldwin spent the morning thrashing the modified FX SVHO around the lake, pushing the Yamaha harder and harder. Coming in to the dock, Baldwin let out his signature “WHOO!” as he peeled off his helmet. “It’s amazing. What a difference!” But his day wasn’t over yet. “We took it out to the ocean that afternoon,” Baldwin revealed. “It’s really good. Jesus and I went out in the afternoon when it was rough. It beat the pants off of the tuned Sea-Doo RXT-X 300 we brought. I can’t wait to take this out on the race course.”
As noted, RIVA Racing’s Stage 1 Plus Kit isn’t quite ready yet, and availability will be announced in the coming months. Meanwhile, others are rushing to social media to post top speeds, but few (if any) are showing how they’ve tackled managing the FX’s handling at such speeds. “That’s dangerous stuff,” Bamdas cautioned. “Speed is easy nowadays. But it takes lot of homework to make sure you’re safe at those speeds. That’s why RIVA Racing doesn’t play around. It’s either right or not at all.”
[Editor’s Note – the video below is taken from this same day, with Brian Baldwin putting the Stage 1 Plus-equipped 2019 Yamaha FX SVHO WaveRunner through the paces. While RIVA officially advertises the Stage 1 Plus kit as a “sustained” 80mph package, you’ll notice that in ideal conditions, the GPS records a steady 83mph (with the wind) with it tickling 84mph on three different occasions. If peak top speed numbers are what keep you up at night, an 84 miler per hour FX SVHO is now available. – Ed.]
If you’ve ever had the desire to emulate Mark Gomez, Australia is not the place. Tom Aiken lost his jet ski license after a video of him went viral. The Daily Telegraph reported that the clip showed Aiken riding a vintage 1995 Yamaha Wave Raider out of a river and into a parking lot in Sydney.
Aiken, who rides professionally is also an apprentice marine mechanic. He was riding a Yamaha in the Port Hacking River in Grays Point and decided to ride up a boat ramp and pulled off a high speed skid into the parking lot.
After the police saw the video of Aiken’s wild ride, they began an investigation into the incident.
Aiken turned himself in and told officers,“I’m not going to deny it was me.” I didn’t know it was being filmed and I didn’t know it had been posted on social media until I woke up the next day.”
Sutherland Court magistrate Jayeann Carney convicted him of recklessly operating a jet ski, driving an unregistered craft, and driving without a license. Unfortunately for Aiken, his license expired a week prior to the event. A license is required to operate a PWC in Australian waters.
Aiken was fined $1,950 and lost his PWC license for three months as another consequence of his actions.
Aiken believes he was doing about 20 miles an hour when he hit the concrete lot. He rode about a 150 feet before the ski came to a stop and he said he didn’t mean to slide into the parking lot.
We’re sure this isn’t the welcome home Tom Aiken hoped for. He had a good run in Thailand, placing fourth in his class. As a result of his suspension, he will miss Variety Australia‘s Jet Trek fundraising ride for charity.
The Pro Watercross tour has been making some 
