Good salesmanship is problem solving, and Nick Ferrugia, owner of The Long Lake Grocery in Grand Traverse County, Colorado, has solved a major problem for many of his customers. When Nick noticed customers lined up across the street from the store at the public beach’s dock, he knew that something was up.
In an interview with Up North Live, Nick stated, “There were boats lining up to get on the dock to come get their pizza and other goodies. So I thought there’s got to be a better way.”
That’s when he decided to strap on a life jacket and take his pizza delivery service to the next level. Nick had a custom pizza holder fabricated that could hold up to six extra-large pizzas and mounted it to the back of a personal watercraft. “I can go 60-65 MPH, but there’s a balance between getting the machine up on the plane and not going too fast and hitting any waves because the pizzas like to move around. I already flipped one right in two,” said Ferrugia.
Of course, to keep the pizzas from getting too beat up, he keeps the speed under 20mph. So far, the endeavor has been a success, with the store is making deliveries around the lake Friday through Sunday (with a nominal $3 delivery fee). His customers still think it’s a pretty good deal.
Nick continued, “Most people are around boats and it’s the whole novelty of getting it delivered to you on a WaveRunner. They like to wave and say ‘hello,’ so I’m not sure if I’m making a delivery to them or if I’m just saying ‘hello.’”
“I’m having a lot of fun doing it. I’m not going to lie to you there!” Nick joked. He also said he’d like to upgrade to a pontoon boat so he can deliver more orders, and is even considering using a snowmobile for deliveries in the winter.
Normally, this is not the sort of thing you’d find here at The Watercraft Journal, solely because we purposely try to avoid the glorification of people misusing personal watercraft in any form. But this footage is so dramatic, it’s almost mandatory viewing.
What you’re witnessing is a pair of renters having their afternoon narrowly cut short by another pair of renters veering uncontrollably too close to shore and eventually colliding with the beached Yamaha VX WaveRunner, catapulting the riders airborne.
This of course, will bring rider safety and renter aptitude into question. It is almost a punchline how little renters are instructed in the ways of riding, and owners are all but left to their own devices once they leave the showroom floor.
While we’re not advocating boater licensing for PWC, accidents like these are far too prevalent to be left unchecked. Below we’ve included the original description of the collision as well as the video itself:
“This is a wreck that I caught out of the corner of my eye while shooting two girls that were taking photos of each other before going on a jetski ride. I had to no idea why the girl was happy and then at last second scared. As I panned to my left and saw this other crazy jetski guy literally jump her jetski like a ramp!
“She had the craziest instinct to get off of the jetski at the last second to save her head – literally! The couple on the other jetski went flying into the sand after flying super high in the air. I was like [explicative deleted] at the ending as I could not imagine what I had captured and thank God no one was hurt in the end. CRAZY MUST WATCH!”
Although everybody walks away from the accident, there’s some seriously NSFW language that we need to caution:
The QPWC’s new leadership – veteran riders and Australian champions Dan Fox, Tim O’Neil and Tony Gray – as well as renown race director Ross Moore, provided an excellent event.
Wintertime in Queensland, Australia doesn’t have snow-covered mountains, leaving you sitting by the fire wishing summer was here so you can get back on the water and rip up some buoys. All year ’round you can get out there, though some mornings are a bit fresh. So having a race in the middle of winter isn’t to much of a big deal.
The Queensland Personal Watercraft Club started off this winter with a bang (remember, we’re on the other side of the equator) this past 26th and 27th of July.
The QPWC is under new management for 2014, with Dan Fox as the club’s new president, and did a fine job last weekend making the Winter Titles event at Atkinson Dam one to attend. Plenty of skis and spectators adorned the beach, with everyone keen to get some racing started.
In an interview with The Gatton Star, Fox said, “[Atkinson Dam’s] a great location for racing. We’ve got guys from the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba racing and it’s a bit of a central location for them.”
The Ski Open class went to James Xveres who won the title, followed by Michael Stevens, as Tam Clucas was the only female entrant. Tam fared extremely well amid a field of triple-cylinder Kawasakis and Yamahas.Anthony Lo put up a good fight on his Ultra Kawasaki but was kept off of the podium.
