Found outside the mouth of King Sound in Western Australia – a large Gulf that opens up into the Indian Ocean – is what is known as a “tidal race.” The natural phenomenon is found only off of Australia’s coastline and reportedly only occurs a few times a year. The tidal race produces standing waves up to 40-feet high and whirlpools up to 2500-feet across, cutting down some 300-feet below the surface. It’s both mesmerizing and incredibly dangerous, and until now, is believed to have never before been filmed being ridden.

That’s right. Aussie Tybias Smith, 26, and his crew did a little bit of digging from locals before heading out to sea for their awe-inspiring adventure, looking to gather as much information on the event as possible before setting out. Aboard a 10-year-old Yamaha FX WaveRunner and followed by support vessel and a drone camera, Smith ventured deep into the sound and began riding across the faces of giant, glassy rollers (careful to avoid the breaks and peeling lips of the waves). Smith makes the ride look easy, almost casual as he rides up and over wave after wave.

It’s another testament to the amazing locations that a personal watercraft can take an adventurous rider, the undiscovered bits of nature dotting this globe that would go otherwise unexplored or unknown were it not for these machines. Enjoy a little bit of zen in the video below:

Listen, we’re not going to mince words here: we’re not big fans of the former “Man Show”–turned social justice warrior/late night host–Jimmy Kimmel. While poking fun at politics and politicians have always been the open fare of late night comedy, Kimmel has turned the timeslot into his own personal soapbox and gratefully, the steady decline in his ratings from disenchanted viewers have only fueled his liberal ire. Nevertheless, it does bear noting that recently, Kimmel was instrumental in not only shining a sizeable spotlight onto the personal watercraft industry, but the desert oasis town that continues to claim itself as the sport’s “world capital.”

As some of you will recall, Kimmel recently hosted the most recent Academy Awards (ie. “Oscars”) wherein he joking awarded a costume designer with a brand-new 2018 Kawasaki Ultra 310LX and a 2-nights day at the Day’s Inn in Lake Havasu, Arizona, all for ending the evening with the show’s shortest acceptance speech. The gag was all made in good fun, but many “civilians” felt that Kimmel’s “Price Is Right” shtick was done at the expense of both jet skiers and Lake Havasu residents simultaneously. Although a calculated promotion with Kawasaki Motor Corp. USA and the comedian, many felt the joke was in poor taste all in an effort to levy the show’s record low viewership.

Thankfully, actor (and pretty decent dude) Josh Duhamel showed up on Kimmel’s nightly talkshow shortly thereafter to discuss the giveaway in further detail, noting the possibility of Kimmel’s down-putting of the location. A Las Vegas native himself, Kimmel admits visiting Havasu often with mixed feelings (while Duhamel showed significant excitement and personal familiarity for the riverfront city). It’s a good interview and worth watching.

Three weeks ago, the 14th annual Hot Products Mark Hahn Memorial Havasu 300 (Presented by Yamaha) was held, and to those on site, it was one of both upset, surprise and all-out endurance. The morning started with blistering 15-20 minds that churned the water in to a broiling white wash of chest-high waves. Yet, and to those familiar with Lake Havasu, bizarrely, winds and conditions actually improved over the course of the 5-hour race, favoring those skis with quicker, flatter-bottomed hulls.

In the standup ski division, much of the field was filled with late-model 1500-series Kawasaki SX-Rs, save for the man who took home the Ironman award in Standup class: Brock Austin. The seasoned racer battled the brutal weather and the grueling hours of racing to complete 15 laps (Brock made 17 laps but had missed a essential buoy docking the racer the needful 2 laps) and all aboard a vintage Polaris Octane ski!

Here’s the complete press release issued by Austin:

Wow what a long day it’s been! I raced my Polaris Octane today in the Mark Hahn Memorial Race and I finished 17 laps for close to a total of 170 miles in the Iron Man category(solo team). I followed some faster racers the first 2 laps and I ended up missing a buoy both laps so I only got scored for 15 laps but I don’t race this race to win a trophy so scoring doesn’t matter to me.

I raced this race as an Iron Man to push myself and my equipment to its limit and I feel like today I accomplished that! I raced my Polaris because it’s the first ski I ever won a race on when I was a junior and it has so much history with my racing background. I also wanted to push this ski for as many laps as I could and as hard as I could because I built and tuned the engine and I wanted to test my 2 stroke engine building skills in an endurance race. 

