Sea-Doo is entering the hydrofoil market with the electric Rise. It is geared toward most everyone who wants to have fun on the water. With the ability to transition as its rider gains more experience, you won’t outgrow it. This makes it accessible to the entire family.
The Rise is super innovative and versatile. It is equipped with a retractable handlebar, which is a really cool feature. It enables you to ride standing up or on your knees. It will help the new surfer build confidence as they’re learning how to stand up and balance. Fold it down, when you’re ready, and go surfing!
Another cool thing about the Rise, is that you don’t have to use the foil. It folds up inside the board. That is a cool feature. You can also partially deploy the foil and ride it like that. When you’re ready to get going, click the handheld remote, select your cruising speed, and zip across the water.
The Rise is extremely quiet too, so you can enjoy the sounds of nature and focus on your ride. The board is simple to use and easy to charge. Sea-Doo is bringing a truly elevated experience to their already packed lineup of watercraft. The Rise will allow you to maximize your fun on the water. It is scheduled to be available in the summer of 2024, so we have a while to wait. For now, check out the video clip and some pics of this neat little hydrofoil.
If you haven’t purchased a Bopenski Kickback Chair by now or are considering buying another, now is the time. Bopenski Watersports has them marked down to $139.00, that’s $30 off the regular price. These chairs are great, and they offer versatility to your jet ski life. Take a break from racing around on the water and kick back in one of these comfortable chairs. It only takes a minute to set up. You can chill with your favorite beverage or do some fishing. We hear they’re great to rest your eyes in too.
The chairs can hold a couple of pockets for holding your drink and other small items. The chairs support up to 225 pounds and fit most 3-seat makes and models of jet skis with a tow-eye or pylon. They are built to last and have a 1-year warranty.
We’ve raved about the Bopenski chairs for years and will continue to do so because they are one of the best aftermarket jet ski accessories to hit the market for the recreational rider. If you own a 2020-2022 model Sea-Doo without the pylon or tow eye, Bopenski carries the strap you need to attach your chair to your PWC. Order a Bopenski Kickback Chair today! You will be glad you did! Your days on the water will be forever changed, in a good way of course. Happy riding!
More than fifty personal watercraft riders headed to Florida’s Atlantic Coast at the weekend where Daytona Beach lived up to its reputation as being the most challenging round of the season, with riders battling the Atlantic and some being forced to switch to backup watercraft mid-event.
With the Hard Rock Hotel providing the backdrop, the Grand Prix was the penultimate round of the 2022 P1 AquaX National Championship that comprises a total of five venues in Florida and Indiana over five months. Short Block Technologies (SBT) the largest pwc aftermarket parts company in the world, is the title sponsor of the series, which receives national television coverage on Bally Sports Regional Networks.
On the opening day, racing was curtailed as thunderstorms rolled through in the afternoon.
Image courtesy of P1 AquaX
In the Pro Enduro class, Broward Motorsports rider Dustin Farthing performed consistently all weekend to claim the overall win, with teammate Jimmy Wilson in second place. An impressive ride by Vanjae Ramgeet took him into third place and enhanced his reputation in the topflight.
Jay Finlinson, the young gun from Indiana, took top spot in the AM 300 class ahead of Eric Diaz and Jason Williams. Sam Nehme continued his domination of the 200 Enduro class, proving that he is more than ready to advance to AM 300 racing. Kevin Sullivan and French rider Yoan Feron finished second and third. Ride Now PowerSports of Daytona provided hole-shot prizes that went to Vanjae Ramgeet, Jimmy Wilson and Dustin Farthing.
The final round of the AquaX National Championship will take the riders to St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast on the weekend of September 3-4.
It didn’t take much to see that Yamaha Motor Corp. USA was going to play things a little conservatively going into 2023. Big radical changes simply weren’t on the menu as the watercraft manufacturer was finally picking up some strong momentum in producing units, fulfilling orders and keeping dealers equipped with replacement parts in 2022. Certainly there are some pending orders and customers patiently waiting for their WaveRunners, but by all measures, Yamaha is rounding the corner with a strong tailwind.
Industry sources informed The Watercraft Journal as recently as last week that Yamaha built and sold more 2022 units than in 2021, although the total production number was unknown. This comes as both Sea-Doo and Kawasaki showed fewer units produced in 2022 compared to 2021 (down a purported 15,000 units and 1,300 units respectively), giving Yamaha a measured tactical edge going into the new model year. Meanwhile, the percentage of first-time buyers still accounted for nearly half of all new WaveRunner sales for 2022.