Racers from all over the East coast (a 1,800km or 1,120-mile drive didn’t stop a few of the boys) ventured to Atkinson Dam to scratch that itch that is PWC racing. By the look of some of the skis, it was going to be a exciting day ahead. It was so good to see so may pole (standup) ski riders turn up.
Practice on Saturday was short and sweet with a bit of course adjustments and fine tuning before a thunderstorm rolled in (just in time to wet all my campfire timber – I had decided to camp out that weekend).
Mick Stevens reported: the pole ski classes were combined for the weekend’s racing, with Open class showing four triple Kawasakis and one triple Yamaha, as well as having one female rider on a Lites Kawasaki.
We new the racing was gonna be fun as we had former Australian champion Tony Grey and also Justin Windsor and James “X-Man” Xveres to throw a spanner in the works.
The Pro Open Runabout class welcomed Worx Racing’s Guy Greenland, but saw Sunday’s win go to Brendan Boyd and his RXT-X whose speed and reliability kept him on top.Michael Stevens rode hard and reeled in the second place spot on the podium in Ski Open.
X-man’s Yamaha was definitely showing some speed, winning three out of the class’ four motos and Michael Stevens winning the second moto on the Kommander Industries Kawasaki.
Fox continued, “It was fantastic and you couldn’t have asked for a better winter’s day. For the first race meet of the season we were happy with it and looking forward to the next one.”
Atkinson Dam will host to an additional four rounds of the Winter Titles over the next few months. QPWC president Fox – who earned second place in the Runabout Open class, admitted it was a great start to the season. “We have four more rounds to go at Atkinson Dam and then we’ll break for Christmas and come back in February for five rounds at Redcliffe,” Fox concluded.
The 2015 Australian tour has already been announced and ready to go, so hopefully everyone is getting their race skis ready.
Although competition was fierce, this was a club event after all, and everyone was happy to lend a hand and help one another between motos.
QPWC Winter Titles – Atkinsons Dam Qld July 26-27
Ski Open: 1. James Xveres, 2. Michael Stevens, 3. Justin Windsor; N/A & Sports: 1. Justin Calvert, 2. Jamie Eade, 3. Clyde Grant; Beginner Runabout: 1. Brett Douglas, 2. Sam Barrott, 3. Fraser Heaton; Amateur Stock: 1. Mathew Atallah, 2. Wade Clucas, 3. Dave Albert; Pro/Am Stock: 1. Mitch Wyatt, 2. Mark Dallow, 3. Greg Hack; Pro Open: 1. Brendan Boyd, 2. Dan Fox, 3. Justin Belczowski
Several years ago, while I worked as the Associate Editor for the now defunct monthly magazine Corvette Fever, the printers had erroneously reprinted the beginning 30-or-so pages twice, replacing the centerfold and major features. Obviously, this caused quite the stir and upset a significant amount of subscribers who demanded refunds for the botched issue (which was never reprinted correctly).
I mention this because many readers of The Watercraft Journal might’ve noticed we’ve experienced a few technological hiccups over the last week. Heck, just last night we had to revert to a “basic” layout to iron out some final wrinkles. Thankfully, we’ve isolated the gremlins and are feverishly working to not only restore your favorite personal watercraft magazine to its former glory, but actually radically improve its functionality with mobile devices and tablets.
Unfortunately, these last two days of triage shut down our analytic record keeping, thus making it impossible for us to properly celebrate us clearly achieving our goal of surpassing 14,000 individual readers for the month of July. Obviously, any good trending statistician will take a look at our curve and agree that yes, we reached our goal, but again, we want to always be forthright with the information we present.
That being said, this edition of “By The Numbers” also marks the conclusion of our third quarter. That’s a big deal indeed, as those companies who are already preparing for the closure of the riding season are looking for the right resources to help keep them busy through the winter. Again, because The Watercraft Journal is the only daily magazine that publishes original and compelling content Monday through Friday, we are the perfect partner to help broadcast your products and services to the widest audience in our sport.