An announcement dated March 5th the Canadian Watercross Racing schedule was released to the IJSBA. The IJSBA is excited about another season of competitive racing held by the Western Canadian Watercross Association (WCWA). The WCWA events are sanctioned by the IJSBA. The organization is happy to happy to have Canada onboard with its new management. Great things are expected during this season of watercross racing.

Visit the WCWA website for a list of 2018 Classes and other information. Direct questions to Robert Langley, the tour organizer. He can be reached at 306.552.4026. For general information, fill out an online contact form.

The Western Canadian Watercross Association promotes jet ski racing in Western Canada. This year’s tour consists of ten rounds over five weekends across Western Canada. Top pro and amateur racers, as well as freestylers, travel to the events from all over Canada and the United States.

The Western Canadian Watercross Association events will be held on the following dates:

• June 9 and 10 at Chestermere, AB
• June 23-24 at Rattlesnake Lake, Medicine Hat, AB
• July 14 and July 15, the Taste of Saskatchewan takes place on the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, SK
• August 4-5 at Ft. McMurray
• September 1-2 at Crane Lake, Bonnyville AB

Also, be sure to check the Western Canadian Watercross website for updates concerning other planned races that are awaiting confirmation of dates. The WCWA crew are looking forward to another exciting season of racing and hope to see you there!

Over the last month or two we have seen quite a few postings from the IJSBA regarding 2018 rule and class changes. With numerous revision announcements and pending change calls, it has definitely kept some folks on the edge of their seats.

However since late last month, there seems to now be some finite and solid details to these changes. As stated in their most recent announcement on the subject, they have laid out the details regarding the final changes to the 2018 IJSBA Competition Program.

This latest and official version came via the IJSBA Board of Directors, which passed the listed changes by unanimous consensus back on February 23.

All rule and class alterations has been written to the rule book and shall be published for industry-peer review before at last being finalized. Should there be no major discrepancies or objections, then we can expect all of these new revisions to stand in the official rule book.

With a constantly evolving sport including introduction of new types of watercraft and classes, as well as new OEM engine sizes and platforms, it becomes inevitable that the rules for competition will also evolve to keep things fair and properly organized for everyone.

For all details on the changes and to review the official rule list, visit the IJSBA link above.

The Krash Army comes through once again. On February 12, they released a YouTube video of an easy to follow guide for breaking in a new KV997. You’ll appreciate the content if you’re an old school rider and it’s a great educational tool for a beginning rider.

The short clip features a Krash Army team member taking us through the steps and methods of proper Kavinci engine break in. The Krash team rider begins by explaining that proper break in time will determine the life and performance of your engine. He climbs aboard the Kavinci and shows us how to begin breaking in the new machine. It’s a matter of taking it easy and gradually letting the engine build up to faster speeds. The procedure takes two to three hours and it’s worth every minute in order to extend the life of your PWC.

Here are the steps:
1. Fill the fuel tank.
2. Ride for ten minutes, only opening the throttle 1/4-3/4 of the way.
3. Bring the ski in and let the engine cool for fifteen minutes.
4. Repeat the steps until the tank is empty.
5. Refuel and repeat steps, opening the throttle a little more. Go full throttle for a maximum of 4 seconds at a time. You’ll be finished in two or three hours.

The K997 should be broken in after the second tank of fuel. That’s when you’ll be ready to throw down on your complete Krash Industries Ready-to-Perform Unit.

For those of you who were watching Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony – or “Oscars” (hopefully forced against your will) already know, but for those who don’t, Kawasaki pandered to the largest audience of self-absorbed sycophants on earth – or “actors” – by offering them a brand-new 2018 Kawasaki Ultra 310LX and a trip to Lake Havasu, Arizona, for giving the evening’s shortest speech.

Hosted by the dreadfully unfunny late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, who balked, “The first Oscar ceremony lasted — and this is true — 15 minutes from beginning to end, and people still complained.” Kimmel continued by encouraging winners, saying: “Why waste precious time thanking your mom when you could be taking her for the ride of her life: on a brand new jet ski!? This is not a joke. I will be timing you. I have a stopwatch.”

