Not everything goes along as planned, but thankfully there are people willing to risk their own lives to save others. Recently on Port Severn, Ontario, Canada, a group of Sea-Doo riders witnessed a family boat billowing black smoke. Upon approach they discovered a family onboard, who the group quickly rescued and placed on a nearby pontoon, returning to collect the family’s dog and personal belongings while others grabbed the anchor line and pulled the vessel back into deeper water away from nearby docks and homes.

Were that not enough, the group of jet skiers then turned around and made several highspeed passes to roost the blaze with their spray. They continued their effort until local fire rescue arrived on the scene some 45 minutes after first being called. In a phone conference with CTV News, the local marina owner explained the heroism of those on the Sea-Doos, as well as the potential danger the blaze could’ve caused to the local area. Please watch the video below:

On the “Cottagers of the Severn River Unite!” Facebook group page, member Rebecca Martin wrote:
“I would like to send a huge thank you to the “annoying” Sea-Doo gang for them risking their own lives to save others. Yes, they may be annoying at times and ride by your dock at 7am but they are all very nice people and would do anything to help someone in need.

“Today just above Big Chute a boat caught on fire. These guys did not even think twice and they were there as fast as they could. They saved their children and went back into the fire to rescue their dog and other personal items from the boat. The boat was drifting toward shore where a number of cottagers were leaving in anticipation of the shore becoming engulfed in flames – another wild fire potential. They hooked onto the boat and pulled it away from the shore, at significant personal risk to themselves. No one else contributed to what was sure to become a major incident.

“The local fire department took over 45 minutes to respond. These annoying Sea-Doo’ers are actually Toronto area firefighters – good to know they were there. I am happy to say that everyone was out of the boat and safe. I just thought recognition was due to the Sea-Doo gang along the river.”

That’s right! It’s another episode of “Long Haul,” the industry’s only twice-a-month YouTube show made entirely free to you, the PWC enthusiast. When we’re not reviewing or racing the latest high-horsepower personal watercraft in the world, we’re also bringing you recaps of some of the coolest events from some of the most impressive locations around.

It’s one of the best and biggest personal watercraft events in the Southeast, and it’s our fourth time attending so of course we’d make our trip to the 2018 Mudbug an episode of “Long Haul!” We brought with us two of the most exciting personal watercraft in the marketplace today, the 2018 Yamaha GP1800 WaveRunner and the new 2018 Sea-Doo RXT-X 300, because of course we would!

When we weren’t conducting acceleration tests between the two machines, we were taking turns touring the various waterways and bayous surrounding the Morgan City, LA area. The Watercraft Journal even partnered up with PWCTrailfinder.com’s own Billy Crews on what he calls his favorite ride, the Blind River Loop. So sit back, put your feet up and enjoy another awesome adventure!

The sport of Motosurfing has been gaining popularity lately. The competitive nature of the sport has picked up as we saw earlier this summer that twenty-two countries in all were competing in this year’s world championship.

Not only have we seen more involvement in the sport from a racer and spectator standpoint, but also from the vendors and companies that make the boards and related products.

We have just gotten wind that a Swedish company will now be making a premium electric surfboard. The name of the company is called ‘Awake’ and their new premier electric board is called ‘The RÄVIK’.

According to marketing coordinator Gustav Kjellberg, this new board will be the lightest one on the market. The board will not only have superior acceleration performance, but also in terms of battery life and charging time.

The carbon fiber body surfboard will have a top speed of 30 knots with a minimum ride time of 40 minutes when doing a mixed style of riding. Controlling the board will be via a wireless throttle controller.

Awake is based in Limhamn, Sweden and manufactures high-performance electric surfboards. Their goal is to become the leader in electric surfboard manufacturing.

Awake is scheduled to start taking orders for their new premium boards this month so stay tuned for further details.

Y’know, it takes a lot to produce two articles a day, two professionally shot and edited videos a month, and a handful of social media posts a day all entirely free to each and every one of you. When we arrive at special media events, we’re the only ones truly sweating that we get all of the video collected that we need, as well as all of the still photography necessary to produce our full-length feature articles and videos. We bring you interviews, multiple video angles, quality production sound and visuals (and we’re getting better at it too), and much, much more. So no, we’re not just rolling up and posting Facebook Live clips all day. We actually care.