November 2013 Through July 2014
July 2014
More Content For More Readers
Do you want to know why advertising in The Watercraft Journal has more value than print? We aren’t limited by page count – enabling us to happily publish an endless supply of intelligently-written, engaging content endemic to your brand. Advertisers benefit from a full-calendar’s worth of specific articles highlighting their products, services and promotions in the industry. You don’t get that in print. You don’t get that anywhere else.
Feature articles published in July: 13
Total word count: 12,771 words*
*When this number is translated to print publication standards equals a 108-page magazine. Please note that this number does not include an average of two uniquely-written news articles published daily.
More People For More Exposure
Producing more articles than anybody else doesn’t do you any bit of good if nobody is reading them. Thankfully, that is not the case for The Watercraft Journal. The quality grade of our content combined with our unmatched velocity has garnered us the largest reading audience of any personal watercraft magazine today. Our advertisers get access to more potential customers than with any other publication through endemic feature articles, monthly news releases and updates and high impact advertising.
July
Total number unique readers: 13,695*
Total number of articles read: 34,402
Percentage of new readers: 63.48%
Top (5) Nations in 2nd Quarter:
United States – 11,402
Canada – 1,491
Australia – 1,330
United Kingdom – 555
Greece – 331
Total unique readers: 70,602*
Total Articles Read: 230,986
Percentage of new readers: 60.09%
All-Time Top (5) Nations:
United States – 70,944
Australia – 9,325
Canada – 6,248
United Kingdom – 4,943
New Zealand – 2,176
Total Percentage of Mobile Device Users: 39%
*This number is considered equal to an individual sale of a single copy of a magazine.
More Readers With a Wider Reach
It’s been a nice compliment that so many media outlets are doing their darnedest to either match, mimic or even surpass what we accomplish here at The Watercraft Journal. But since the launch of Our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and weekly newsletter, The Watercraft Journal has made it a point to use social media to its fullest extent to bring the PWC enthusiast industry all of its daily content in fastest ways possible.
Total Facebook Followers: 9,302
Total Twitter Followers: 207
Total Instagram Followers: 591
Total Weekly Newsletter Subscribers: 728
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43YuOUHKFKE
Are You Ready For This?
We’re only nine months into publishing the Internet’s only daily personal watercraft magazine and we’re already the single-most popular magazine in the United States of America. We’ve welcomed over 70,000 individuals to our site who have read over 230,000 articles! That’s a staggering number that many in our industry can’t really wrap their heads around. But that’s OK, we want you to join the party and advertise with us anyways! Support the fastest-growing magazine this sport has seen and see your business exposed to more readers and enthusiasts than anywhere else!
Hosted in the shadow of Lake Havasu’s famous London Bridge, the Under The Bridge Show will be held that Saturday night, October 11th, before the final day of racing. On hand will be demonstrations from Flyboard, Sea-Doo and Bomboard while the freestyle competitors will show off their skills before a massive audience gathering along the bridge and on either sides of the channel.
Of course, the best place to take in the action is famous waterfront nightclub Kokomo’s, so get there early to get the best front-row spot!
The original release:
Blowsion, Bun Freestyle, Flyboard, Sea-Doo, Bomboard, Jetlift, and others will be bringing back the successful Saturday night Freestyle show under the London Bridge on October 11th. Product demonstrations from Bomboard, Sea-Doo, and Flyboard will frontload a session of the Jettribe World Finals’ Professional Freestyle Athletes as they attempt to add winning points to their tally.
Top finishing competitors from Saturday’s Pro Freestyle competition, at Crazy Horse Campgrounds and Resort, will gather at the London Bridge Resort at approximately 5:30. A custom rail system, provided by Jetlift, will be used to lower the competitors into the channel while spectators enjoy product demonstrations from Flyboard, Sea-Doo, and Bomboard.
Freestyle competition will begin at approximately 6:00PM. Last year, thousands gathered along the shore under the London Bridge and we expect more this year. We recommend people get to the shoreline early, or make their way into Kokomo’s for the best chance at prime viewing.