And in perfect game show fashion, the “Price is Right” theme song fired up over the sound system, the curtains behind Kimmel parted, and the new JetSki was displayed, with Oscar-winner Helen Miren doing her best Vanna White impression waving her hands over the new ski. The gag played well for laughs, and certainly gave Kawasaki the eyeballs the brand has been pining for (particularly to an outside-of-the-mainstream demographic). Moreover, true to his word, Kimmel announced the winner:

The winner with the shortest victory speech went to costume designer Mark Bridges for his work on Phantom Thread, who said his (36 second-long) speech was actually supposed to be longer: “That was an accident!” Bridges told Entertainment Tonight. “I really had things to say … I forgot a sentence and now look — I got me and Helen Miren on a jet ski and now I have a jet ski.” All jabs and chides aside, the insertion of a class-leading watercraft in front of millions of people who are otherwise neophytes to PWC. Kudos to Kawasaki!

Kawasaki Motor Corp. issued a formal press release announcing the clever promotion that placed its top-of-the-line Ultra 310LX in front of over 25 million viewers on Sunday:

Foothill Ranch, Calif. – Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (KMC) helped celebrate Hollywood on Sunday night as the Academy Awards and the 90th Oscars Award show presented a Kawasaki Jet Ski® Ultra® 310LX to Oscar winner Mark Bridges for having the shortest acceptance speech of the night.

“We were honored to be approached by the Academy’s production team to act as a prize provider of a Kawasaki Jet Ski,” said Kawasaki Vice President, Marketing Chris Brull. “We were blown away with how the Jet Ski was integrated into the show by Jimmy (Kimmel) and that so many winners made mention of the Jet Ski on stage as well as on social media. This was a fantastic integration for us and we are pleased to provide a 2018 Kawasaki Jet Ski Ultra 310LX to Mark Bridges following his exciting win.”

The Jet Ski first came on stage during the show’s monologue when host Jimmy Kimmel announced it would be awarded for the shortest acceptance speech of the night. Many winners contributed to the bit, mentioning the Jet Ski in their speeches, but it was Bridges who collected the prize with a 36-second acceptance.

Kawasaki’s social media team also got in on the act through offering up posts and polls throughout the award show engaging movie fans and new customers.

In the world of hot rodding, it’s become common practice to “throw an LS in it.” The phase to the neophyte is regarding the LS-based Chevrolet small block engine, which first appeared in this iteration in the late 1990s. The engine are plentiful, incredibly responsive to aftermarket performance components, and have a long track record of making big horsepower. The LS1 was first made available in the C5 Corvette chassis and later in the final years of the 5th generation Camaro before its demise in 2002. So why are we talking about cars here?

Well, some Southern Californian has dropped an open-headered LS1 V8 into an unusual split hull/catamaran-style ski (with help from Global West Marine Offishial Business), and backed the powerplant with a Berkley jet pump back in 2013. Those on-site recorded a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour given that water conditions weren’t ideal and that frankly, the weight of the powertrain heavily effects the ski’s attitude and pitch. Simply put, it’s not well-balanced.

Effectively, the design and shape of the hull is a miniaturized version of an off-shore race boat with the top deck looking like a Suzuki GSX-R being molded and grafted to it (it’s not). The gauge cluster is an array of mechanically-operated AutoMeter gauges, Lokar steering and trim cables, and other performance automotive aftermarket products. And before you think, “Dang! That thing is a monster,” remember that anything with open exhaust sounds pretty awesome.

We have recently announced the tour dates for this year’s Hydro-Turf Jet Jam series. Now we have received details about the exciting prizes available to all registered participants of Jet Jam.

As detailed before, there was already a significant cash prize on hand. Additionally there is now an available 125cc SSR pit bike, a brand new Sea-Doo Spark, and a Kawasaki rolling duffle bag, as well as other awesome prizes. That’s right, you can win a brand new Sea-Doo.

Here is the full press release:

1. Hey everyone! Here is our big announcement for those that will be attending the first 2 races in Havasu!
   We will be giving away a SSR 125 Pit Bike and a Kawasaki rolling gear bag plus other misc. items thanks to River Rat Motorsports in Lake Havasu!
   Each racer will receive a total of 4 tickets to be entered into the drawing. 1 for each day registered. Remember you have to be registered at each event for both days in order to qualify for these prizes. 
2. Good evening everyone. JetJam is very excited to have partnered with Hidden Trails Motorsports to bring you an awesome overall season prize. We will be giving away a SeaDoo Spark!! This giveaway is for racers only. Each racer will receive 1 ticket/per day with a paid registration. This does not mean you get a ticket for every class registration. It is 1 ticket per person per day per race. The Spark will be given away at our last race and end of the season party at Lake Success in Porterville, Ca.

If you’re not already registered for these events, you definitely don’t want to miss out. Register here at jetjam racing.