We start this news post with an apology: unfortunately, last minute changes have caused us to have to cancel our coverage from this weekend’s Wave Daze freeride event. Trust us, we’re none too happy about it, particularly as The Watercraft Journal has been the industry’s only resource for next-day event coverage, famously being the only publish full-length, in-depth coverage of the Daytona Freeride, the Champion Timepieces Mexico Freeride weekend, Pismo Spring Break Freeride and the Crescent City Spring Break Freeride.
The above resume should attest to our love of freeride, and because of this, we are really excited to share James Visser’s fantastic GoPro edit of his January freeride session aboard his Yamaha WaveBlaster. Titled, “Because Backflipping a Stand-up is Too Easy,” James, the 2003 Freeride Jetski World Champion in both Stand-up and Sit-down categories, “shows what can be done on a sit-down ski. After not getting onto a jet ski for 7 years, this video was filmed on his second ride with a rotator mount from Upclose Productions” according to the video.
We strongly encourage you to watch James masterfully shred the lip off of several waves, perform can-can, kickflips and just a whole lot of stellar freeride tricks that are hard enough on a lightweight aftermarket stand-up, not to mention a heavy sit-down ‘Blaster (although, we know calling a WaveBlaster a “sit-down” will probably get us punched in the mouth in some circles). And once you enjoy the video below, make sure to check out James’ collection of snapshots from the surfride session HERE.