The PowerSki JetBoard - EXTREME watersports
from On the Water (264 articles)
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Image Gallery ( 27 images )Although the JetBoard allows surfing on any flat body of water, those that take it into the surf will experience something entirely different. Just as windsurfers bring a new alternative power to the sport of wave riding, so too does the JetBoard, only the power is entirely at your command. Offering the ability to position one's self anywhere on the face of a wave or accelerate into or out of the break, the JetBoard is a new experience for experienced surfers and novices alike.
Development of the JetBoard
The JetBoard has been a long time in coming and is the brainchild of PSI founder Bob Montgomery. Montgomery had the most successful Kawasaki jet ski dealership in the world during the infancy of the jet ski market and went on to develop a number of personal watercraft before envisioning the JetBoard in 1987 as an entirely new and conceptually different personal water craft with the surfboard's sideways stance and contour, ease of operation and performance.
After developing the JetBoard to the working prototype pre-production stage, Bob formed PowerSki International in 1995 and things have progressed through prototype development, the distribution of over 100 pre-production prototypes to potential distributors around the world for evaluation and testing, the incorporation of that feedback into the final production-ready prototype and finally to volume production.
The wait has been worthwhile. Whereas the cost to manufacture the prototypes was more than US$15,000 each, and they came with just 25 horsepower, now volume production has commenced the efficiencies mean that the JetBoard can be purchased for US$6995 with 45 horses and there's the promise of larger versions of the two-stroke engine as large as 600cc and perhaps even a four stroke version of the same concept.
Sheer unadulterated ingenuity
Whilst this new water-toy enables many water-based activities not previously possible, it's greatest claim to fame for many will be the ingenuity of the design.
Power Ski International, the creators of the JetBoard, have used myriad technologies in creating this jet-powered surfboard. PSI's patented two-stroke, water-cooled engine built specifically for the JetBoard puts out 45 horsepower but it's the size and shape they have created that enables the JetBoard to do its stuff.
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