When pressed for ideas as to what their lineup of all-purpose powerboat and watercraft cleaning products was missing, we replied, “How about a wetsuit cleaner?” The voice on the other side of the phone giggled, replying, “Use the Purple. It’s perfect.” Admittedly a little incredulous, we thought we’d give the cleaner a try.
The Purple Wash & Wax in question is exactly that, intended for washing your personal watercraft and leaving it with a nice luster, not exactly what you’d consider to soak and clean your riding gear. Specially formulated as a “premium soap” that has been “fortified” with 100% Brazilian Carnauba Wax, the cleaner is Ph balanced and non-toxic, making it a environmentally-safe, biodegradable cleanser.
We’ve experimented with different cleaners for wetsuits, booties and gloves, all with varying results. Often we’ve found dedicated neoprene cleaners to be too mild, and offer very little in the way of mildew removal or scrubbing that briny ocean smell from our gear. Heavier detergents like dish soap or even degreasers are far worse, as they strip natural eslastics and oils from the neoprene and other softer materials, many times discoloring the fabrics.
Above left: Only 1/2 ounce is all you need to wash a complete PWC, so we cut that down to a 1/4 oz. Above right: Next, Jet Renu suggests spraying the hose at high pressure to whip the soap into a froth to “activate the foam.”
Because Jet Renu has made its Purple Wash & Wax to leave a high gloss shine and a protective barrier from harmful UV rays, we thought it might be good to leave the neoprene booties and Jettribe GRB 2.0 Race Boots still soft and flexible without bleaching them out. Following Jet Renu’s instructions, we squeezed a half ounce into our wash bucket before filling it up, spraying the hose at high pressure to froth the soap as directed.
Because our neoprene booties were used to represent a larger, full-sized wetsuit, we opted to let them soak, while we washed down our Jettribe Race Boots first, before lathering and scrubbing them with a soft-bristled brush. Because other things got in the way, we left our boots and socks to soak a little longer before hosing them off and letting them air dry all day, stopping in to turn the socks inside-out once.
True to Jet Renu’s suggestion, the Purple Wash & Wax left our Jettribe GRB 2.0 Race Boots and neoprene socks looking fresh and clean, and smelling surprisingly pleasant. A 16-ounce bottle of Jet Renu’s Purple Wash & Wax retails for a budget-friendly $9.95 and lasts a lot longer than you’d expect, so it’s well worth the purchase, whether you use it to wash down your skis or clean up your riding gear after a day’s ride.
Above left: We soaked our neoprene socks a little longer than our boots, but gave them a good rinse before and after a fine lather. Above right: We also used a soft-bristle brush to clean our boots’ soles and edges.
It wasn’t too long ago that we ourselves were teased for being a “magablog,” an anachronism of both a website and a published magazine. Laughably, the people who mocked us are no longer in the business, and we’re the single largest, most read, and generally most popular PWC magazine in the Northern Hemisphere of the third planet orbiting the solitary source of life and heat in this particular solar system.
Clearly, today’s market is receptive to amalgamations, because The Watercraft Superstore is putting the finishing touches on its 2016 super-sized “magalog,” a giant 200-plus-page catalog/magazine hybrid, not only listing and categorizing the literally thousands of different accessories, tools, and bits of gear and apparel to get the very most from your PWC riding experience, but several dozen pages of fresh, unique and professionally-written content by the single-most talented writer in our industry who doesn’t work for us, Jeff Hemmel.
Fresh from hosting this year’s awesome Skyway Ski Show where all three manufacturers came together with a sampling of their latest water toys, six lucky participants were gathered to test ride, rank and review each unit on its individual merits and give you an overall winner of the shootout. The results of course, will be revealed exclusively in The Watercraft Superstore’s 2016 catalog, and you can get it for FREE! That’s right, just sign up by clicking this link before April 1st and your copy will be mailed out late April (or early May, there’s about 100,000 subscribers).
It might’ve gone unnoticed by many, but at last September’s Blowsion Surf Slam, the custom ski builder unveiled a very cool Ford F-350 wrapped in pretty cool livery, capped with an all-new Truckboss Truck Deck rack for personal watercraft. The Flexx Loader system not only winches skis up and down onto a secured bed cover, but also employs custom-made rolling cart that allows your ski to not only ramp up and down, but turn into a beach tote to access the water.
The freeride event was effectively its first foray into the sport, and come back smiling: “Surf Slam was a huge success!! Wanted to send a huge thank you to our new partner Blowsion for being such a great host and introducing us to the industry. Another big thanks to Dane Dials, our sponsored rider, was so great to meet you in person. We really appreciated all your feedback. Looking forward to seeing you all in Havasu!”
