We’ve had a few more racing stories than we normally do these past few days, so if you’re turned off by helmets and standup skis, I apologize. But, I want to make special exception for Kevin Reiterer. This Austrian dynamo has clinched 12 World Championships and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
This time around, Kevin and crew grabbed their twelfth world title in Limited and finished up with an overall third in Pro Ski. That’s pretty awesome, but in addition to Kevin’s athleticism, he also has a fantastic eye for cranking out some really good videos.
Below is his cool recap of his first-hand 2013 World Finals experience and is definitely worth a watch, but when you’re done, I strongly recommend perusing his video channel and checking out his other works. They’re pretty dang entertaining and really makes you want to join him in the water the next time he goes out. And that’s how you know he does it right.
Apparently, shoehorning a four-stroke into standup and revitalizing Kawasaki’s mothballed SX-R is a really hot topic. But that comes as no surprise as so many people have already crammed Kawasaki’s 1.5L plant (both naturally-aspirated or supercharged iterations), turbocharged Weber rotary engines from Hydrospace S4s, and even a massive supercharged 1.8L SHO into the legendary standup.
Whether the new motorcycle engine that was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show last week will eventually become the brand’s new smaller displacement PWC engine is unknown, but what is clear is the demand for a clean-running four-stroke standup. So much so, that multiple World Champion and owner of Sydney Sea-Doo Performance, James Masterton is taking it upon himself to do exactly that.
Titled the SXR900, Sydney Sea-Doo Performance has plopped a brand new ACE 900 engine into the ski. Yanked from a brand-new Sea-Doo Spark, the tiny Rotax engine spits out a reasonable 90hp (when optioned) from the factory. Obviously, a little aftermarket attention can crank that number into the triple digits rather quickly, so the SXR900 will need a few mods to accommodate accordingly.
Currently, a custom fuel tank and driveshaft are being fabricated as well as a new hull mold to improve engine fitment and drop the center of gravity. The system also goes without Sea-Doo’s heat extractor opting for an open-loop cooling system.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This last September really took the wind out of my sails when Kawasaki revealed very little in regards to new vehicles for 2014. “Now wait,” I hear you saying. “They radically improved the engine efficiency, cooling and oiling, making it produce an extra 10-horsepower over its already industry leading 300.” And you know what, you’d be right. It’s great stuff.
But c’mon man, that motor needed some attention anyways. Where were the new skis? Motocross handlebars on a 300X does not a new model make. How about a new entry level? How about an Ultra 300X-powered STX? Where was that? Oh, and how about that four-stroke standup we all know Kawasaki has? Seriously, guys. Make with the products people are asking for already.
I bring all this up because my sources pretty much confirmed that these were what the future held for the Big K. Putting what reliability I have on the line is a big deal, so that’s why its with some trepidation that I let out something I’ve been holding close to my vest for a few months…Honda wants back in.
You’re not going to see a press release or some leaked images floating around the web. No, these are below-the-surface grumblings that have the makings of a comeback tour for the one manufacturer that could’ve risen to the top had they been willing. Let me explain:
Honda terminated production of the full-sized F-15 series after Powerhouse dealers struggled to move previous edition F- and R-12 series Aquatrax.
Despite being a major force in the motorcycle, motocross, ATV, and off-road segments, Honda Motorsports never really gave the Aquatrax a chance to shine. Considering the size of the Honda Motorsports machine, the Aquatrax could’ve been an industry leader. But again, Honda got in its own way. They were exorbitantly priced, particularly considering a dismal lack of features, and were literally hard to find.
Honda PWC were sold explicitly through select Powerhouse Honda dealers in only four countries: Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia. No Central and South America, no European continent, no East and South East nations. I find this exceptionally bizarre. By heavily restricting availability, the Aquatrax PWC never really had the chance to spread.
When Honda announced that they were ceasing production of their PWC, the newly appointed chairman of Honda Motorsports was quoted as saying, “We need to focus our efforts on selling the product we already have. Once that is done, then we can organize ourselves in building new product.”