In the coming weeks and months, The Watercraft Journal web magazine will be undergoing some pretty substantial changes all to make reading our articles and viewing our videos easier, quicker and more accessible on a variety of digital platforms (yes, we’ve heard you Samsung guys). While doing so, we recently went back through our entire YouTube channel and completely revamped how we bring you our monthly content. We recently made dramatic visual changes to our catalog of videos, built and filled playlists to enjoy, added hyperlinks to video sponsors and articles, and a whole lot else.

What began as a one-man operation back in late 2013 has become the single-most popular personal watercraft enthusiast magazine in the world. We’re incredibly proud of that, and we have all of you and our supporting advertisers to thank for making that happen. You the reader still don’t pay a shiny red cent for the content we produce, and that is unique in today’s world of maximizing monetization. So please, if you haven’t already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and “Like” some videos while you’re at it.

Cycle Springs Powersports has knocked $1000 off the 2017 Yamaha FX SVHO Cruiser. This machine has Yamaha’s Super Vortex High Output (SVHO) marine engine, which is a supercharged 4-cylinder, 4-stroke 1.8L powerhouse at 1812cc’s. It delivers more power and torque than any prior year WaveRunner.

Riders can easily switch from forward to neutral to reverse with just a pull of the throttle using Yamaha’s patented RiDE with traction control. This allows for easier docking, reversing, and slowing down. The Cruiser is also equipped with an easy to read dashboard so you can grab a quick read on all system

functions. This machine was built for luxury with theater style seating for 3 with it’s two piece cushy Cruiser seat. Stay comfortable all day long alone or with a couple of friends. The WaveRunner also has the NanoXcel2 hull and deck in order to give you an agile ride and excellent fuel efficiency.

Cycle Springs offers a lifetime Engine Warranty and also no risk extended warranties. The store also offers 50% off service plans. Get employee pricing on all gear and accessories the day of sale. They offer financing for everyone and accept trade-ins. So what are you waiting for? Visit a Cycle Springs Powersports in Tampa or Clearwater to check out the Yamaha FX Cruiser SVHO for $14,999! Schedule a test ride so you know just how powerful the Yamaha Cruiser is! See the Cycle Springs website for more details.

We don’t really know how this became the phenomenon that it is today, but Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” is one of the most anticipated and highly watched weeks of television programming. No really, it’s true. So much so that other channels literally alter their programming schedules to coincide with the selachimorpha-themed entertainment.

Two weeks ago, during the titular San Diego Comic-Con, Discovery Channel wheeled out its thinly-disguised hydraulic car crusher called “Chomp” to entertain crowds as it pneumatically crushed various items in a sort of twisted version of “Will it blend?” This time around, Discovery replayed a bit of high stakes destruction by wheeling out a gutted vintage personal watercraft to see if ol’ chompy could bite it in two.

Back during a similar media campaign in 2014, Discovery had Chomp bite a classic 5803 SP Sea-Doo for all to see. (See above). Well, for this year, Discovery came upon a very original 1987 Yamaha WaveRunner, that besides being eviscerated of its metal powertrain, was in surprisingly complete condition. Nevertheless, the giant megashark fired up its metallic jaws and clamped down on the Yamaha in terrible fashion, snapping the ancient fiberglass runabout in two.

But Sharkzilla wasn’t done yet! They brought out another vintage PWC, an early-90’s Sea-Doo 3-seater, a 550 Kawasaki standup and a Kawasaki runabout, all of which was crushed with cheers from the crowd as well. You can view it below:

A press release from IJSBA reads that the organization is thrilled to announce that the East Coast Watercross will host the 2018 U.S. National Championships. This spectacular event full of bad ass competitors takes place from August 25-26 at Clute Memorial Park in Watkins Glen, NY.

The competition will consist of some of the best watercross racers competing in Closed Course and Freestyle events as they vie for the Number 1 plate at the 2018 Blowsion World Finals and 2019 season.

A total of 26 categories are included in the contest and champions will be crowned in each one. Super Chicken ( Kawasaki SC650) will be recognized for the first time as an eligible category for championship glory. IJSBA has made the Super Chicken an accepted class.

IJSBA thanks P1 Aqua X for all of the hard work they have put into the last two U.S. National Championships. IJSBA also wishes to thank them for quickly noticing that the amenities for Closed Course in the previously secured Chicago location would not have adequate space available for pit crews. East Coast Watercross quickly made themselves available to host the 2018 competitors and were able to give racers sufficient time to change travel plans.