While Yamaha’s boats got some major innovations and upgrades for the new year (namely a new 22-foot series and Drive X software for 27-foot boats), the WaveRunner team kept the changes to a minimum for 2023, as buyers who may have been delayed for 2022 do not want to see their purchases outdated before they can receive them. Rather, Yamaha leaned hard into providing customers more accessibility, device integration and connectivity for their dollar; as well as opening up a world of accessories to the VX and GP series, which share the same deck and hull molds.
Beginning with Yamaha’s luxury FX Series, all models (except the base FX High Output (MSRP $15,399) will come standard with with premium audio speakers controlled through the touchscreen Connext multi-color display. The package includes twin factory-installed 4.5-inch waterproof marine speakers, an integrated two-channel amplifier, an easy access control pad, and a low-voltage regulator to protect the battery. The FX HO and FX Cruiser HO (MSRP $16,699) come equipped with the 5-inch Connext display, and come in Azure Blue with White and Carbon with Titan Gray or an optional Cyan (respectively).
For the three supercharged SVHO-powered FX models – the FX SVHO (MSRP $18,899) in Black; the FX Crusier SVHO (MSRP $19,399) in Torch Red, or Black with Titan Gray; or the FX Limited SVHO (MSRP $19,999) in Carbon with Mint – all come with the larger 7-inch Connext touchscreen display. Thankfully, all FX models equipped with audio also include the LED-lit glove box with a USB port, and smartphone microphone for making and receiving phone calls while out on the water – so get your alibis ready in case you plan on calling in sick for work!
Moreover, all FX models will come pre-drilled to mount the Yamaha Rec Deck accessory platform, making installation far easier if you plan on adding it yourself or having your dealer install it for you. First introduced as an exclusive accessory for the FX Series, Yamaha announced that now the Rec Deck is available for all VX and GP-based WaveRunners. Whether you’re bringing extra fuel, snacks or looking to tow a raft or wakeskater, all HO and SVHO-powered WaveRunners can be equipped with this versatile platform, quickly and easily.
Unlike the competition, Yamaha’s Rec Deck can be installed and removed rather quickly with basic hand tools, and now without any drilling or cutting. Per Yamaha, “The padded RecDeck is finished with MarineMat and includes four cleats that connect the adjustable Multi-Use Rack accessory. The Multi-Use Rack expands to fit most coolers, and it also serves as the seat structure for the Lounge & Beach seat accessory. Available accessory options for the RecDeck are the JetFish Packages, the Lounging Package, and Tow Sports Package.”
The aforementioned GP Series carries over unchanged from 2022 apart from some bold new colors and graphics, namely the GP1800R High Output (MSRP $14,199) comes in either Azure Blue with Cyan, or Black with Carbon; and the GP1800R SVHO (MSRP $16,499) available in Azure Blue, or Black with Acid Green. The GP SVHO is also available with the premium audio package for a fee (although it doesn’t get the larger 7-inch screen and microphone as the FX models). VX Series gets similar cosmetic updates with only a few being optioned with the sound system.
Equally, the Rec Lite and Freestyle segments get equal attention: the EX (MSRP $7,599) comes in White with Azure Blue; the EX Sport (MSRP $8,899) comes in Lime Yellow With White, or Cyan; the EX Deluxe (MSRP $9,999) is painted in Cyan with Lime Yellow, or White with Torch Red; and the EX Limited (MSRP $10,599) in Azure Blue with Cyan. The SuperJet (MSRP $10,499) returns unchanged in White; and the JetBlaster (MSRP $10,699) returns for 2023 in Black with Acid Green, a far more subdued tone from last year’s raucous ’80s livery.
Some people ease gently into their 50th birthday with the caution of a middle-aged adult dipping a toe in the waters of retirement. Mike Straub is not one of those people! “You live your passions,” said Straub, who has the license plate “Y WAIT” on his Tesla Model Y.
The Omaha Nebraska man is on an adventure he’s planned for years. He’s riding 7,000 miles on Sea-Doo Fish Pro, navigating a route known as The Great Loop. It’s a roundtrip water ride from his home in Omaha, through rivers and inland waterways, the Gulf of Mexico and finally the Atlantic coastline and back up through the Great Lakes, then home. He dropped the watercraft in the Missouri River in Bellevue in June to start his journey.
