For 2019, Jet Jam has not only dramatically increased its season of tour stops, including an awesome 3 stops in Lake Havasu City, AZ (two at the Nautical Beachfront Resort – y’know, where the World Finals used to be held; and a third at Rotary Beach); a special Sacramento River event; and even a return to Sparks, Nevada but a big jump East as well!
That’s right! Jet Jam is going surf racing at two stops in Florida – the first of which being in mid-July in Daytona Beach, FL. (The second stop hasn’t been formally announced yet, but promises to be equally exciting with plenty of in-the-surf racing!
To close up the Tour, Jet Jam will return back to California with a stop in Lathrop before a final “Season Finale” race weekend in Bakersfield, CA. This coming Hydro-Turf Jet Jam Racing Tour promises to be an exciting and The Watercraft Journal promises to bring you race recaps and full coverage from each stop as we did in 2018, so stay tuned!
First, it is paramount that you understand that this is not Bombardier Recreational Products that we’re talking about. The manufacturer of Sea-Doo, Can-Am, Ski-Doo and Evinrude was separated from this division of Bombardier back in 2011. Rather, Bombardier Inc announced last Thursday that it ” is in the middle of a five-year restructuring program aimed at growing revenue and profit,” which has included the sale of its majority stake in its money-losing CSeries jet to Europe’s Airbus.
This refocusing of the Canadian plane and train maker’s efforts towards its “core transportation and business jet units,” caused quite a stir with shareholders, accounting for a 14 percent drop to $2.74 Thursday morning. The sale of Bombardier’s turboprop program to a subsidiary of Longview Aviation Capital and its business aircraft flight and training activities to CAE Inc. resulted in a gain of $900 million and 5,000 jobs cut.
In a report by Financial Post, “Under Chief Executive Officer Alain Bellemare, the company cut thousands of jobs in 2016, although it has also hired workers for key programs like its Global 7500 business jet. […] Bellemare is working towards reducing Bombardier’s net long-term debt of $9 billion.”
Additionally, Bombardier also announced sweeping changes to its business operations, including “redeploying its central aerospace engineering team and setting up a new team that will be tasked with applying learnings from its aerospace programs to its rail transportation business,” the company said. These changes will save Bombardier about $250 million all aimed at “optimizing production and management processes, flattening management structures and further reducing indirect costs,” the report said.
So again, this news has zero effect on Bombardier Recreational Products, the manufacturers of Sea-Doo.
The sparse late summer breeze rippling the azure blue water inside of the Jupiter Inlet masked what lay just outside of its mouth. The four of us had set in at the Burt Reynolds boat launch on Jupiter Island Park less than an hour before; myself, Sea-Doo’s Tim McKercher, Greenhulk.net‘s Jerry Gaddis, and Micah Simoneaux of Florida Sport Fishing. Admittedly, I had the least amount of experience fishing, but I was plenty comfortable behind the bars of a PWC. Prior to launching, Tim had given us a crash course on the myriad of new features and accessories now standard on Sea-Doo’s industry-shaking unit, the 2019 Sea-Doo Fish Pro. Between toggling through the dozens of navigational and tracking pages, Tim glanced at his watch, cut his briefing short, and ordered us into the water.
Idling just out beyond where A1A and US Hwy 1 fork in twain, I fell into formation beside Tim who was directing me to follow in the wake of an exiting center-console fishing boat. Over the din of our Fish Pro’s naturally-aspirated 1,494cc 3-clyinder four-strokes and the rising howl of the wind whipping over the Atlantic, Tim leaned in and cautioned, “It’s gonna be pretty rough.” Almost as if on cue, the swell I was riding bottomed out, plummeting the bow of my elongated 12’3″-foot long Sea-Doo into a dive. Instinctively, I shot to my feet as the ski descended. As quickly as the swell hollowed, my horizon was filled with an oncoming wave.