For any questions about the 2014 Jettribe World Finals or the Under The Bridge Freestyle Show, please email: [email protected]
If you didn’t already have a good enough reason to be at this year’s 2014 Jettribe IJSBA World Finals in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Hydro-Turf has stepped in to partner with Macc Racing for the second annual Flip-Off competition!
Held the final day of the Finals, Sunday October 12th after the Pro freestyle heat, this year’s winner will not only receive the massive winner-take-all $2,000 purse (provided by Macc Racing and Hydro-Turf), they will also be crowned the World
Record Holder as the Guinness Book Of World Records will be on hand (that is, provided the winner completes over 20 flips, effectively breaking last year’s winner Daniel Martin’s record).
The Xscream rider will of course return to defend his title that he claimed over Kazu Sakaida.
2014 Flip-Off Rules (subject to change):
1. The competitor’s routine starts when the first flip goes into motion.
2. The competitor’s routine when movement or momentum stops for any reason.
3. The flip must be continuous from the last flip as a fluid movement, any shift in momentum, including setting up for another flip, will end the routine.
4. Failing to land a flip will end the routine.
5. One tie breaking round will be held if necessary.
There’s no shortage new toys that quickly attach to the jet pump of a personal watercraft these days. Whether you want to fly with a jetpack strapped to your back, lock your feet in to a Flyboard, try your hand at a jet-powered Hoverboard or streak across the sky like Iron Man, water-propelled flight has become the newest form of entertainment.
The Jetovator is not exactly new but still makes us smile. It’s bicycle-like design provides significantly more stability than say, the Hoverboard and allows for a full range of motion while maintaining a feeling closer to a sport bike.
Late last year, the Jetovator was featured on the Travel Channel’s “Ride-iculous!” program, showing riders a series of complicated rolls, stalls, dives and flips. The thrust of the the center jet helped maintain plenty of height while the side thrusters manipulated the direction and pitch of the bike.
Below is the official press release for the Jetovator with the clip featured on “Ride-iculous!”
Are you ready to take watersports airborne?
The JETOVATOR, designed and built in the USA by Jetavation Inc, is an easy to install watersports accessory that utilizes the jet thrust of any standard personal watercraft(PWC) to propel and elevate a light-weight, flying bike.
Designed with the familiarity and comfort of a motorcycle, riders can fly at speeds up to 25 MPH, dive 10 feet below the water, and even perform daring aerial stunts such as barrel rolls and back flips. The Jetovator can reach heights up to 30 feet utilizing high volume, low pressure water supplied via a 40 foot hose connected to the thrust output of a standard PWC.
The Jetovator is one of several new water-propelled flying devices in the fast growing vertical watersports segment, and the Jetovator offers the highest level of safety and ease of use.
Jetovator pilots are able to control their own height and direction by manipulating the two front control nozzles. The Jetovator pilot is assisted by a trained instructor onboard the trailing PWC who can limit the speed, height, and provide aide if needed to new riders. The safety features have made it a perfect rental for marinas and resorts looking for an attractive new watersports alternative.
The experience is up to YOU! Mild or wild; Jetovator is fun for all skill levels.
This year’s Grayland Open is taking things to the next level; the 2014 Grayland Open marks the begging of the first National Freeride Tour in the USA. That makes this a rather groundbreaking event for the sport of Freeride in the US and the beginning of a new age in the jet ski world. Finally after many years of anticipation someone finally stepped up to the plate and took charge by rounding up the events we have in place already and creating a tour for the US. That person happened to be none other than the Australian Nick Barton of Krash Industries.
I have been actively pursuing the idea of linking all the States’ biggest contests and freerides for quite some time now, and everyone really wanted to make something happen and were really positive about it, but it seemed like we just couldn’t find someone who was willing to put the Tour on their back and organize the whole thing.
Finally, one day Nick, who also started and organizes the Australian Freeride National Tour, said, “You know what the sport needs is a National Freeride Tour in the USA. I’ll do it!”
Right after that, I put him in contact with the different event organizers here in the states and then BOOM! the next thing you know, we’ve got the 2014 Krash Industries USA Freeride National Tour!