Mike Straub, a software development advisor, said his sense of adventure was inspired by a desire to change and live life. He started taking adventurous road trips years ago, including a cross-country trip in a Corvette with his teenage son who lives with autism.
A few years prior, he had an awakening. “I had sold my sports car, we had kids, was in a rut and had family members die from cancer and I was like, ‘What are you waiting for?’”
Straub took more than a year to plan his Great Loop trip, one often experienced in luxury yachts over the course of a year. Instead, he’s staying in hotels and is often invited to take a room with locals and experience hospitality along the route for four months.
Straub makes frequent stops to rest and gas up. He makes reservations at docks along the route and plans his overnights.
“I’ve stayed with five different people so far,” said Straub, who’s followed by thousands along the route on social media. He said the kindness of people is overwhelming. You can follow Straub on his Facebook page, Mike’s Facebook Page where he posts links to YouTube videos.
Most days, he’s on the water for 6 to 10 hours, battling everything from Gulf Coast waves, to smooth as glass river ways. He’s only seen a few sharks, but it’s the dolphins that intrigue him the most. “When you’re out in the middle of the water, the dolphins become your friends. If I’m going kind of slow, they’ll swim with me,” said Straub.
As you might imagine, it’s a journey filled with visits to local restaurants and fresh seafood. “The peel and eat shrimp here is fantastic,” he said about the Florida/Georgia coast.
Sometimes, his ski is just a dot in the ocean. “The Naples to Key West route, I was off-shore quite a way,” said Straub. He said not being able to see land didn’t get to his head. He said that was his longest day on the water, 225 miles.
He’s guided by a host of tech gadgets including GPS, maps, an Android tablet and a depth finder. He’s taking several long vacation breaks, including a week off in Florida where his wife and two sons joined him to celebrate his 50th birthday and 25th wedding anniversary.
He’s in Fernandina Beach, Florida now, on his way to the outer banks of North Carolina where his brothers will join him on vacation. He uses his vacation time to get the Fish Pro serviced and ready for the waters ahead. Straub plans to be back home in Omaha sometime in September with stories to tell.
More and more we see people online asking about ways to make their PWC trailer look better.Some people want to add extra lights, add toolboxes and modify different components to their trailer. We think there are two easy ways to make your trailer look better without having to do any modifications:
Wash your trailer when you wash your ski and add a good quality tire shine to your trailer tires. This alone can make you stand out over many other enthusiasts.
With this concept in mind, we wanted to try a tire shine we have yet to use. Lucas Oil is known for many products, but a tire dressing is not one of them. This made us want to test out the Lucas Slick Mist Fast & Easy Tire & Trim Shine.
As you notice in the before images, the tires can and do look quite dull.Sometimes after a good wash they can even look a little chalky. Look at your buddy’s trailer tires next time you go out and ride. You’ll begin to notice this.
We grabbed the Lucas Slick Mist Fast & Easy Tire & Trim Shine and a simple applicator pad, sprayed the tire shine quite liberally on each tire and wiped it down with the pad. On the spare tire we also applied the shine to the inside of the tire, as well as on the tread. This gave it a great look and only took us literally 5 minutes for all three tires.
This test was fast and easy. We are happy with the results, but did notice that as a little spray hit the rim itself, it took a few passes with a new towel to wipe it clean.
BRP, the parent company to brands like Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo, and Can-Am, has just announced their engine manufacturing division Rotax is celebrating a groundbreaking ceremony for the new EV research and development building in Austria.
As quoted by the BRP official Facebook page “Our colleagues at BRP-Rotax recently celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony for our new EV R&D building in Austria where our electric drive components will be developed and extensively tested. This is a key milestone in our electric vehicle strategy! We are looking forward to offering electric models in each of our existing product lines by the end of 2026. #BRPelectric”
With the previous announcements of the E-GTI concept Sea-Doo – based upon the existing GTI 3-seater runabout platform introduced for the 2020 model line – it rides on a Polytech 2.0 hull (meaning a proprietary-blend of polypropylene and infused fiberglass stringers for added support) with an injection-molded CM-Tech deck. Details pertaining to the E-GTI’s electric powertrain and the charging system have remained sealed from the public for the time being.