Operating on adrenaline, I viced the heavily laden Fish Pro’s throttle in an attempt to crest the wave. No luck. The runabout was instantly swamped, the briny onslaught washing over the bow, engulfing the gauge cluster, handlebars and bursting into salty foam on my chest and arms. My shoulders and head jutting – for a fraction of a second – out of the sea like the bowsprit of an ancient ship rising from its watery grave. And then the Fish Pro erupted upward and returned to plane as if nothing had never happened. Releasing the throttle I quickly whipped around to take tally of my machine, its 856-pounds burdened with what I estimated to be an additional 380-pounds of fishing rods, tools, ice, bait, 18.5-gallons of fuel, and of course, me. Everything, gratefully, was still accounted for.
The massive 13-and-a-half gallon LinQ Fishing Cooler occupied the swim platform behind the two-piece bench seat, attached via a pair of standard LinQ mounts that, when removed, could collapse flat into the deck. The cooler – unique to the Fish Pro, although available through BRP’s Accessories Department – touts some serious ingenuity; two threaded drain plugs are located at the rear corners complete with braided stainless tethers, which, I surmised, when removed could function as in and out ports for converting the tank into a live bait well; at the front, a rubberized cargo net is a great place to store a small tackle box, pliers or other tools.
Surrounding the outside of the cooler at the rear of the Sea-Doo Fish Pro are two rows of multi-point mounting brackets, allowing for a variety of rod holder configurations, in which the Fish Pro comes with four as standard equipment. The rod holders are notched to receive a rod’s reel, but we found clipping a carabiner tied to the tank served us better in the 4-to-6 foot turbulence we were riding in. Lastly, a recessed, hardened work pad serves as a cutting board when preparing bait or filleting your latest catch. Comparable to the high dollar coolers popular with outdoorsmen today, the LinQ Fishing Cooler is just but one of the features standard on the Fish Pro.
The skies had darkened above quickly and rain quickly whipped our faces. Sea-Doo had equipped us with UV-shielding gaiters and wide-brimmed flop hats. Looking ahead, Tim had already donned his. Traveling a short distance further, he came to an idle, waiting for me to pull aside. “Where’s everybody else?” he barked. I shrugged, looking back towards the inlet. The surging waves obscured Jerry and Micah from view. “Should we go back?” Tim queried. I replied that I was happy to continue out if he was certain that conditions would improve. He confirmed that yes, they would. The two other White-and-Night Green Sea-Doo Fish Pro craft came into view, and Tim throttled back up, heading further east into the Atlantic.
True to his word, the skies parted almost providentially, and the seas began to ease to a somewhat milder 2-to-3 foot cross-hatching chop. Looking a bit weary, the others scattered, quickly firing up their Garmin ECHOMAP Plus 62cv Fish Finders, their full-color 6-inch screens instantly communicating to each Fish Pro’s in-hull transducer. The Garmin units are mounted via an arm extending out of the right-hand rear view mirror pod, tucking the weatherproof wiring harness out of sight. The Garmin unit is directly comparable to the top-of-the-line navigation units found on vessels double the Fish Pro’s starting MSRP of $14,799.
Pages of charts, depth and seafloor mapping are at the ready in full-color display. The Garmin even comes equipped with a fish-finding system using CHIRP technology producing high definition images to view live as it happens below the ST3 hull. Speaking of the ST3, I finally came to understand the method behind the hull’s madness. Last year, when first introduced, the peculiar shaping of the outermost chines perplexed me. If observed out of the water, you’ll see a literal shelf running the outside length of the hull; a flat running surface breaking in to a hard, near 90-degree angle. For a race-bred watercraft, it was almost antithetical. But now, seeing what BRP had coming for 2019, the surface-tension-producing lip made perfect sense.
Even as I rocked to-and-fro on the rolling surf, the Sea-Doo Fish Pro was never uneasy. Whether sliding back and forth along the flat padded seat, swinging my weight from one side of the Sea-Doo or the other, the Fish Pro was resounding stable. In fact, I chose to stand much of the time I wasn’t either taking pictures or video, or idling aimlessly with the Trolling Mode engaged. Amid the many new features and add-ons, a smart bit of programming slipped into the Sea-Doo’s iTC (Intelligent Throttle Control) was the program permitting fishermen to toggle through low speed presets. Incrementally increasing speeds from 2mph to 9mph, Trolling Mode allows the angler to cast his lines and quietly idle wherever his Garmin fish finder directs.