For 2014, the Tour has four stops planned: The first of which being in Washington at the Grayland Open in August from the 8th-9th. After that is still to be announced but is scheduled to be around September, then we’re headed to the Daytona Freeride in January (15th-18th) and finally, the end of the tour will be a stop in Virginia Beach at the Wavedaze in April from the 10th-12th.
Every stop of the tour will be judged by IFWA standards with 50-percent of the score being judged on surf riding and 50-percent being judged on aerial maneuvers.
Each stop will have five different classes allowing for all different riders to compete. Stand up classes include Masters class (35-years and older), Rookies class (beginners class judged only on surf riding), Amateur class (Surf and Aerials), Pro class (for the big guns) and finally there’s a Runabout class for all the ‘Blaster and X2 guys!
These events are designed to bring out all different levels of riders from riders competing for their first time, some of which may even be riding surf for the first time, all the way to the seasoned pros who travel around to different events in the states (and around the world) each year who are willing to put it all on the line for the win!
Everyone please come show your support for the Grayland Open and the rest of the Tour stops this year! We are very excited about the begging of this new chapter of Freeride and really hope to see each and every one of you out at this years tour stops either in the water shredding waves on your ski, on the beach soaking up some sun, partying with friends and cheering on your favorite Freeriders!
It is promised to be a good time for everyone and you should be sure not to miss it! This is history in the making people so be there and help show your support for the sport and the kick off of the new Krash Industries USA Freeride Nationals Tour! See you on the beach!
A large portion of the Hydro-Turf HQ is dedicated to the HT Premier line, where custom canvas-stitched seats are tailored for a variety of applications.
For those old enough to remember the early years of Kawasaki 440 and 550 standups will recall how miserable the black sharkskin foam tray padding was. It chaffed terribly and it wouldn’t be long before large chunks of it suddenly vanished. Spongy, prone to weathering and flaking and woefully unattractive, the early jet skiers were in dire need for a better product.
Prior to its official launch in 1990, Hydro-Turf was once known as Jet-Strip, offering riders of the mid-to-late 1980s some very radical colors, including a full array of fluorescent hues that all managed to retain their brilliance far longer than its competitors as well as holding up longer to the rigors of active standup riding. It was only when the company traded hands from one brother to another that Arno Olbricht helped steer the company to being possibly one of the largest brand names in the personal watercraft aftermarket industry.
Based in Anaheim, California, Hydro-Turf has become so synonymous with performance traction products that a ski bare of some HT product is more rare than those without it. So much so that all of Kawasaki’s current PWC brandish the iconic oval logo embossed in the swim platform mat, and Yamaha proudly boasted that its top-of-the-line Super Vortex High Output WaveRunners feature two-tone Hydro-Turf traction mats.
One such unique piece is this HT Moto rear seat designed for sport bike freestyle where a rider can place his foot into a reinforced backseat foothold for wheelies and other tricks.More than any other product, Hydro-Turf ships out hundreds of uncut sheets of traction matting to a wide swathe of boat builders, board shapers and PWC builders.
In 2008, Hydro-Turf expanded it’s product line to include the top tier HT Moto brand (now newly rechristened as “HT Premier”), providing hand-stitched seat covers, footwells and tray matting for personal watercraft, as well as custom seat covers for dune buggies, sand rails, and UTVs, as well as sport bikes, bicycles and other motorcycles. Hydro-Turf has also become a major fixture in the standup paddleboard aftermarket as well as wakeboards and skates, providing lifter wedges and traction mats for better leg and back support.
Hydro-Turf – through distributors like Ross Champion’s Soft Deck – has also found its way on elite military vehicles and sea craft. But, it wouldn’t be the PWC or off-road market that would be Hydro-Turf’s biggest customer. “By far, we sell more [uncut] sheets of Hydro-Turf than anything else,” Olbricht told The Watercraft Journal during our visit last week. “We move through more pallets of product than any kit, seat cover or other item we offer.”
Applications for the die-cut mats can be found in ski and sport boats, bass and duck hunting boats and skiffs and even fan-powered air boats. So much so, that requests for a variety of camouflage patterns have expanded Hydro-Turf’s color and pattern selection. Currently, the focus by many has been on their two-toned colors, of which, Hydro-Turf has two kinds: a single mat that is dyed, and a sheet made of two glued-together colors.