Those few Powerhouse dealers who had permission to sell Aquatrax still sat on dozens of unsold units ranging back several years. Domestically, it took until late last year for the final few unsold F-12s and F-15s to finally move. That would sound pretty dismal were it not for two things:
Although the Honda’s clearly showed promise, very few opted to modify or actively compete aboard the Aquatrax although aftermarket support from Worx Racing and Macsboost revealed huge potential.
First, I received word that engineers from the American Honda Motorsports headquarters in Torrance, California, were seeking out used F-12 and turbo-charged F-12X’s with incredibly high hours. And for the record, these were corporate purchases, not a pair of Honda employees who wanted to go jump surf outside of Queensgate.
Some idle chitchat revealed that the wheels were moving within Honda to evaluate whether the product they made stood up to the harsh rigors of extended riding and what could be learned from it. It bears explaining that major manufacturers take slow, methodical steps when it comes to moves like starting up a product line, and every avenue begs exploring.
Moreover, Honda’s smaller R-12X two-seater was nimble, loose and fun – all adjectives applied to the new Spark. But the difference is that the R-12X was fast too. Lightweight and turbo-charged, the R-12X was originally aimed at Sea-Doo’s RXP. But now, it has the opportunity to claim the vacant middle ground between the Spark and the larger RXP-X of today.
Meanwhile, phone calls have been made to dealers gauging interest in Sea-Doo’s newly minted entry-level runabout, the Spark. Why the Spark? Because Honda launched the motorcycle-equivalent, the “Grom” earlier this year to rave reviews earning them intimate understanding of BRP’s tactics.
More importantly, it was revealed earlier this year that Honda Motorsports’ Timmonsville, South Carolina, manufacturing facility still has all of the original molds, tooling and equipment necessary to rekindle production in short time. Alas, these are not smoking guns, but any means, but circumstantial evidence to something that may or may not happen. But again, it’s worth mentioning.
Personally, I loved Honda’s full-sized F-15X. It was stable in chop, intuitive in corners, and reliable to boot. It behaved like a blend of Kawasaki’s Ultra 260X (before Kawasaki reshaped the Ultra’s hull for the 300) and Yamaha’s FX Cruiser, and was just a great looking three-seater. Sure, it was overpriced and lacked three-quarters the accessories that came standard on a Sea-Doo GTI Limited, but I was still a fan.
There are still quite a few loyal Honda Aquatrax riders out there – as well as folks who are brand loyal because of their cars and motorcycles who would happily cross over. But, it Honda is going to seriously consider returning to watercraft, they need to think less exclusive and more inclusive.
For those who’ve known me long enough know that I’ll be the first to admit that my initial project watercraft – an ill-fated Kawasaki Ultra 250X named “Copperhead” – was more or less a “no-go showboat.” The endeavor of my first year as Editor of Personal Watercraft Illustrated, I wanted to convert the pre-production demo unit into a real attention-grabbing offshore/enduro machine as well as a test mule for all of the new aftermarket goodies that the industry was cranking out in 2007.
Unfortunately, one hydrolocked engine and a woefully scattered supercharger later, Copperhead was destined for the scrapper. Despite a fantastic custom paint job by John Dady and his crew of artists at Blowsion, a beautiful set of custom seat covers and mats from HT Moto, a bunch of dedicated time from Greg Beaver of Circuit Jet Sports and a whole lot of performance parts from R&D Performance and RIVA Racing, Copperhead devoured a few pistons during the first lap of the 2008 Mark Hahn Memorial 300 and blew a pair of cooling hoses during the Long Beach to Catalina enduro five months later.
There’s no denying that Copperhead was a good looking ski, it’s just too bad I couldn’t keep motors from blowing up. I won’t lie, the idea of making Copperhead 2 out of a new 300R has crossed my mind.
In light of its miserable track record, I still have people asking me about the ski. While I shrug off its lowly top speed of 71.4 mph or its long list of broken parts, people still look back at the project fondly. Although I only have a handful of pictures to remember the ski by, what I cherish more are the friends I made in the process.
This is the heart-wrenching demise of Copperhead. Kawasaki’s Jon Baynes is the executioner with the Sawzall.
