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!

If you like my review of Drift Helmet Cams, check out this blog!

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.

I’m going for a couple of final rides of the season this (Canadian) Thanksgiving Weekend to take in the magnificent fall colours. I’ll be towing my Sea-Doo RTX iS 260 and GTX iS 215 watercraft. When they are out of the water, I want them as secure, safe and smoothly travelled as possible. I also need a strong, reliable trailer capable of handling the length and weight of my 3-seaters.

That’s why my trailer of choice is a 2-bed Elite WC11 by Triton Trailers. I’ve hauled my PWC’s around on this Triton Trailer for four summers and about 10,000 kilometres with no problems whatsoever. In fact, my Triton still looks and tows like new.

Besides the road distances I’ve pulled it, my Triton has also been dipped into just about every waterway in Southern Ontario, many more than once. Despite all those immersions, there’s been no rust (all aluminium body), no electrical problems and the bearings and axles are still tip-top.

With all my towing, I also really appreciate my Triton’s high quality radial tires. A step above most others, they provide good traction and are super durable for highway towing. When combined with Triton’s torsion spring set up, my trailer’s ride is so smooth, stable and sway-free that I sometimes forget I’m towing anything.

Every time is arrive at a boat launch, I’m reminded once again of how Triton makes my Sea-Dooing that much more enjoyable. Love my Triton! Talk to you next time… 

By Craig Nicholson - The Intrepid Cottager

The streets ran with pure yellow blood as BRP brought the world to Montreal, Canada this summer and I was part of it. This leading international powersports company pulled out all the stops to showcase its brands to over 4,000 of its dealers and distributors at its signature event, Club BRP Montreal. BRP even took over a closed-to-traffic Crescent Street and ran public party nights with live bands every night!

WOW, it was totally awesome – especially when the showroom and the Ultimate Playground demo site were opened for the public to see and try the latest BRP products. One night, BRP even treated all of us, plus 90 busloads of BRP employees from Valcourt – a crowd of about 10,000 – to a fabulous private concert with classic rockers “STYX”. Far, far out!

 Best of all for Sea Doo enthusiasts, BRP launched its new T³ hull design and Ergolock setting on the new rock‘em-sock’em 2012 RXP-X 260, destined to be the best-looking performance champ of all time. I even got to meet Sam Spade, star of Sea-Doo’s new RXP-X 260 videos! Believe me, after riding this wave monster at the demo site, I agree with Sam that no PWC has ever handled, cornered or manoeuvred like this sleek baby!

 You shoulda been there – it was a stupendous thrill. And as soon as I returned home, I celebrated with two back-to-back days of exceptional Sea-Doo watercraft riding. Steamy summer days, incredibly smooth waters, bright blue skies – humming STYX’s “Come Sail Away” –and exciting memories of Montreal playing in my head…it just doesn’t get any better than this! Talk to you next time.