Jetski Disasters (And Fun)

The next morning Nick picked me up at 5am, with the jet-ski, and we headed down to Blue Lagoon to try and bash a few Garrick. We dropped the ski on the beach, parked the car, and were ready to go. Thankfully we’d been given a 4-stroke ski and were looking forward to some smoke free fishing. But sadly things didn’t go quite as expected…

The shore break was huge and we knew the launch was going to be tough. But this wasn’t the initial problem; We first needed to lift/drag the ski into deep enough water to float it. This proved to be tougher than expected and by the time we reached the water’s edge, 10 meters away, I was covered in sweat and my muscles we bulging like those of the Hulk.

Anyway, we were now ready for the tough bit. The plan…wait for a gap in the shore break, quickly push the ski into deeper water, accelerate through the break, and bash some Garrick. The execution…there was no real gap, we dragged our tongues getting the ski into deeper water, there was no acceleration, and the waves bashed us. FAIL! Rolling a jet ski in the surf is never fun, especially since I fell on the beach side and had unpleasant thoughts of the ski washing on to me.

Thankfully nobody was hurt and all that we lost was my cheap pair of sunglasses and a bit of pride. Trust our luck that there were millions of fishermen on the beach, who I’m sure had a good laugh at us.

We righted the ski, attached a second bigger pair of balls, and tried again. This time we were successful and made it out. Sadly this was not the end of it. Shortly after getting out to sea the warning lights all lit up and the ski went into crawl mode. Apparently the engine was overheating, but after opening the engine bay and feeling it, it didn’t feel hot at all. Could it be a faulty sensor? Impossible to tell…

We decided it wasn’t worth the risk and headed back for the beach. This brought about a whole new set of problems. With the ski in crawl mode we didn’t have enough power to stay ahead of the waves during the landing. This would undoubtedly result in another FAIL! We bobbed around at sea, just behind backline, waiting for the engine to cool. After what seemed like ages the warning light was still showing and we had to make a plan. Nick decided to disconnect the warning light thereby bypassing the ski’s crawl mode. Although this is normally a kak idea, we only had to make it the 50 meters to the beach, so we figured the engine would be okay for the short period.

The landing went well and soon we were on the beach and putting the ski back on its trailer. Sadly we’d been on the beach for just over an hour and, other than working out our muscles, had achieved nothing.

At this point a mate of Nick’s arrived with his ski and we chilled on the beach watching him do some wave jumping.

We then headed back to the workshop to try and sort out the ski. After a short inspection Nick worked out that the thermostat was stuck. He took it out, gave it a quick clean, and put the ski back together. Instead of wasting the ski we opted to pick up Sharon and headed to Inanada dam for a bit of fun (and to test the repair).

Sharon had never been on a jet ski and was highly excited. We got to the dam at around 10am and spent a couple of hours stuffing around on the water. We did head out to try and do some Bass bashing, but we quickly realised that it wasn’t worth it considering the tackle we had with us. Damn you Otter!