Being my first foray into offshore racing, PWCOffshore.com’s Mark Gerner and crew immediately enveloped me, inviting me to train time and time again, stopping by the offices and providing plenty of welcomed input. A couple years later, on the day I learned that Personal Watercraft Illustrated was to fold, Gerner drove out to the office just to be there as I packed up my office.
As I struggled to gain an authorial voice at PWI, I was almost never without a standing invitation by Yamaha-racer and Mark Hahn Memorial 300 organizer Mike Follmer to join him for lunch. When my wife and I brought our first daughter home from the hospital, Mike had a massive Costco-sized box of diapers waiting on my desk. Even when I attempted to compete against him and his 80mph FZR, Mike was always cordial and free with advice (most of which I really should’ve listened to).
Fast forwarding to this year, the day after Watercraft Performance and I forcibly parted ways, I was never more humbled to receive emails, texts and phone calls from friends, acquaintances, manufacturers – including all three OE manufacturers (and a long-time friend and representative of Honda) – encouraging me to pick myself up, dust myself off and keep at it.
If I could figure out a way to weasel former PWI Associate Editor Justin Stannard away from his new-found love of breeding Whippets, I’d bring him back too.
When things got their bleakest, GreenHulk.net’s Jerry Gaddis – who has been a friend for a long time – came to my defense, coaching me through the development of The Watercraft Journal and even assisting in the framing of the soon-to-be-released Watercraft Outfitters, for no gain or benefit of his own.
Even the freelancers and contributors who joined me at WCP have equally followed me into this new venture. Enthusiasts, club and team owners, racers and aftermarket companies alike rallied my spirits within days of the news getting out. Never before have I felt so much of a part of a community.
It is this sentiment that was instrumental in the underlying tone of The Watercraft Journal. In the spirit of gratitude and seeing that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I felt obliged to express how deeply grateful I am to be a part of this industry, this community, this family. It’s rare when you work in a sport where upon the announcement of the birth of your second child the first two people to “Like” your midnight Facebook post are Chris and Rachel MacClugage, as just one example. It’s even more rare when you can thank those who’ve freely given of their time and talents for no better reason than to help another help the sport grow.
And that ultimately is the cause of The Watercraft Journal as well as so much of what all of us do. May we all take a moment to thank those friends and family we have in and out of this sport, as their presence in our lives have helped to craft who we all are (whether you like it or not).
Let’s be honest, the announcement of Kawasaki’s 2014 lineup of PWC didn’t really land all that well. Sure, we all looove more horsepower, but when no competitor is remotely close to topping the Big K’s whopping 300 ponies, an extra 10 really doesn’t push the fence-sitters over the edge. In fact, in light of Sea-Doo’s open-armed welcoming of a whole new age demographic, Kawasaki’s posturing to go “exclusive” look pretty bad.
So what could turn the ship around for the brand who gave us the first JetSki? Well, besides a true four-stroke standup (which we know you have sitting on the self, guys. Seriously, cough it up already), a fresh-faced and lightweight entry level runabout would do wonders. The brand’s STX is over a decade old and frankly, shows every wrinkle and gray hair.
Our imaginations went wild when the Japanese manufacturer unveiled the first production motorcycle engine equipped with a supercharger at the Tokyo Motor Show last week. At “close to 1,000cc,” this powerful little four-stroke is purported to power the next generation ZX-14R, but details are still a little fuzzy according to a release published in Ride Apart.
The smaller, lighter engine could easily find its way in a new entry-level runabout while still providing horsepower on par with larger full-sized competitors, thus ensuring Kawasaki’s apparent commitment to producing more horsepower than the average rider should have.
Although the year commencing the US tour of P1 AquaX series was solely in Florida, the transplanted racing series drew in new more and more races with each event. The four tour stops – Daytona Beach, Pahokee, Space Coast, and St. Cloud – welcomed both professional and amateur racers to test their mettle against each other and the elements.
Originally held around the United Kingdom, the AquaX series is unique in that modifications to the personal watercraft are heavily restricted to merely the handling and steering components. Engine performance modifications are strictly outlawed, as the classes are broken down by horsepower – 200hp -250hp- 300hp – not by rider.