A few months later, the same wrapped Ford pickup hauled across the continental United States to Daytona Beach, Florida for the Daytona Freeride. The Blowsion crew beamed: “We made it! 2500 miles to this years Daytona Freeride. With help of @truckboss_decks we are able to bring 3 more custom skis to put on display. If you are gonna be in Daytona this weekend make sure and stop by and check the best jet ski hauling system for you truck bed.”
Truckboss is effectively changing how jet skiers carry, haul and launch their skis and we think you ought to check them out HERE!
Life’s too short to be working at a job that you hate. And chances are, if you’re reading this at work, it’s probably not the kind of job that is fulfilling in any sort of meaningful way. So why are you there? The money? Really? While exchanging hours of your life for currency is how one be’s an adult, why not get a job you like, work with people who are fun, and get to do something where your heart is in it? That’s right, there is such a thing.
Our friends at America’s Motor Sports, the biggest family-owned motorsports dealerships in Middle Tennessee, are looking for a driven, articulate and team-friendly floor sales associate and other team members. Sure, sales experience isn’t a must, but it does help, and training is part of the gig, so soon you’ll be up and running in no time. Best of all, you’ll be working for a company that takes care of its employees! There’s not a lot of those out there, FYI.
Here’s the original post from their Facebook page: America’s Motor Sports, Madison location is seeking energetic, team players who are ready to sell fun. We are gearing up for the riding season and would love for you to join us. Please email your resume or any further inquiries to [email protected]
Filmed by Guy Mac, a self-taught photographer and videographer, based in New Zealand who travels the world wide capturing amazing footage for a list of clients that’s sure to impress: Monster, RPM, DRAGON, Body Glove, Rip Curl, Catch Fishing New Zealand, Fishing World, Magic Seaweed, Damaged Goods Zine, Freerider MX, Yamaha, Sony, Downer Construction and New Zealand Wakeboarding just to name a few.
In a recent excursion featuring some freeriding WaveBlasters for “The Festival of Freeride TV” video for the New Zealand Festival of Freeride event held this past February 26th and 27th, Guy managed to capture the very painful demise of an estimated $3,000 quadcopter drone as one very airborne ‘Blaster managed to expertly knock it out of the sky and into the rolling surf below. Thankfully, the rider was unharmed.
The event, sponsored by Yamaha WaveRunners Australia and Thrust Innovations, welcomed some of the Southern Hemisphere’s most talented freeriders and featured some absolutely incredible action both in the waves and far, far above them. We look forward to seeing the final video recapping this year’s event, but until then, we’ve included both the footage from Guy showing the fate of the quadcopter and the recap from last year’s NZ Festival of Freeride:
Bored with the same old sit-down jet ski races held by the Federation in Sochi, three Russian personal watercraft riders got together and organized the first Jet Camp Festival. The founders of Jet Ski Camp did not think the festival would attract so many entrants and spectators during its first run on the Mzymta River. They couldn’t have been more wrong, the event generated such great success, that a second one was held in 2015. Almost 100 people competed in 2015 and one of them was a woman.She enjoyed participating and showed her mad skills during the event!
Andry Kuligin, David Dzhalagoniya, and Mirkhail Krivosheev are the masterminds behind Jet Camp. They were ready to witness high performance jet skiing in their area so they added a free style event for stand up operators. The organizers needed clean water and a wave which they found at the Mzymta River where the river meets the sea. Pro, Junior, and Amateur Divisions were available to those who wanted to enter the exciting competition.
This high energy event brought progressive riding and a great vibe to the area. Kuligin, Dzhalagoira, and Ershov got exactly what they wanted; a fun powerful event with highly skilled freestyle riders, and an all around improvement within the jet ski world of Russia. One of organizers noted that the 1996 Black Sea Cup contest laid the foundation for stand up jet ski competition. Without it, Jet Ski Camp may not have taken place. The event organizers envision holding the event a third year.
Check out all the action here. You will be glad you did.
The laser-etched plaque mounted to the engine’s powder coated-red valve cover read “Serial No. 09 of 25.” Reading it aloud, I couldn’t help but do so mimicking John Lennon’s cacophonous track on the eponymous White Album. “We’ve sold 15 of the 25 thus far,” RIVA Racing’s Marcos Smith revealed, his voice echoing off of the high ceilings of RIVA’s Research & Development Center only a couple of blocks north of the Pompano Beach, Florida headquarters. “We build a handful at a time once enough orders come in. In saves time in both assembly and testing.”
In addition to a bevy of performance and handling additions to the Limited Edition units, RIVA sends out nearly two dozen components to be anodized and powder coated to match the custom livery. Equally, RIVA took great effort to carefully recreate a graphics kit that would match both styling and font of the factory FZR graphics, making the package look all the more authentic. Even the red stitching in the custom-sown seat cover follows the graphics’ pattern.