BRP also announced, they are bringing back the Can-Am motorcycle with an electric lineup. As stated by BRP in a press release below, “With the motorcycle industry shifting to electric we saw an opportunity to reclaim our motorcycle heritage and to re-enter the market. This new product category is extremely important to us and we are thrilled that Can-Am motorcycles are the first EV models in the BRP electric lineup to be confirmed to consumers.”
This comes after BRP invested 300 million in electrifying across all product lines. As said by BRP, “BRP announced its five-year plan where it will offer electric models in each of its product lines by the end of 2026. To achieve this, BRP plans to invest $300M over five years in product development, specialized equipment, infrastructure, production tooling and facilities”.
RIVA Racing is known for some of the best performance parts on the market for Yamaha and Sea-Doo applications. RIVA has always had their special edition builds, featuring custom one-off anodized components.
Steering stems, handlebars, and so on. As much as everyone wants to get one of these custom-built RIVA machines, they only build so many every year. But they sell countless performance parts for you to re-create the same build!
Now RIVA is starting to offer a large selection of their catalogs in these anodize colors such as the traditional black and now they have added red and blue to the lineup. They have almost everything you can want from throttle levers, high flow fuel rails, steering stems for Sea-Doo and Yamaha applications along with their rear exit exhaust kits and so much more.
With these new color offerings, you cannot only have your built performance watercraft with the best parts that the industry has to offer but it can be uniquely styled to your personality or the theme of your watercraft. To see the custom-colored performance parts along with the rest of the catalog head to RIVA’s website.
Yamaha introduced Run the Water, a collection of videos geared toward inspiring people to discover a different side of the water and to experience new things. The first chapter is titled Above and Below. It features Peter Correale, a professional spear fishing guide, and professional angler Natalie Dillon. They like to chase big fish! Dillon feared saltwater as a child, and it was curiosity that got her deep into the blue sea.
She says, “fishing is about being one with nature and the more you see, the more you know.” Correale is a hard-core free diver and enjoys feeding himself and others with his catch. They ventured out in a 2022 Yamaha FSH Series boat for this video. It is a versatile center console, meaning you can easily go from a fishing trip to wakeboarding with this boat.
The second chapter features Gádor Munta, Marine Scientist, and Rafael Fernandez, Underwater Photographer. Gador started snorkeling at 3 years old and hasn’t looked back. She got her open water dive certification when she was 16 and has since dedicated her life to the ocean. Rafaeal documents the ocean for both educational and scientific purposes. He does this to create awareness and understanding of the importance protecting the sea.
They each drive a Yamaha FX Cruiser HO, which boasts 44 gallons of storage, so the watercraft can easily hold all the dive equipment and camera gear necessary for a day on the water. The FX Cruiser is equipped with plenty with power to get the couple to and from their explorations in the waters off Baja, CA. Check out these inspirational videos and get more information on the featured watercraft on the Yamaha website.
One thing that we have always been sticklers on is protecting our ski from the sun. There are different ways to do that, but one of the more difficult decisions to make is how to protect the seat. Riders want to protect their seat from the sun and other elements, but don’t want to slide off every time they make a turn, hit the throttle or run into a small wake.
We have tested many products before, but wanted to try the Lucas Slick Mist Fast & Easy Interior Detailer. We grabbed a new 2022 Kawasaki Ultra 310LX and gave it a whirl. We also decided to use a Lucas Oil Microfiber Towel, just to keep things uniform.
At the first squeeze of the trigger, we noticed a nice aroma, separate from other products. This actually caught us off guard, but is irrelevant for our experiment. We sprayed the seat liberally, wiped it down and took a step back to view the appearance. It looked clean; very clean. It looked a little shiny but not oily. Overall, we were impressed with the initial observation. But the true test was yet to come.
We took it straight to the water (fresh water) and launched the ski. We had to go through about 3 minutes of “No Wake” and during that time was moving our rump back and forth, forward and back to see if the seat felt oily. So far, so good. Once we passed the “No Wake” area, we grabbed that throttle and pinned it to see if we would slide back – still nothing.
Then it was time for the S-curves. We took this Kawasaki immediately into some aggressive S-turns, intentionally getting the seat and us wet for about 5 or 10 minutes. There was still no sliding around on the seat any more than the first time we jumped on it before applying anything.
Mike Straub, a software development advisor, said his sense of adventure was inspired by a desire to change and live life. He started taking adventurous road trips years ago, including a cross-country trip in a Corvette with his teenage son who lives with autism.