Even with IJSBA World Champions in the fray, this year welcomed a rookie, Kevin Wassum as its first series championship, who rode his bone-stock Sea-Doo RXP-X at each event, gathering enough accrued points to take the top spot.
Below are a pair of videos put together by Greg Broche. Enjoy!
It’s easy for people to flippantly disregard posts published on a forum as being anything less than legitimate. But as is with anything, consistency builds credibility and the reason why Jerry Gaddis’ online performance forum www.GreenHulk.net is the go-to source for all things top performance is because of the clockwork-like reliability of its moderators and top performance posts.
So when Jerry published his review of Vortech Superchargers’ new billet V-50 Supercharger, people took notice. Unlike competing and factory configurations, this centrifugal blower utilizes a specially-engineered Vortech shaft and ceramic bearing, eliminating the need for a axillary friction clutch.
Additionally, the housing is water-cooled dropping operating temps to a minimum, and is designed to serve as a direct replacement for the 1.8L SHO and SVHO Yamaha engines. When installed on his FZR project ski, the Yamaha immediate hit the rev limiter which was set at 8700 rpm. Jerry recorded the boost at 19 psi, with the air-to-fuel mixture running far too lean in the high 13s. Even with the small supercharger wheel, the Yamaha clicked off an impressive 86.0 mph.
Jerry has plans for mapping for the stock ECU and 1,000cc injectors, as well as for the middle and largest boost impellers too. Nevertheless, the V-50 Vortech Supercharger proved a quick solution to getting a FZR well up into the mid-80s.
While we’re still awaiting the possible announcement of an all-new American Freeride Tour, we are excited to let everybody know about another awesome event to come to the Pacific Coast this upcoming June 14, 2014 – the West Coast Surf Riders Invitational. Not a judged or sanctioned event, the invitational is an open freeride for surf riders and spectators to flock to the shores of Half Moon Bay near Westhaven State Park.
Held in the little surf town of Westport, Washington, the city has been cordial enough to invite the Westcoast Surf Riders to help celebrate the City of Westport Centennial. In addition to putting on a great show for the good people of Westport, this is a choice opportunity to act as emissaries for the sport and help spread the stoke of freeriding.
As per the announcement:
This is an open Freeride just for fun day to hang out on a great beach in a great town and showcase the sport we enjoy and answer questions that the spectators might have. This will also be a great opportunity to promote and give information on the Grayland Open Amateur Freeride Nationals Competition that will be in the neighboring town of Grayland during the 2nd weekend of august. There is a parking lot to park cars and trailers but skis will have to be brought in on a beach cart a couple hundred feet. No vehicle access to the beach at half moon bay.
Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a fun filled weekend of freeride.
The P1 AquaX season finals in St. Cloud, Florida would be the last race event of my first year racing a personal watercraft. As a rookie racer, looking at the 38-ski roster for St. Cloud was a bit intimidating. The sheer volume of racers that would be going into that first turn was enough to generate some nerves. A second glance at the names on that roster revealed a who’s who of professional racers along with the already strong presence of fellow rookie racers. So with the massive line-up and the season title on the line, I was just focused on getting a decent start and making it through the first couple of turns without going swimming.
New to racing, Wassum was joined by his wife Corrie throughout the Florida-only series.
Prior to this summer, I had never competed in any sanctioned watercraft racing events, but I had always hoped an endurance race series would some day come to Florida. This past spring, I received a message from AquaX USA’s race promoter, Michelle Petro, telling me about a new race series and asked if I’d be interested in participating. It felt like I had already pushed the long distance adventure trips as far as they could go, and it seemed like it might be time to try something new.
It’s always a bit intimidating to participate in a new sport for the first time, but as a rookie racer, AquaX is probably the easiest race series to get into. All first-time AquaX racers have to complete a mandatory safety and race training session, regardless of prior experience in other racing series. A few pieces of basic safety gear (most of which are already owned by the average rec-rider) and a stock watercraft are all that you need to get started.