A couple of hours into our outing, Tim and I gravitated to a slightly shallower spot – about 100-feet deep – and switched from trolling ballyhoo to bobbing squid off of the floor. My bait hardly touched the silt before a bite starting unspooling my reel. I swung my feet around, up against the angled, padded foot wedges hard-mounted to the gunwales, and began pulling my catch in. It was a silver-flecked, muddy brown cobia – I couldn’t guess more than 8-pounds. Tim idled over, withdrew his Leatherman tool from his pocket, unhooked the fish and handed over to me to hold. A snapshot later and I set the bottom feeder free. I had done what I had set out to do: catch a fish from a Sea-Doo Fish Pro.
Although not standard equipment, I was lucky enough to be riding a Sea-Doo Fish Pro furnished with the BRP Premium Audio system and the Ergolock knee pads, both of which are available as add-ons when ordering a Fish Pro or as items your Sea-Doo dealer can install prior to purchase. Normally a relentless user of the sound system, I was far too distracted by my Garmin fish finder, toggling through Trolling Mode settings, and just keeping my lines from getting tangled to use it. Yet, were I out just to enjoy a ride, you can bet I’d be blaring some tunes. Two last bits of standard equipment though, are worth mentioning:
First, the deck extension adds an impressive 11.5-inches to the overall length, as well as a second set of LinQ attachment brackets. In our Long Haul video, I suggested carrying a second, smaller cooler for drinks and snacks because, as I had experienced today, my sandwich and bottled water all reeked of bait. Better to keep those separated. Of course, any LinQ accessory can be used; a dry bag, hard case storage or the fuel caddy – although the new standard 18.5-gallon fuel cell shines as a stellar improvement for the Sea-Doo. Without the supercharger, the 1504 Rotax moderately sipped at our fuel supply all day, barely consuming a third of our reserve.
2019 Sea-Doo Fish Pro Review | Long Haul, Ep. 35
With only 155-horsepower on tap, and the conditions being as punishing as they were, I never saw the craft breech higher than 52mph. That of course, doesn’t mean it can’t, but it’d definitely require losing much of the load it was carrying today. In the video I continually refer to the deck extension as a “hull extension”; this is only partially true, as the piece itself has very little wetted running surface. Yes, it helps in the attitude of the craft, particularly when trimmed high up while traversing brutal open seas like we did, but not enough to tout it as a true “hull extension.” Nevertheless, the craft behaves in many ways, world apart from the raucous supercharged 2018 RXT-X 300 on loan to The Watercraft Journal, and the extension is a main contributor to that.
To that end, the 2019 Sea-Doo Fish Pro is exactly, if not completely more so, what I had envisioned for a factory-equipped fishing runabout. The craft’s overall balance, voluminous footwells, and ease of use and access of all notable storage and notable features is inspired. The dual-purpose LinQ Fishing Cooler is genius; the partnership with Garmin is equally brilliant. As I write this, the first examples of the Sea-Doo Fish Pro have not only reached the markets in the Southern Hemisphere, but have already been sold, and put to use. While the core PWC enthusiast market (particularly here in the States) have been slow to adopt the sport of watercraft fishing, I am certain when presented to hardcore sport fishing enthusiasts, will be revolutionary.
The grounds of Sugden Regional Park in Naples, Florida erupted with traffic almost overnight. The normally placid shores of the shorelined park buzzed with moving trucks, crews erecting scaffolding, bleachers and marking off the buoy course. The annual Pro Watercross World Championships had returned. Although the jet ski racing would officially begin November 1st and last until the afternoon of Sunday, the 4th, the event began over a week earlier (October 26-28th) with the Hydroflight freestyle championships.
