Cancer affects a huge part of this world’s population and has affected many people who read on this site. It is considered one of the worst diseases and has taken the lives of many people. It will continue to take people’s lives until cures are found. There are multiple groups that raise money for cures but notably is a Jet Ski Group located in New Zealand that is sure making a big splash.

There is a group in New Zealand called Ski-nZ that is setting out for their fifth time to try to find a cure. A group of 13 compiled riders ranging from truck drivers, to pilots, to farmers set out on Monday for a 1400 km (870 miles) trip from Bluff to Auckland. Their reason for riding in rough water conditions is to raise money for Melanoma Research. They have been able to raise over $330,000 in the past four years and hope to reach $100,000 this year.

Jeremy Burfoot said, “What we’re trying to do is educate the public and get some more skin checks going.” Doctors suggest that you get checked for Melanoma yearly and perform self examinations throughout the year. Self detection can save your life. The riders want all people to be aware of the risks and encourage early detection. This is a great group that is taking time out of their busy lives to raise money and awareness for Melanoma. Wish them luck as they will be riding in rough water but for a great cause.

Recently, the Bud Light Jet Jam West Coast Tour announced its schedule for 2017! This is a great event that you will not want to miss out on because of the cash prizes, great racing venues and notable sponsors. The west coast is home to some of the best racers which will only add to the already competitive events. These events are a great way to get into racing, fine tune your motor for bigger events or just see how this year’s competition is shaping up. If you are not racing the events will be busy with vendors and fans who all live and breathe the sport.

Robert Sand will be this year’s race director for the west coast tour which starts April 1-2 in Lake Havasu at beautiful Rotary Beach. This years tour will have a total of nine racing series spanning over 6 months. Three of the races will be in the world renowned Lake Havasu and the other six in California and Nevada.

As you can see from the list, there is a race for everybody, no matter what ski you have in the garage. So make sure that come race day your motors are running, trailers are hooked up and the gear is packed.These races will be well organized, planned and showcase some of the best racing thanks to Bud Light, Hydro-Turf, Skat-Trak and many more. The sun will be shining, the motors will be roaring, the fans will be cheering, mark your calendars as these races are ready to rumble.

If you have any question contact Promoter Kary Austin at [email protected] or 801.647.0767 or Competition Director Tim Gewecke at [email protected] or 928.486.7775

OK, can we just sit back and marvel at the growth of the P1 AquaX Series these last few years? From beginning as a strictly UK series, the event organizers have proven that a clean, highly organized, professionally-ran, and rider-focused race series can in fact, enjoy exceptional success both domestically and internationally. Kudos go out to those who have advocated this unified vision for future PWC races because clearly its working.

Expanding beyond the borders of the United Kingdom, the P1 AquaX first reached American shores exclusively as a Florida series. Only last year did AquaX pair with the IJSBA to expand into the Great Lakes region. Now, as per the graph above, the 2017 AquaX race schedule will include another American race series, the US Pro-Am Northeast Series (3 races scheduled) to join both the USA Pro Tour (5 races scheduled), the USA Am Florida Series (5 races scheduled), as well as the newly announced World Championships to be held December 9-10 in Key West, Florida.

Add to it the European Pro-Am Tour (3 races scheduled), the UK Pro-Am Tour (3 races scheduled) and a proposed Malaysia event (yet to be finalized), the P1 AquaX world race series looks to be a formidable one. We look forward to future announcements as the days and weeks roll on. And it looks like we’re going to be looking for contributing photographers and writers to provide The Watercraft Journal coverage from the US National and Northeast Tours, so if you’re interested, make sure to email [email protected].

Personal watercraft safety consumes many of the trending topics today in the PWC world. With many of the machines capable of reaching 60-plus mph, the chance of making an accident increases. But if you are educated in safety, accident prevention and how to help others, your time on the water will be the best.

The 2017 Rescue Water Craft Conference is being held this March 10th and goes till the 18th. It starts at 9 AM and goes to 8 PM. Hosted by Rescue Water Craft Association and K38 Rescue International this conference will have the best instructors. The conference is located in Morro Beach, California which is just up from Pismo Beach. This is a conference that you do not want to miss because of the valuable information you will learn. Rescue Water Craft and K38 are terrific organizations that teach the community about the different techniques needed when rescuing a rider, ways to predict water conditions, and countless other watercraft safety tips.

The conference will consist of modern practices to give you the most up to date information, teach you how to prevent accidents and provide hands on instructional practices. The conference does cost $95.00 to attend but with that you will learn from the best teachers, a free t-shirt, sticker kit, registration bag, one year membership and ID Card with Rescue Water Craft Association.

If you can make this conference it will be well worth your time. It is important to be educated while out on the water to protect yourself and if the situation arises, to help others who are in need. Being knowledgeable in this area could one day save your life and others.

Every year for the past few, Jerry Gaddis of GreenHulk.net and PWCPerformance.com takes it upon himself to build a customized, high performance watercraft that he fully documents for the members of his massive forum. The goal of each year’s build is to not only display his custom ski-building prowess, but also formidably prove the best, sure-fire routes to pick up the most top speed as possible (Jerry’s not a big closed course racer. If you want handling mods, you should check out Dean’s Team).