The AquaX Stock class rules only allow for basic handling mods, so you can literally show up to your first race and be on a level playing field with guys who have been racing professionally for many years. In my opinion, this is the single most attractive thing about the AquaX series: being able to win based on endurance and riding ability, and not the amount of money you’re able to pour into your boat.
Besides only minor modifications to the steering and handling components, all watercraft are restricted to as-stock factory performance settings. Image: Kurt NgSayeIn Wassum’s view, with vehicle modifications being heavily restricted, the AquaX series is truly an athlete’s race.
Preparing to race in this series really requires two things; good physical conditioning and a mechanically sound boat. Each AquaX event consists of three races, two of which are 30 minutes each, and run back-to-back on the same day. To be able to stay competitive throughout an entire event, you’ve got to be paying attention to your conditioning and diet leading up to race day.
As a long time hockey player, I had previously thought that I was in pretty decent shape, but once the start flag dropped at our first race in Daytona, I quickly realized that I had underestimated just how tough it would be to run WOT in the surf for 30 minutes. Nonetheless, I was instantly hooked…
After taking a few spills and getting lapped in each of those first three races at Daytona, I was determined to improve before the next event. Throughout the rest of the summer I was fortunate enough to receive a lot of help and advice from more experienced racers like Cody Hawkins, Jeremy Schandelmayer, and Brent Venderley, and I’m very thankful for that.
There could be no better example of how the P1 AquaX series is designed to appeal to the enthusiast-level competitor than Kevin Wassum’s experience. Using a bone stock ski and a lot of determination, Wassum bested professional racers to claim a Series Championship.Wassum rode his bone-stock 2012 Sea-Doo RXP-X to several podium finishes over the course of the series, earning him the Series Championship.
Even if you’re not quite at the skill level or physical shape to earn a first place podium spot, the races are still a lot of fun. For me personally, I challenged myself with goals and kept my focus narrow in order to continue learning and improving with each race. By the end of the season, I found myself headed into the final round just a few points behind the season’s overall points leader.
At St. Cloud, the final round proved to be every bit as fun and intense as everyone had expected. There was a lot of great racing, and although I was unable to podium for that weekend’s race, I managed to gain enough points to capture the season title. Capturing the AquaX’s inaugural season title during my first year as a racer is something I will always be proud of. It also proves just how easy it is for a new racer to get started and be successful in this series.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, I fully expect the series to continue growing and make watercraft racing a popular sport for fans and spectators, and I would highly recommend it to the average watercraft owner.
As a first-time racer, Wassum met and befriended several professional racers and is thankful to AquaX for the experience and new found friendships.
This series seems to have the perfect formula for bringing in new riders without requiring a pro-racer budget. The large course setups also greatly reduce the chances of damaging your watercraft in a collision and make Aqua X a safe series for riders of all skill levels to participate.
Lastly, aside from the fun of the challenge, one of the best parts of this series was the camaraderie of the racers involved. Though you compete against these people at each race, they quickly become some of your best friends. We all want to win, but when you realize what it takes to finish a 30 minute race in rough waters you end up feeling a strong sense of respect and gratefulness towards the other competitors who push you to perform to your limits.
For those who don’t believe that Florida is completely void of any decent big surf have never traveled to the Sunshine State’s Sebastian Inlet. There they would find what the locals call “Monster Hole.” The long left-hand break is created by a shallow rocky sandbar nearly a quarter mile offshore, producing average 4-to-6-foot waves with big days topping 8-feet with ease.
The area is also notorious for its many rip currents and its shark population. Not exactly the spot for beginners. Between the sandbar and the beach, the wave is considered one of the most powerful on the East Coast. If it sounds intimidating, that’s because it is. And that’s what made it so appealing to the Florida Freeriders who met up with some southeastern Florida riders to test their mettle on what many called “An OK day.”
Below is a video of their shenanigans, including plenty of nose stabs, barrel rolls, a backflip or two, and some sensational bailouts. Y’know, the usual stuff you’d expect from some hardcore freeriders. Big thanks go out to James Ross for putting together this footage for all of us to enjoy!