Inside HT HQ, the warehouse floor is a dizzying melee of action, as workers race to fill orders, and cut and process sheets of material.Hydro-Turf does make swatches available for color comparisons, but serious shoppers will also want to consider the variety of cut grooves HT offers as well.
Either sold solid, or cut in diamond, waffle, grooved, two-tone mats have become so popular that Hydro-Turf is preparing to sell “teak” style mats for larger boats. But what might surprise you is Hydro-Turf’s other items it sells. Olbricht laughed, “We literally sell hundreds of oil extractors. Y’know, those oil change pumps that suck the oil up from the crankcase. We can hardly stock ’em.”
While touring Hydro-Turf’s cavernous 12,000-square foot facility, we were impressed with the condensed layout necessary to house, process, and package so many orders of material stock, as well as those kits requiring a more personalized flair. Seat patterns for the HT Moto (Premier) line have all been laid out previously, allowing customers the option to pick their colors to place in the pre-established layout. Paired with a set of Hydro-Turf mats and someone can radically change the look of their ski in the space of a few hours.
Behind the HT headquarters sat a long row of shipping containers packed full of reams of blank sheets of material. Likewise, in crates stacked above the containers. Although a dumpster and several waste bins overflowed with colorful trimmings, Hydro-Turf is wise not to waste any needful piece that can be applied elsewhere. Jet skiers have become more resourceful as of late and so has HT.
Each of these massive shipping containers are crammed full of uncut material ready to be turned into a custom kit for your ski, or shipped out to you as a single piece.
“Many standup riders – especially freeriders – want a whole sheet rather than a kit,” Olbricht continued. “They’ve become masters as covering their skis, the footwells and odd-shaped trays. They’re great at it. We love seeing what they come up with.”
In addition to freeriders, Hydro-Turf has become a mainstay of all PWC riders. Racers use their products almost exclusively. Everyday enthusiasts turn to Hydro-Turf to either directly replace their traction mats with like-new material (as their runabouts likely came with Hydro-Turf to begin with) or add some desired personalization. “I can open up [any magazine] and see our name 50 times.” Olbricht beamed. “We love being that for so many people. It’s a great.”
One of the most iconic names in the personal watercraft industry, Hydro-Turf also maintains strong footholds in the standup paddleboard, surfboard, wakeboard and boating industries.
Nine acres of the world famous Body Beach – a half-mile stretch of undeveloped, fee-free lakefront land on the eastern shores of Arizona’s Lake Havasu, frequented by boaters and personal watercraft enthusiasts for several decades – will officially be up for grabs to the highest bidder by early 2015.
According to HavasuNews.com, funding for the acquisition has already been approved by the Lake Havasu City Council, with plans to ultimately expand the popular Rotary Park into the neighboring area currently known as “Body Beach.” Though the city will be forced to bid against other developers for purchase of the land, it will be given preference due to their current lease of the entire 47.5-acre parcel from Arizona State Land Department (ASLD).
Development plans have yet to be finalized, however, and according to deputy city manager Larry Didion, the city will most likely ask for the public’s input on exactly how to best use the land, if purchased.
A call to action has already sparked to life on the Internet and Facebook, with activists vowing to begin circulating pledges, writing letters to city officials, and rallying local businesses to support keeping this tabernacle of personal watercraft racing open and free to everyone.
For over fifteen years, supporters of an unadulterated Body Beach have voiced their collective concern over the potential acquisition and development of Body Beach, with a surprising amount of support given from local business, concerned citizens, even city government officials to keep the day-use area open and fee-free. With a partial acquisition on the table, however, many are predicting that this will be the end of Body Beach – at least as the community has come to know it for the last 30 years.
Good salesmanship is problem solving, and Nick Ferrugia, owner of The Long Lake Grocery in Grand Traverse County, Colorado, has solved a major problem for many of his customers. When Nick noticed customers lined up across the street from the store at the public beach’s dock, he knew that something was up.