Spectators and film crews were wowed with flips, spins, dives, and more aerial acrobatics in fine fashion. Meanwhile, between October 27th and October 31st, the Pro Watercross event hosted the SUPcross, Hydro Expo and MotoSurf World Cup, welcoming standup paddle board athletes and jet-powered surfboard races, which has exponentially grown in both participation and public appeal in recent years. Albeit exciting in its own right, all of this was preamble for the main event.
Hundreds of racers flanked by their respective crews and families poured in, the parking lots and grounds filling with multi-colored rigs and vibrantly-wrapped enclosed trailers. In addition to its own live feed broadcasting, camera crews from local newspapers and television stations began staking out desirable locations from which to film from. For Sunday’s “Pro Show,” CBS Sports Network rolled in, setting up $100,000 high definition cameras from which to broadcast with. The energy was palpable.
The singular thrum of energy circled around local hero Erminio Iantosca, a hometown Sea-Doo X-Team racer, who several months after losing his father, was competing for glory in the Runabout GP and Pro Stock classes. Iantosca started the weekend with a large target painted on his back, as he was the returning GP champion, having won it the year before. With six world championships under his belt, Iantosca was no stranger to pressure. Aboard a stealth-black Sea-Doo RXP-X, Iantosca beat back the limited field of contenders earning his second consecutive championship in the top tier class.
Sunday’s Pro Runabout Stock class would prove much more difficult. Facing off against 2017’s World Champion, Brian Baldwin and former Naples resident Chris MacCluggage, both riding carefully-honed Yamaha GP1800’s, Iantosca was in tight contention with Baldwin, after a mechanical issue plagued Macc right out of the gate. Baldwin had won the first race of the day, putting him close behind Iantosca heading into Moto 3 and on pace to take over Iantosca. The two fought hardscrabble, narrowing in on each other with every passing buoy. It was, fatefully, a drag race down the final stretch that put Iantosca just ahead of Baldwin, earning his second title in as many days.
Drawing all eyes to the shore of Lake Avalon was Pro Freestyle 1200, Chris Anyzeski retained his undefeated title with a wild array of aerial tricks and dizzying backflips, beating out Ryan Doberstein who put on a strong performance but not enough to unseat Anyzeski. Another impressive performance came from Cameron Frame who boarded a turbocharged Yamaha EX built by Kommander Industries and swept the IROC GP. The Kommander team fared quite well this weekend, as Quinten Bossche became the new world champion in Pro Ski Modified.
Of course, the big win went to Kommander’s own team captain, Dustin Motzouris aboard his arm-stretching Kommander-built GP1 standup in the Pro-Am GP Ski class, who also destroyed the lineup with a blistering 3-out-of-3 holeshots that weekend. In an equally impressive feat, Richard Taylor – flanked by friends Jeremy Schandelmayer and Don Anderson (among a few others) – built what Jeremy has called a “Sea-Doo FrankenSki” to rise above the ranks of frankly a massive field of contenders to clench the Sport GP world championship. Equally, Sammy Nehme represented the Broward Motorsports team strong by winning the Junior 10-12 World Championship title.
In Novice Sport, Rylee O’Flaherty battled back Broward team racer Jessica Milone to grab her first World Championship title, the two giving the crowd an awesome bit of excitement out on the water. And that’s how the weekend’s racing went: pure excitement and fantastic sportsmanship. The evening’s award ceremony was a great endcap to the season as racers were able to express their gratitude to the Pro Watercross team, their sponsors, families and teammates. So as the year draws to a close, many are already gearing up for 2019 where big news and talk of changes to the series are bound to bring all the more excitement.
We at The Watercraft Journal have been making quite the racket about Yamaha’s newest entry into its Rec-Lite segment, the EXR. This little, lightweight hot rod is the perfect blend of old school rowdiness and up-to-the-minute modern technology. Yamaha WaveRunner Product Manager Scott Watkins was the most recent subject of this video taking us inside the development of Yamaha’s new EXR WaveRunner, which has the distinction of being the only ultra-lightweight, performance-focused Rec Lite watercraft in the industry.
