Imagine if one of these things showed up at your local break. Dream come true? Nightmare? http://www.powerski.com 
A.J…! I rode an early version of that thing in 1982-83 at our oceanic cablevision company party/picnic (in the water in front of the “magnum P.I. ‘mansion’”). (“Bring me my motorized surfboard, Higgins!”). Hey, that ain’t no surfboard, brah! The hand throttle controlled the speed…if you fell off, the leash/throttle would disconnect…and “stop”…I use the term -stop - loosely, because if you had foward momentum…you were well liable to go swimming half a mile (friggin’ things are WAY too quick for what they are). That isn’t the future, it’s the past…in fact, they had a primative version of that thing in the sixties…although, I’m sure it was even more dangerous. I cringe at surfcraft with motors…the only “jet skiing/wave runners” that ought to be in the lineup are guys like the keaulanas who are using them to rescue people or to tow surfers into giant waves. (which is kind of dangerously enabling some folk). Motors aren’t surfing, to me - personally - they are noisy and disruptive…and way more “unnatural”…(my own opinion). Why fight nature?..Be nature! I doubt that something like that would be ALLOWED at particular breaks, given the nature of localism. T.
Tom, Yeah I rode one of those with the engine hump in the back about that same time. My dad still has it in his garage. Whether the thing still works I have no idea. An old neighbor of ours son Jim Habig works for the company that is currently doing the new version. I rode it once out at San Onofre. Freaked myself and my dad out on the beach as he watched me pull a close out off the lip with the thing. Secret is after you pivot at the top you’ve gotta gas it to keep from pearling on re-entry. It was fun as a novelty. But, I sure wouldn’t make it a regular activity.
Imagine if one of these things showed up at your local break. Dream come > true? Nightmare? What we
re seeing now may be a bit laughable, but look ahead to the future: some day soon, those boards wont cost $5000.00, and wont weigh 160 lbs. The engines that drive such watercraft will be lighter, quieter, environmentally cleaner, much more efficient and more compact. Contests will be designed around them and all sorts of products marketed because of them. Almost anyone will be able to skillfully use them, on any body of water. Completely new maneuvers will be developed that are virtually impossible with conventional equipment. They will even have their own magazines, with prominent photos of popular riders propelling themselves into the worlds largest, most critical waves. This will all eventually become accepted as commonplace, because the demand for motorized, personal watercraft has existed for decades, and is growing stronger each year, as technology improves. Its a natural fact... what may be a nightmare for me, is another mans dream come true. Dale