All throughout 2016, Jerry kept copious notes while he built this one-of-none Yamaha FZS. Jerry documented each step of the build, clocking GPS speeds and capturing video along the way. A Jim’s Ride Plate, R&D intake grate, R&D pump seal kit, a Solas SVHO 13/20 impeller, depitched to 13/18, and a pump tunnel reinforcement all grace the hull. Obviously, the big attention went beneath the seat, as everything that propels the FZR was removed, rebuilt and/or replaced. Jerry began with a MaptunerX tuning bundle package, a GRF Catch Can, a RIVA Power Filter, RIVA Intake Manifold upgrade kit, RIVA Pro Series Cooling kit, RIVA SVHO Power Cooler kit, and a RIVA/HKS blow off valve.

Wanting to properly illustrate how each item improved engine longevity, opened up untapped performance or increased acceleration, Jerry studiously noted each step in a dedicated thread pinned to the top of the Yamaha Performance section of the forum, which you can view HERE. Unfortunately, ecause he’s now dedicated to his 2017 Yamaha GP1800 room in the garage needed to be made, so the FZS is now available for purchase for a ridiculously bargain-priced $14,500 (particularly if you consider how much was spent in purchasing the ski itself, in parts and labor).

In a last bit of testing before dedicating himself to the GP1800, Jerry was able to click off an impressive 86 miles per hour on pump gas and with the above listed mods – all during some pretty offensively hot temperatures during a blistering Louisiana October.

With 2017’s prime riding season upon us, it’s now time to start getting the finalized schedules for the many regional and local racing series. True to form, the Pacific Northwest’s own Blake Corning has recently announced the 2017 schedule for the IJSBA Water X Regional Series. The Water X – in association with the International Jet Sports Boating Association (IJSBA) – serves the IJSBA Northwest Region 3 and provides a venue for some of the fastest jet ski racers in the nation.

The closed course buoy race will return to beautiful Bowers Lake in Vance Creek Park, Elma, Washington. Corning wrote: “Racers will compete to earn points for the Northwest Region Championships along with earning their spots to compete in the world finals competition that is held in Lake Havasu Arizona in October of 2017.” He continued, ” This event is free to the public and is a fun and family friendly event. For more detailed information, please visit our Facebook event page at Grays Harbor Watercross.”

Corning also announced that the Water X Series will also premier the first-ever “Water X Talk Show” staring Mike Young, who recently returned to the IJSBA for 2017. Gratefully, all events will be in the same location, making scheduling reliable.

• April 29-30
• June 24-25
• August 26-27

There’s no hiding it; the 2017 Yamaha GP1800 WaveRunner has got to be the most popular machine in the hands of tuners today. The responsiveness to modifications is uncanny, and the results coming out of several builders and tuners is staggering. We’ve already shared insane results from both Dean’s Team and RIVA Racing, as well as from GreenHulk and even privateer racers like Brian Baldwin. Best of all, many of these (and others) have taken to YouTube and various forums to thoroughly document their installations and results.

One such video thread comes to us from Joe Zammataro of PWCMuscle.com. Starting with a bone stock GP1800, Joe walks us through the very easy-to-perform mods that have radically improved his Yamaha WaveRunner’s 0-to-60 times gradually with every modification. Joe began with what many would consider one of the more difficult mods: swapping out the impeller for a Solas prop. The impeller is the Solas YV-CD-13/20.

Next came the installation of a Riva Power Filter Kit (RY13110) and Intake Manifold Upgrade Kit (RY12040-IMUK), all intended to greatly enhance the air flow to the SVHO motor. Additionally, listed in the graph below is the reflashing of the ECU with a RIVA MaptunerX – all of which helps push this Yamaha to a staggering 0-to-60 speed of 3.1 seconds. There’s still plenty left to be done, so make sure to check it out.

Like an invading swarm, hundreds of the world’s most daring big wave surfers have descended upon Nazare, the famous Portugal wave location. A recent surge in the Atlantic produced monster-sized waves that came crashing into the coastline. Six years ago, American pro surfer Garrett McNamara caught the largest wave recorded at Nazare in 2011. He told Surfline, “”A hurricane force low (given the name Ewan) was rotating off the coast of Greenland this past weekend, and unleashed the strongest swell of the season toward Europe.”

Italian surfer Francisco Porcella rode a 24 metre (79 foot) tall wave for more than 30 seconds with many cheering on the shore. McNamara was more cautious, “I’m just here helping everybody…you wanna make sure everyone’s safe.” Unfortunately, as the video below shows, not everybody was as lucky. Brazilian big-wave surfer Pedro “Scooby” Vianna was, according to GrindTV, “arguably one of the standouts on the giant tow-in session” before needing to be rescued by PWC rescue driver Lucas Chianca by what photographer Pedro Bala called “probably the biggest one of the day.”

Fatefully, the oncoming wave was too much for Chianca, his white-and-red Yamaha FZR SVHO (and rescue sled with Scooby in tow) being overtaken by the wave. The two were thrown from the WaveRunner and churned in the wash. Amazingly, the two weren’t terribly injured save for a few bruises. It was only a day later, during lighter conditions that Scooby suffered a head injury that required him being taken to the hospital. Big wave surfing is no joke folks. Just watch below: