The Fundamentals

Getting Back to What the Sport’s all About

Text and Photography by Andrea Wilson

It’s funny how easy it is to overlook the simple and most important things in life. I think we all get caught up in the day to day stresses and demands of the grown up world with our jobs, mortgages, car payments, and so on that sometimes you forget a simple three-letter word that greatly improves your quality of life: fun.

I find that, in this instance when you’re buried with all the demands and burdens that come along with responsibilities of adulthood, children are our best teachers because kids are the experts of fun.

You think that having a job that involves testing personal watercraft means I’d have the fun factor figured out, but after a recent trip with Kawasaki to Lake Mead, Nevada, I started to wonder if I’ve forgotten it a bit. Why the sudden epiphany? For the first time I was on a trip testing product with families.

In product testing, so much is focused on performance and handling. Which, don’t get me wrong, is very important – but is that end all be all? What is the value of the sport? In a time where everyone is tightening their belts and choosing carefully what they spend their hard earned dollars on, what is it about the sport that sets it apart from everything else?

How about the pure joy of being out on the water with those that mean most to you? Being out on the lake with the kids and their parents really brought it all home to me. It brought me back to some of my fondest childhood memories of camping with my family by the lake. Spending quality time with dad learning how to water ski or being towed on a tube hanging on for dear life, laughing and screaming until I couldn’t hold on anymore.

In fact, the first time I was ever on a PWC was a camping trip at Bass Lake, California, with my friend’s family. Her dad took us out around the lake and proceeded to try to throw the kids off the back. That 20-minute ride around the lake was one of the highlights of my summer.

So fast forward 13 years, and here I am with a group of families testing Kawasaki’s product line and I’m starting to think about the sport from a different perspective, not just as fun for myself an individual, but fun for the whole family and the true meaning of “recreation.”

Our group included five different families; with the kids ages ranging from 5- to 15-years of age. We camped on houseboats, which had some of the comforts of the civilized world but the added bonus of paradise at our fingertips. Each morning after breakfast, we toured a different part of the lake and came back to camp for lunch to sit out the hottest part of the day. Then we’d take the skis outside of the cove to each have our own fun.

(Above: With a pair of Ultra LXs, Kawasaki’s plush 260LX, and the racy Ultra 260X at our disposal, we made the most out of each day we had on the water.)

The biggest hit was the tube. Most of the kids in our camp waited anxiously for their turn to be towed around the lake. So we had two skis with tow duty, the second ski for those kids who wanted to try wakeboarding.

(Above: With so many functions available, any family-sized runabout can be a ski boat, a exploration craft, a towboat or just a great source of fun.)

The rest of the group went off to explore our neighboring coves and splash around or to make a beeline away from our spot to stretch the legs of the Ultra 260X and enjoy pure horsepower. Ariel, like her dad Ken, feels the need for speed, so father and daughter both got a kick out seeing what the supercharged ski could do.

At the end of the day, you couldn’t really tell the kids apart from the adults because we all hated to go back in. The sun setting was the official “playtime is over” call and we would reluctantly come back to camp. Then dinner time was spent recounting our favorite moments of the day on the skis. The general consensus was we were all having an amazing time.

(Above: Between the towering walls of “The Narrows,” we relaxed in the shade, spotted some adventurous mountain goats and swam in the warm water.)

With all of the activities we were enjoying, it made me wonder do you really need a boat anymore? Sure a boat is always nice to have around. It can hold more people and it can carry more stuff, but it doesn’t offer the same experience. There’s definitely more personality in personal watercraft. Is that because if you want to stay on the thing you better hang on to the person in front of you? Yes, that’s a big part of it.

Tony, an avid boater, said one of his favorite parts of the trip was the quality time he got to spend on the ski with his daughter Lauren. He pointed out that, “You can get on a boat and conceivably not interact with each other. When you are on a Jet Ski, you’re hanging on, laughing, and splashing together. I think it almost brings you closer.”

Your experience on the water is also enhanced because not being surrounded by fiberglass gives you a greater connection with your environment. Then there’s the definite appeal for the gearheads, because PWC are smaller, there’s a greater connection with the machine itself. It definitely has this feeling of man melding with machine. Combine all of these elements together and you’re enjoying one of the many beautiful waterways this country has to offer in a much more enriching experience than boat. I can’t think of a better experience to share with my kids some day.

Since the cruising range of skis has improved, you can actually do some really nice days trips without worrying about fuel. Not to mention at the fraction of the cost it would be if you were in a boat. There are also places you can get to in a PWC that are more difficult in a boat of a much bigger size. So exploring the water with your kids and/or spouse has endless possibilities with today’s PWC.

(Above: Our houseboats weren’t the biggest things on the water this weekend.)

Roll that all together with the fact that’s it not just about touring or riding, that you tow kids on tubes and wakeboards on a PWC pretty effectively. There’s something for everyone at any age to enjoy.

When you break it down to the basics, what is more fun than being out in the great outdoors splashing around on the water with those who matter most to you? And can you put a price tag on it? I realized that even though it appears to be stating the obvious, I’d lost sight of the heart of the sport. I’ve decided that my New Year’s resolution is to get out on the water more often with friends and family and really embrace the true spirit of recreation.