We’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on one of the very first 2019 EXR units and have done a few videos with it as well as a feature-length photoshoot. We’re currently working on the article itself while the video will be published in 3 weeks’ time to our YouTube channel as an episode of “Long Haul.” Until that time, check out the Facebook Live walkaround we did on the EXR as well as this exclusive inside-look with Scott that you can watch below:
As we enter into the “off season” for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere, now is the time that folks interested in purchasing a new or pre-0wned personal watercraft start doing their homework and shopping. It makes sense too, as many dealers are just receiving the newest models and the pre-owned stuff is now being priced down.
To help better equip you wintertime shoppers, The Watercraft Journal partnered with the world’s largest online marketplace for PWCs – be them used or new – PWC Trader. Together, we offer you, the readers of The Watercraft Journal our own customized access portal to PWC Trader’s massive selection of “new and used stand-up and multi-seat PWC models to experience the thrill of the water” through our Classifieds section. The search engine is incredibly easy to navigate, providing users best service possible with immediate access to PWC Trader’s massive selection of watercraft and boats.
PWC Trader has welcomed millions of visitors a year and together we look to combine our total reach to help get more PWC enthusiasts out on the water! How? You can look forward to seeing many segments of The Watercraft Journal’s industry-leading editorial content on PWC Trader in the coming weeks and months, as well as in newsletters and email blasts. We at The Watercraft Journal are always looking for ways to make our publication a better resource for you and by partnering with PWC Trader we see a very bright future ahead of us! Make sure to check it out and give our new Classifieds section a look HERE!
Here in the ‘States we’ve got a problem with folks beginning to celebrate Christmas a month too early. We’ve got a whole month of November to prepare for the Christmas season, and before now and then, we’ve got a national holiday of Thanksgiving where we traditionally gorge ourselves on giant birds laced tryptophan while American football plays in the background. Yet, for those in the United Kingdom, you’ve got no such holiday so ramping up the Christmas cheer a little early is fine.
That’s where N&C Jet Ski Ltd. has you covered! While we still can’t seem to find them listed on Hydro-Turf‘s own website or Facebook page, the guys at the Wallasey shop (just north of New Brighton) have their hands on the first run of Hydro-Turf Christmas trees! Replete with multicolored tabs acting as ornaments and even a Christmas star topper, the Hydro-Turf Christmas tree is a fun addition to your shop, showroom or even home. Priced at £14.95 (about $19.50 USD), it’s a fun bit of holiday decoration you’ll come to love.
“It’s really to test the waters,” RIVA Racing’s Dave Bamdas confessed. “We want to see how people react.” The response, by all observations was unanimous in the positive. RIVA Racing had wheeled out its one-of-none custom FX1800R prototype onto the checkered floor of its booth at the 2018 IJSBA World Finals to quite a bit of fanfare. The one-off custom build really was meant to be demonstrative of what a fully-equipped 2019 Yamaha FX SVHO could be, if outfitted with the latest in performance parts from RIVA Racing.
Months earlier, Dave had inquired what people might think of the Limited package being offered on the redesigned FX platform instead of the new GP1800R, a moniker which RIVA Racing used for its previous two special offerings. “I think it’d be a great fit,” we encouraged. “Plus, you’re not gravitating too far away from the performance parts used on the GP.” As often is the case, RIVA’s team had early access to the new FX full-sized runabouts and the R&D team were very confident that the new runabout could be a top performer.
Based on the standard 2019 FX SVHO in Pure White and Torch Red Metallic, RIVA did little to radically alter the Yamaha’s aesthetics. In fact, RIVA’s dedication to replicating the factory appearance of the graphics are enough to fool the layman as he glaces the ski over. Smartly placed “RIVA Racing” billboards adorn the hood and hull below the bondline, with a single call-out beckoning “FX1800R” below the custom-stitched grippy seat cover. Only the eagle-eyed observer will spot the radical “350 horsepower, custom build” lettering high on the fairings.