Although the FZ series Yamahas have already earned their stripes on the closed course, RIVA Racing ups the ante with a RIVA FZR/FZS Performance Ride Plate, FZ SVHO Stainless Intake Grate (and RIVA FZ SVHO Pump Seal Kit), and a pair of Pro Series sponsons, which the 5-position sponsons’ billet inserts have also been anodized red as well. Lastly, a new Solas Yamaha 160mm Concord 13/20 Impeller churns the water into usable thrust. “We had five or six guys from Solas here not too long ago, taking notes and spending a day at the test lake,” Smith added. “Those guys are seriously hardcore about this stuff.”
This not only increases the FZR’s 1.8-liter SVHO 4-cylinder output to an aforementioned dyno-tested 350 horsepower (90 horsepower above the stock 260 horsepower at 7,500rpm), but runs a GPS and radar-proven sustained-not-peak 80mph at 8,300rpm (that is, with 1/3 tank of fuel, trim in neutral, sea-level elevation, air temp 80-degrees F, according to RIVA Racing). Interestingly enough, when it came time for us to test the #9 FZR 350, we did so with far more impressive results:
At RIVA’s private lakeside testing grounds, with air temps hovering at 82-degrees F, and nearly a full tank of 93 octane, we surpassed the conservative 80-mile-per-hour mark, to an impressive 83mph at slightly above the same RPM. Humidity was low for early March, so our barometric pressure had us at near sea-level conditions. Likewise, RIVA’s R&D team measured nearly 4gs of g-force at full throttle acceleration, hitting its top speed in just over 3-seconds.
Trimmed down, the Limited Edition FZR 350 is brutally precise, almost punishing anyone daring enough to mount it. The cornering force produced by this FZR on the human body will peel anyone less than a professional athlete from the grip of the Velcro-like seat. I found that trimming the nose down was really the only way to ride it with any modicum of success, as even in the neutral position, it created so much boost that it would dislodge itself from the water’s surface when its throttle was pulled back to its stop.
Unlike the factory 310-horsepower Kawasaki, the FZR 350 doesn’t split the air with a banshee-like shriek, but rather whooshes in an airy whistle. That is, until the big RIVA/HKS blow-off valve pulls open. Even from across the lake, the ear-splitting hiss of the BOV rippled over the water, telegraphing when the rider had backed out of the throttle. The combination of so much power and incision-like handling is overwhelming and makes riding the RIVA Racing FZR 350 Limited Edition less cooperative (man and machine working together) and more adversarial (man vs. machine).
Exhausted after my third bout with the 350 that day, laying prostrate on the cool, wet cement, I tried to come to terms with the first dealership-available jet ski to have beaten me so badly. Priced at $25,000, the sum of the Limited Edition FZR 350 is worth every dime when you consider its many parts: IJSBA Open class performance (in both speed and handling) on a surprisingly stock ski, a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind aesthetics package, an already-assembled race-ready craft that is cleaner and better built than most race craft, and the assistance of RIVA’s technical department.
While there are several World Championship-winning racers more than happy to build you a runabout that might weigh slightly less, go a hair faster or handle just a little sharper, the cleanliness of the build, the reliability (ie. longevity) of such a machine, and the surmounting cost (upwards of $50,000), the RIVA Racing 350 Limited Edition is by far the single-most impressive offering on the market today.
Peak speed isn’t the same as sustained top speed, so don’t let your friends bragging about how fast their new runabouts get you all confused. Today’s new 300-horsepower Sea-Doo RXP-X, RXT-X and GTX Limited all hit an impressive 71-72mph. But do so for a split second before the GPS-monitored speedometer dips back down to near-68mph (that is, for the US-tuned models).
RIVA Racing’s awesome new Speed Control Override Module (SCOM) not only removes the GPS-controlled speed limiter, thus increasing the top speed of the otherwise 100-percent stock ECU, it also retains all of the original dash functions, and even allows the system to start in “Sport Mode.” And what else does it do? How about delivers a sustained and consistent 75mph top speed on all 2016 RXP-X, RXT-X and GTX 300 models.
Oh yeah, and it’s less than $200. That alone should blow your mind considering what it used to take to push a brand new runabout to 75 mph just a few years ago.
Below, we’ve included RIVA Racing’s latest video about the SCOM, highlighting its features, its ease of installation and most importantly, the real-time speed numbers and radar graphs illustrating the differences between peak top speed, sustained top speed and the RIVA Speed Control Override Module. And you can always go to RIVA Racing’s own website to get all of the information on this amazing piece of performance hardware.
While Sea-Doo’s engineers have worked the new Rotax ACE 300 engine to never require supercharger building ever again (that’s a heck of a claim), many are still enjoying their 4-tec powered 215/255/260 Sea-Doos, all with the knowledge that a rebuild is not too far around the corner.
