If you haven’t been on one of today’s advanced technology personal watercraft, you’re really missing the boat (lol)! As an experienced touring rider, here are the Top Five Technologies that take my Ontario touring to a whole new level of enjoyment:

Stop It Cold: Nothing beats being able to stop on a dime. Sea-Doo watercraft are the only boats on the water with a brake. Their iBR gives me the ability to stop quickly and in control. Gentle squeezing of the left-side handbar lever slows the PWC as gradually as I want, while a hard squeeze results in an abrupt halt (and yes, a sudden soaking as the front end pushes down).

Back It Up: I didn’t realize what a pain playing around with a side-mounted, mechanical reverse lever was until Sea-Doo introduced electronic reverse as part of iBR. Their reverse activates by fully pulling in all the way on the handlebar mounted brake lever. This keeps both my hands on the handlebars for full control while I manipulate my PWC into tight spots by alternately working the throttle and brake/reverse levers.

Smooth It Out: Water looks all soft and appealing, but riding waves can be hard and bruising. Sea-Doo has figured out a way to turn the slap of hull-to-surface contact into a more gentle whoompf by adding its iS suspension to some models. Now when the waves kick up, my poor bod doesn’t take all the abuse!

Start It Stopped: One of the most annoying and scary characteristics of many PWC’s is that whenever I turn on the engine, the PWC immediately starts to move ahead unless I have the side-mounted, mechanical shift lever in the neutral position. Sea-Doo engineers overcame that challenge with an iControl system that automatically starts the unit in neutral every time. No more surprises for the unwary!

Make It Four: Across the board, 4-stroke engine technology has made riding my PWC much more enjoyable. Better fuel economy. Lower oil consumption. Longer and more reliable engine life. Plus the power to cruise whenever and wherever I choose for hours at a time. Now that’s riding!

Coming Soon: Top Southern Ontario Boat Launches

Please share this post with your friends! My buddies and I ride our Sea-Doo watercraft throughout the summer and early fall on most of Ontario’s waterways. For me, riding my PWC is like summer sledding because I can travel where I don’t normally go and explore places not many people see.

If you own a late model PWC and are getting bored riding around the cottage, maybe it’s time to discover something totally fun and exciting. Why not join us for a ride? This is nothing official, commercial or sponsored – just a bunch of PWV lovers out to share a good time on the water! Find out more here.

Did you know that most PWC owners ride fewer than 20 hours a year? My friends and I ride  closer to 100 hours – and that’s because we know the best places to go, have people to ride with and always have a blast!

I’ve asked four Central Ontario Sea-Doo dealers – Gateway Powersports (Peterborough), HB Cycle (Lindsay), Leatherdale Marine (Orillia)  and St Onge Recreation (Barrie) – to help get the word out to their customers about this ride opportunity, and now I’m also inviting you! 

Check out my website for current ride info and updates!

I chuckle every time I see a PWC brochure showing riders wearing nothing but bathing suits and PFD’s. I think their smiles may be frozen in place! I bet the first time those riders get painfully zapped by some flying bug splattering their epidermis, they’ll think twice about going bare! Here are my Top Five Tips for Comfortable PWC Riding:

1. Cover Your Bod: For me, unless the day is sunny with low wind and air temperature of 22-23˚C (73-4˚F) or warmer, it’s too cold for bare extremities. And when I factor in the cooling feel of ride-generated air moving against my body, long pants and sleeves plus gloves are a must for any long outing — and even when it’s warm enough, they prevent sunburn.

2. Protect Your Skin: Before any long ride, I apply a generous coating of a water proof sun lotion (35 SPF or more) to any skin areas not covered by long pants, sleeves and gloves. From painful experience, I pay special attention to face, neck, ears and ankles.

3. Plug Your Ears: The combination of natural wind and ride-generated moving air can  really buffet sensitive ears, causing considerable discomfort on a longer ride and maybe even a lingering ear ache. So on windy days, I wear ear plugs (the ones with a string connecting them so I don’t lose them as easily).

4.  Shelter Your Eyes: I rarely ride without polarized, wrap around, sun glasses (PWC goggles work for those who don’t need prescription lenses). Not only do they protect my eyes from too much sun and water glare, they also act as a wind and bug break to help prevent drying out or being damaged. I secure my glasses with a floating strap.

5. Defend Your Dome: The sun beating down on my head all day can not only fry my scalp, it can also cause dizziness or headaches. I wear either a peaked ball cap or a doo-rag clipped to the back of my shirt or PFD by two aligator clips joined by a string.

Coming Soon: Top 5 Technologies for Great PWC RIding 

Operating a personal watercraft on Ontario waterways has much in common with riding a motorcycle or snowmobile on land, including avoiding alcohol and drugs. But water travel has its own unique challenges; here are the top five tips I keep in mind while touring on my Sea-Doo:   

1. 365˚ Situational Awareness - The PWC operating environment is not linear like roads or trails. Traffic can come from anywhere 365˚ around you. So I am constantly vigilant for others and always aware of my position relative to my immediate surroundings.

2.  Look Before Changing Course - Before changing direction, I check my mirrors and glance over each shoulder to make sure no one is in the way or coming up beside me faster then I expected.

3. Refrain from Riding Side by Side - If I spot something unexpected in the water ahead, I may need to make a sudden avoidance move, but if other riders in my group are positioned too close beside me, I’ll have no room to manoeuvre quickly.

4. Red Right Return - Many waterways are marked with red and green navigation buoys. Which side to ride on can sometimes be confusing, so I remember “Red Right Return”: whenever I am “returning” (riding toward the source of the waterway and against the direction it flows) I keep the red buoys on my right side. When I am going with the flow (away from the source) the green buoys are on my right. 

5. Idle Through Low Speed Zones - Every boater should respect any officially posted “no wake” zones by slowing right down to idle speed while travelling through to limit wake turbulence. The same goes for approaching locks, docks, marinas and cruisers anchored in sheltered bays.

Coming Soon: Top 5 Tips for Comfortable PWC Riding

Check out this article I wrote for the Sea-Doo Onboard blog on tips for winterizing your PWC!

Each summer, I’m a personal watercraft journalist, riding my Sea-Doo PWC’s. For years I’ve taken still photos to go with my articles, blogs and web postings, but the pressure’s been on to add video to my repertoire. Thanks to Drift (formerly Drift Innovation) and their premier dealer, Launch Helmet Cams, that’s been much easier than I expected.

The Drift HD170 Stealth is a breeze to learn and operate. It’s rugged, light and makes a great helmet cam. Best of all, it captures exceptional, high quality footage, even for a relative novice as I am. Check out my movies below and see for yourself!

For me, the best features of my Drift HD170 Stealth are its remote control, colour viewing screen and 32 GB memory card. Plus, Drift has oodles of accessories available, although the basic out of the box kit is very complete on its own. I also love its seamless interface with my MAC computer to download my videos.

One of my first concerns for shooting on the water was just how waterproof the Drift HD170 Stealth really is. I rode and shot video for much of the more than 100 hours of Sea-Dooing I did this summer. No, I didn’t dunk it under, but it did get splashed on periodically, with no ill effect.

So I was already happy with Drift. Then they introduced their new compact Drift Action Camera – a 1080 resolution mini helmet cam that’s about 25% smaller and lighter. Operationally, it’s essentially the same, and uses a micro SD memory card. But for my use on a PWC, this new unit is even more convenient, more easily stored when not in use, and is so light that I almost forget it’s still strapped to my head!

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with Drift and Launch Helmet Cams, and recommend them to highly over other makes to anyone who wants to make hassle-free, professional quality videos.