“This one’s a more low-key than previous builds,” Dave noted. The custom CNC-cut Hydro-Turf mats are two-toned black-and-gray, but only the slightest difference in hue. The aforementioned seat is equally subdued, making it almost appear unchanged, with two small dashes of red to break up the black-and-silver (RY5-FX19-1). The red hull is of course, factory, so the RIVA Pro Series Sponsons (RY26070) stand out particularly well. During their testing, RIVA discovered that not only does the FX share the same bolt pattern as the previous FZ models, but the 5-way adjustable blades work remarkably well for the new hull.
All of this adds up to a dyno-tested, proven and (most importantly) reliable 350-horsepower at the flywheel, which when tested out of RIVA’s private lake, delivered a sustained top speed of 83mph at 8,600rpm. That’s a considerable jump when the stock machine typically turns in a consistent 68mph at 7,500rpm. Of course, RIVA notes that all of its testing was performed with 1/3 tank of fuel, the trim set at neutral at sea level elevation, and the air temperature at 80-degrees F. We at The Watercraft Journal are eager to take this one-of-none machine out for a spin, but have been told to wait. Rats.
Until that time, it’s pretty cool to know that while you might not be able to order a FX1800R from RIVA Racing, you can get pretty close to replicating the proven performance of this custom build buy purchasing a new NanoXcel2-made, 818-pound 2019 Yamaha FX SVHO WaveRunner and ordering the list of parts to either install yourself or have installed by a reputable shop. And if RIVA does in fact decide to offer it’s short run Limited Edition machine as a FX1800R (or a 350-horsepower GP1800R), The Watercraft Journal will be the first to bring you pictures, information and video as we test it.
It was a hard-fought battle for Southern California local Mark Gomez, who traveled the globe to compete in the 2018 IFWA Freeride World Tour. Gomez is no stranger to competition though, having won the World Championship before. This year came down to a final between he and fellow freeride all-star Abraham Ho on the shore of Japan.
Gomez wrote, “This year a new Freeride World champion is crowned, congratulations to my brother on tour Abraham Hochstrasser. I finished 2nd in the world this year on the IFWA Freeride World Tour and 5th place at the event. Conditions were less than ideal, which made it extremely tough across the board for all riders. Timing, luck, and skill, were all factors this weekend in every heat. Abraham and I both fought neck and neck by points until the very end.
“It was such an insane and competitive year with the tour points that every riders result combined with our own was intense to keep track of. I am incredibly proud of Abraham especially for his efforts that I now understand personally from coordinating a World Tour stop to grow and promote our sport. It’s not easy at all but it takes an athlete and a big heart in this sport to accomplish what he has.
“I am grateful for all of my sponsors help this season in freeride as its been a big one. I am blessed to have my beautiful fiancé Kaley McNay who has been at my side every tour stop this year. I am extremely thankful for those who attended this event as it has been very intensive on the side to assist coordinate the championship event here in Japan.
“The mayor of the local town came to the event ecstatic about our presence and has extended an invitation to come back next year at Sunset, the heart of freeride in Japan. I am not Japanese, but this filled me with pride since I have been looking out for the tour’s interest as well as making sure this was as positive of an event for the supporting Japanese community at Sunset.”
It’s been a year since we last published an installment of “By The Numbers,” and in our last update, we erroneously stated it was our 5th anniversary since launching The Watercraft Journal in 2013. While at the time of the writing it would have be fair to commemorate the commencement of our fifth year, the true celebration of that benchmark is in fact, today. Yes, The Watercraft Journal has been around for 5 years! That’s quite a feat considering the average shelf-life of companies in the personal watercraft industry, if we can say so ourselves.
The Watercraft Journal has succeeded where others have failed because of two major factors: The first is consistency: At no time have we missed a day of publishing (apart from major holidays, of course). We deliver new articles Monday-through-Friday as well as our free newsletter recapping the week’s content. Full-length feature content, fresh event coverage and even expensive-to-produce video content is all delivered 100-percent free to the reader; there’s no passwords or downloads either. As long as you’ve got a WiFi signal, you can read us.
