Post some of your learning experiences.

[Nate Surveyor]

This is supposed to be a fun thread.

How do drive a Sea Doo

Get on, lean forward, and hit the throttle (OOOOPS, NOT TOWARDS SHORE!)

Ok, start over.

Get on it, lean forward, hit throttle, and shoot out away from shore.

Next time:

Get on, lean forward, and idle out to about 6'+ deep water, and then throttle it. Nose comes up, points to sky and then suddenly drops, and you are cruising at 40 mph! Ah, this is nice! Then, turn a little, and responsiveness is nice! Cruise around the lake for a while, and turn back to the dock. You feel confident. You are going at 25 mph, planed out, but not too fast. You let go of the throttle, and turn left, and ARGHHHHHH! NO STEERING!! In a state of panic, you watch yourself coast ALMOST into another boat, that is parked into the shore!

WHEW! that was close!

OK, lets go slower, next time, when near other boats.

Practice turning FIRST, with the throttle on, and then kill the power. This way, the Doo is SIDEWAYS, and stops pretty fast!


Then, you come slowly into shore, where it is shallow. You are just idling. The water is maybe 1-2 feet deep. Suddenly, you hear GRAVEL being sucked into the intake. You kill the motor immediately. And, hop off, and rock it back and forth, to shake the gravel and sand out. A little falls out. There are a few dings on that pretty impeller now. :ack::ack:


OK, let's kill that motor sooner, as we come into shore.

OK, we got that down now.

HOP ON WIFE!


OK, she's on, and she is as stiff as a carrot, that won't bend into the dish. She fights the doo, until it planes out. Then, it seems she has relaxed a bit, then you hit a small wave, and she stiffens up. No, she is just still stiff.

Finally, you realize, wife is not real comfortable with this.

So, back to shore, kill motor before it gets shallow.

Load up a kid.

O! YEAH! They love it! They now want to drive, and they want to drive TOO CLOSE to other boats! So, you keep wrestling the handlebars from them, to maintain EXTRA spacing. This is fun, but they just don't realize how fast control diminishes, when you drop the throttle. It is fun, but not as fun as driving yourself!

So, you swap to another kid. This one, (riding in front of you too) is happy to let you drive. They just sing, and enjoy it. They wish the day would last forever.

Back to shore, slow down, and kill it before you get too close to shore.

Now, they ALL Clamor for a ride. ESPECIALLY that big boy!

So it goes.

Happy Doo-ing! Post your experience.

Nate

 

[timmyboy76]

Not to mention the rebuild'n/chasing electrical....but, first time out w/ boat, launch'n and tying to dock, so I can park the rig, no problem, it was when coming back to dock the boat, was the issue. Dont no what went wrong,but thru into nuetral, pulled landyard, had chicky wait'n to grab cleet, and for some darn reason, bot did a 180* at cruise speed, in between the two docks, missed the dock aiming for, completely. So just let it take me to ramp, and hopped out, just tipped the hat down some, and got truck...

 

[kmack]

Ok....backing down the ramp, bright and clear Saturday morning at the County Park. Ski's have been started, tie-downs off, wife has one ski and heading toward the shore and I have the other. Back to the truck, pullout out of the water and go park the trailer.

Walk back down to the water and the wife says, "the blue one looks like it's sitting funny." "It's ok, just get on and let's ride!" She takes off, but is going slow. Putts back over to me and says it won't get on plane and seems sluggish. "It almost tipped over on me, I don't like it."

Just for grins, pull the seat off and the water is almost to the top of the hull. "WTF?!?!?!"

Wife says, "Hey, is the plug supposed to be in the storage compartment?"

Oh, yeah, now I feel stupid.

Check the other ski....same thing.

Back up the ramp to the truck, back the trailer into the water, load the ski's and pull out of the water. Hey look, the water if running out! Good sign...

Put the plugs in, repeat previous earlier steps, back on the water and having fun.

Lessons learned?

(1) ALWAYS remember the plugs before you get into the water.
(2) A '97 GSX floats a lot better than a '93 SPX without the plugs in place.

Luckily, there weren't a lot of people at the park that early in the morning.

 

[jst4sho]

I've done that one too kmack. And the one with the back strap still on and the pwc won't come off the trailer. What's that. Looks like the trailer is floating. You idiot. Pull up some wife. Come on pull up some. Why? Just do it, okay.
Unhook the tie down ride away from dock. I don't look back to see who was watching.
Nearly sunk the thing second time out on water. Riding slow with wife on with me. Seemed to be sitting low in water and unsteady. Wife fell off and not strong enough to get back on but fortunately near a dock she could climb up ladder. She hasn't rode with me since.
Okay I'm embarassed enough for one night.

 

[D 5UPE]

Make sure you pull the lanyard out of the post straight away when you have turned your ski upside down in the waves. When it is running it is drawing water into the fuel tank. It cost me lots for this fix.:redface:

 

[D 5UPE]

Another one is pull your lanyard off its post before heading to the shore at speed If your lazy and dont like pulling it up out of the water.
Beaching can be costly.
Or you could come back slow. But where I play the waves are too big at times to do that.

Simply hitting the stop button with gloves on might not turn your engine off quick enough.
Also pays to have abit of knowledge of what lies beneath the water line near the shore.
We've all seen them standup boys go over the handlebars.:rofl: