Personal Watercraft Opinions

[350Kris]

My wife and I are on the market for a personal watercraft (jet-ski). I am a Honda guy through and through, but I don't know jack about jet-ski's. Who makes the best ones? Does Honda's legendary reliability carry over into this arena also? What about Sea-Doo -- the original?

Thanks for the help,

Kris

[max]

What style is it your looking for. Sit down-2seat/3seat, or stand up?
Seadoo is about the best thing out there right now. My dad has 2. He has the 215 horse supercharged 3 seater, talk about fast.

Im a honda man too. I cant vouch for there skis. But if the durability is anything compared to their atvs. Then I bet they would be good.

Kawasaki is also very good. They were on of the Originals.

[350Kris]

I'm not too sure if we are going to get one for now and both ride or get two. I've never been on a stand-up, but they strike my interest. Are they fun? I looked at the SeaDoo 3D DI....looks awesome.

If we just get one, I think we will go with a 2 seater.

[max]

My dad has 1. Very fun. You can sit/ stand/ or ride it like a go cart. But its only 1 seater. If you both get one, I would definately get a 3D because there is alot of variety vs. a sit down where all you can do is go fast!!!

[Vice]

I don't message very often, but I'm an avid jetskier, so I thought I'd help. I currently own 2 Kawasaki standups and absolutely love them. You can get them fairly cheap and they never get boring. As for as sitdowns, I would agree and say Seadoo is a good choice. I have owned 2 XP models and had really good luck with them. My nieghbor at the lake bought a new Honda last year and really likes it. I don't know too much about it. Every brand has there pros and cons, but just maintain them well and they don't give you too many problems.

[DixiePlowboy]

I used to own a Yamaha 650 VXR when they first came out. I put a DG rideplate, intake scoop, and waterbox on it before it was broke in good, but most anything made today is much faster. The performance level of PWC's advanced by leaps and bounds in just a few years.

The standups are cool in their own way, but I prefer a high performance 2 place myself. With them, at least you can go on a relaxing leisurely ride when you want without all the workout of the stand up models.

[wheelie king]

Lots of people arounmd here run Kawi stand ups with little to NO problems- but the sit downs are ALL Yamaha. Very little sea-doo around here. And it is not from a lack of dealers.....:lol:

Just have to decide if you want a "couch" (Jet skiers slang for sit downs), or a stand up. A mid to late 90's Kawi stand up can be found cheap.

Good luck

[firehart]

I have a 2002 Yamaha XL700. Its plenty fast enough for me. Only problem that I can see in the future is the number of places to ride. Already about half the lakes here are saying only four strokers allowed.

[seadoo650]

I had two of the older seadoo xp's. Very agile machines. Mine were 650's but the 720's I heard were better and faster. Still alot of affordable parts for them. Check out www.sea-doo.net. Alot of avid riders on there and some very useful info. Also www.jetski.com. Imho seadoo is the best and easiest to get parts for and work on.

[Billy Golightly]

I've got a Yamaha GP1300R, which is 165hp 3cylinder EFI 2 stroke and one of the better couches IMO. I like it, it'll go 0-40mph damn near instantly and tops out in the high 60s on the lake where I've had it. The stand-up skis are much, much more agile and harder to control then a sit down even like the 1300R. Its like trikes, vs quads honestly. I really like my 1300R and have learnt quite a few tricks on it, but the stand-up will always be better for that kind of riding. If you just want to go fast, take a girlfriend or wife along the high performance sit downs are a much better choice IMO. Either way, be prepared to spend a crap load of money on gasoline if its a pinger. The tank on my 1300R holds almost 15 gallons if I remember right and I can burn that in a day pretty easily.

[firehart]

My Yamaha XL 700 uses way more gas per hour than both my Rancher and my Recon.

[ride_red_95]

my kawasaki jet-ski 750 is a real reliable ride never broke down on us or given us any probs. honda would be a good choice but i like the kawasaki ski's tho

[Erics350x]

if you'll be running in salt water go with yamaha. i personally run seadoo but i've heard yamaha uses better metals when building their skis. stay away from artic cat/tigershark. also if you havent already check out pwctoday.com

[ml1275]

For a top fun, light and 'chuckable' ski you can't beat the Polaris Pro1200. Also better on gas than the others. The motors are bullet proof too.

http://www.skitek2000.co.uk/pictures/Copy%20of%20PRO%201200%202000%20001.jpg

Long live the 2 seaters :naughty:

ML