The second is reliability: Advertisers have come to expect that working with The Watercraft Journal is like suddenly discovering you’d added an extra division of your company. It’s our job to get the word out, to advocate and illustrate your company’s products and services. Partnering with us is the fastest way to gain instant access to literally hundreds of thousands of potential customers that you might not have been reaching before. Our reviews have persuaded new and returning buyers, our industry networking has connected manufacturers to distributors, and much more.
Lastly, The Watercraft Journal reminds you to have fun! We inspire literally thousands of readers a day to get out and ride, to pick up the newest gear or accessories to maximize their experience on the water, or to take the leap and purchase a new watercraft so that they can hit the water in style. The personal watercraft industry is surprisingly diverse – from sporadic rider to the avid weekend warrior, from the diehard racer to the casual cruiser; from the daring and thrilling freestyle athlete to the first-time novice – we reach them all and provide them with entertaining, informative and inspiring articles and videos that can’t be found anywhere else.
Lifetime Readership of The Watercraft Journal
Growth Over Half a Decade
Beginning from nothing, The Watercraft Journal has expanded its readership to include a whopping 1.275-million readers devouring over three million articles over our five years of publishing. Let’s just repeat the word million once more. Yup, that’s something to talk about. The Watercraft Journal has certainly seen its peaks and valleys as the seasons change, but year-after-year we see continued average growth, increased duration and more articles read as time progresses. So much so, that we’ve spent much of 2018 radically restructuring the back end of the magazine, making it easier for smartphones and tablets to read every page, to scroll through tens of thousands of pictures or just pop in quickly to see what the latest news is.
Total number readers: 1,275,547*
Total number of articles read: 3,046,438
*This number is considered equal to an individual sale of a single copy of a magazine.
Diversity of Content Continues
Our publishing schedule is pretty radical; every week The Watercraft Journal produces nine new articles as well as a easy-to-click newsletter that shows up in your email’s inbox every Friday recapping the week’s stories. Except for national holidays, we’ve never “taken a day off” or decided to make up work the following day. Nope. That’s not us. Our readers have come to depend on The Watercraft Journal as a reliable source of industry news, product releases, event coverage and of course, reviews of some of the best stuff the PWC industry has to offer. We value our relationships with these companies who let us try out their latest products, beat on their toys and deliver to you our honest opinions; and in turn, we hope you support those companies who support us!
Total number of articles published: 2,289
Total number of news articles published: 1,574
Total number of feature articles published: 641*
*When this number is divided to reflect monthly publishing equals 11 full-length feature articles a month, combined with an average of 26 news articles per month, totaling a 122-page print magazine.
Much More Than A Website
Although video has always been a major contributor to The Watercraft Journal’s array of content, it was only in the past 18 months that a major push for unique, creative and entertaining video content has been a focus. In that time, The Watercraft Journal has produced a steady supply of professionally-produced videos twice a month to our YouTube channel. This, combined with our strident efforts to grow our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram social media channels has resulted in a dramatic growth in audience reach. Add to that unique access to PWCTrader’s search engine of used and pre-owned personal watercraft and our own T-shirts and decals in our store, and The Watercraft Journal is suddenly much, much more than just a single website posting updates on the PWC industry. If you’re not already following us, subscribed to our channels, or otherwise, you’re missing out big time.
All That Glitters is Not Gold
There’s a few who would like to disparage what The Watercraft Journal has accomplished these past 5 years. Gratefully, we have a scoreboard of wins to show for our labors. We’ve welcomed more readers than our competitors and even legendary print titles of old; we’ve written more content; provided more information; and produced more multimedia than many would produce in double the time. If there’s one failing that we’ll admit to is that we still struggle to convince many holdouts of our value to their business; whether its because of loyalties to our few competitors or a complete misunderstanding of how they can benefit from partnering with The Watercraft Journal. But if you’re ready to reach literally tens of thousands of would-be customers and have us spread the word about your product and services, then please email [email protected] about advertising your company in the single-most popular PWC magazine today.
Sure, it might be raining outside. Or freezing. Or snowing. But that’s no reason not start thinking about next year’s race season! And the crew at the Hydro-Turf Jet Jam Racing Tour have just given you a big announcement to chew on!
