Jet skis are fast, agile, and versatile, but are they able to seat more than one person?
Jet skis are typically ridden solo, but they almost always come with the capacity for two people. In fact, the largest jet skis offer seating for three individuals, boasting a huge size and upgraded stability.
Read on to learn more about jet skis and how they can be ridden.
Take To The Seas Together
The first popular jet ski was released in 1973 by Kawasaki, who has long been considered the king of the personal watercraft industry. In fact, it was Kawasaki who coined the term ‘jet ski’, owing to the fact that it was the actual name of their first creation.
It’s like people saying ‘Sellotape’ to describe regular sticky tape, or ‘Hoover’ to describe a vacuum cleaner. The term ‘Jet Ski’ is a specific brand of personal watercraft, but the term is now used to refer to any personal watercraft.
Although the terminology is a registered trademark, Kawasaki won’t sue you for using the convention – it likely only furthers their legacy. This particular model – the Jet Ski – was the only popular personal watercraft for well over a decade in the United States.
Today, there are near-countless variants of personal watercraft, with several manufacturers doing battle for the top position. There are hundreds of models, some intensely advanced, others extremely basic, all of them brilliant fun.
Kawasaki started producing two-seater Jet Skis as early as the nineties, with their first three-seater being introduced at the turn of the millennium. It was at this point that personal watercraft were becoming more technically advanced and well-built.
For 2021, Kawasaki announced a diverse eight craft range of personal watercraft. Almost every offering in their roster featured a supercharged engine, with some also offering ‘luxury’ seats or music systems.
Their lineup consisted of four three-seater vessels, coming in the form of their ‘Ultra’ range. They were described as the ‘head of the multi-seat fleet’.
Finally, Kawasaki announced a brand new ‘stand-up’ Jet Ski, the SX-R. This particular vehicle was only built for one rider, but that’s because it was designed almost specifically for sport and racing.
It’s built around a massive 1.5-liter engine, larger than most family cars on the road, and was reportedly the fastest-accelerating stand-up Jet Ski in history.
You need to have a strong arm and staunch temperament to be able to ride the SX-R as it was intended.
Top Of The Class
Jetdrift.com published a feature in 2020 exposing the fact that most personal watercraft were growing exponentially in size. They included an interesting image that compared the size of a Sea-Doo in 1991 to a Sea-Doo in 2019, and the difference was staggering.
The modern Sea-Doo was more than twice the size of the older model. The more surprising fact was that the Sea-Doo wasn’t the biggest model on the market!
One of the largest jet skis to be revealed was the Sea-Doo GTX Limited 300, a versatile and adaptable model released in 2021. It came with a massive price tag of around twenty-seven thousand dollars, but it offered a lot for that value.
For instance, the seat was designed to be modular and could accommodate up to three people, or act as a large enough space ‘to lounge or enjoy a picnic’. At the tail end of the vessel was a swim platform, reportedly the largest in the history of the market.
On top of that, the GTX Limited 300 also came with an advanced Bluetooth system, intelligent pumping systems, a panoramic digital display, and storage bins. In truth, this enormous personal watercraft came with a higher specification than some modern-day cars.
It was built around a 1.6-liter engine, capable of producing around three-hundred horsepower – a dizzying amount of energy. It truly was the epitome of the personal watercraft stakes.
You don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to enjoy personal watercraft ownership. In fact, you can pick up brand new jet skis for around five-thousand dollars, but they won’t be as advanced, of course.
In 2019, Sea-Doo released the ‘Spark’, a small but comfortable vessel that could still transport two riders, albeit at lower speeds. They offered a broad customization package with the purchase of a Spark, offering the owner the ability to put their own stamp on the vessel.
While it might not have been enormous or hyper-powered, it could still hold its own out on the water.