Well, if the time is nearing for your Sea-Doo to go in for yet another round of service, it might be time to step up to a whole new level of performance: Fresh from PWC Muscle, the all new RIVA XXX-Charger is a complete supercharger assembly featuring a sophisticated, lightweight 140mm Vortech impeller that is precision balanced to deliver smooth operation, a billet spacer, machined front and rear housings and RIVA Heavy Duty Clutch Washers.
The increased interior volume produces impressive performance gains delivering 14psi @ 8,100rpm and 15.5psi @ 8,500rpm. And each XXX-Charger is hand assembled in-house using a Genuine BRP shaft, bearings and hardware. It installs as quickly as taking out the OEM supercharger, and doesn’t require any additional parts or modifications to go right to work. It does require a RIVA Pro-Series ECU, RIVA Pro-Series Fuel Injectors (50lb) and RIVA Fuel Pressure Regulator Kit to achieve the correct calibration.
It’s official! The 12th Annual Mark Hahn Memorial Havasu 300 is in the books and it was nothing shy of exciting just like its predecessors before it! Over 50 teams of riders and their pit crews and families come from all over the world to race the “World’s Longest PWC Endurance race” and to honor it’s namesake, Mark Hahn. The race may be chaotic but it brings together long lost friends while making new ones along the way.
The event welcomed many familiar faces, some of them weren’t behind the bars of a jet ski like everyone has been used to, rather, they were helping other racers in the pits. Chris MacClugage being one of the most popular and notable riders was holding up in #64’s pit of Chad Zeman. MacClugage said, “I’m finding it’s more fun and rewarding to help a rider than ride the race.” MacClugage has helped Zeman train since around April for this exhausting enduro.
Zeman, 24, is new to the scene of racing, only starting last year. When asked why the Mark Hahn for only your second race and why Ironman, he stated, “I’ve been more of an endurance athlete, distance runner. I’ve done a couple triathlons. I don’t have the skills to hold my own on a short course yet, but when I read about the Mark Hahn 300, it really sparked my interest. Even though I’d never seen it before, I decided to give it a go.” Zeman’s persistence got him second overall in ski and put him first in Ironman!
As is often with the Mark Hahn, weather and water conditions dictated the flow of the event. Clear skies, warm 80-degree temperatures and glassy water made for an ideal day on the water, if not a wide-open drag race. With it being so smooth many Open class-built skis couldn’t handle the hours of wide-open throttle, and eventually let go. So much so, that several Manufacturer Stock boats filled the Top 10 spots at the end of the day.
Riders and crews battled the usual: broken parts, not enough fuel and rider exhaustion throughout the day. Spectators were enthralled with the “Le Mans-like” race they were viewing. First-time Hahn spectator Greg Cobb said, “It’s amazing that skis and the riders can hold full throttle for that long! I definitely plan to run a stand up in it next year. I can already see how much work its going to be and I plan to start training for it right away.”
First place overall went to the team of Jean Baptiste Botti and Jean Bruno Pastorello making them multi-back-to-back runabout winners. Aaron Geweke and Kody Copenhaver took the ski class for a win and took their victory lap with a splashdown at the end. John Bonakouski (sp) put up a crisp hundred dollars to the first stand up to cross the finish, Peter Yauri took that prize and didn’t look back.
Another first-timer, Rusty Wilson had this to say about the event, “I thought the event was well organized and has developed a history for itself as a true stand alone event. It gives participants an opportunity to see old friends and start those skis that might have been sitting all winter. Some riders came from places where their lakes are still frozen!
“The racing was safe and looked to be fun for both the riders and pit crews. It’s definitely a platform of racing where the rider gets the trophy but the support crew deserves the win because if you don’t have a solid crew behind you as a rider your chances of finishing are slim and your chances of a win would be impossible.”
From every angle and everything overheard, this again, was an amazing and gratifying event that we hope continues for years and years to come. Big thanks go to Mike Follmer, Jim Russell of DSM and Ross Wallach of RPM Racing for hosting and organizing yet another stellar endurance race.
12 Annual Mark Hahn Memorial Havasu 300 Top 10 results: 1. Jean Bruno Pastrello/Jean Baptiste Botti, Kawasaki Ultra; 2. Sara Smith/Jon Ford, Kawasaki Ultra; 3. Filipe Truta/Carlos Truta, Kawasaki Ultra; 4. Aqsa Aswar, Yamaha SVHO: 5. Paul Pham/Cassius Sanders, Kawasaki Ultra; 6. Brian Baldwin/Mike Klippenstein, Yamaha SVHO; 7. Lee Phan/Tony Hoa, Yamaha SVHO; 8. Aero Aswar, Yamaha SVHO; 9. Santiago Kuan Jr/Fadi Sacre, Yamaha FXHO; 10. Tyler White/Doug White, Kawasaki Ultra
