Technical History
It is far from certain just when the first personal watercraft (PWC) appeared. For one thing, the concept is much older than its official definition, which the US Coast Guard finally formalized as a Class A (16 feet long and under) inboard boat operated by a person astride rather than inside the craft. This description did not exist when the Vincent Motorcycle Company, in 1955 marketed the propellor-driven 200cc Amanda Water Scooter, or when Southern California inventor Clayton Jacobson II built the first known standup ten years later.

Jacobson's aluminum-hulled, rigid-handpole unit morphed into a sit-down craft in the process of his collaboration with snowmobile manufacturer Bombardier, primarily due to the engine. A wide, flat hull was chosen to support the weight of the 318cc Rotax, and with the air-cooled engine's cooling ducts resulted in a hull fully a foot and a half wider than the models that would follow. This made the 24-hp, 30-mph Sea-Doo® model 320 slow steering and rough riding, but it was the engine's poor reliability and susceptibility to corrosion, together with the company's decision to focus on the booming snowmobile business, which killed off the craft after the 1970 model year.

Jacobson continued development of the standup, but was not able to take his ideas to market as long as Bombardier retained the rights. When the company pulled out of the market, Jacobson went straight to Kawasaki. His prototype was by this time fibreglas and sported his patented pivoting handpole and the now-famous self-righting ability. Kawasaki and Jacobson clicked this time, and the Kawasaki Jet Ski®, the first commercially successful PWC and the one with the longest continuous manufacturing history, was born. Initial Jet Ski® sales were anemic, but by the advent of the JS440 in 1977, Big Green was riding a wave of increasing interest in personal watercraft generated by its own strategic, lifestyle-oriented marketing.

A major motion picture was also to play a role however. That same year, the highly successful James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, (United Artists, 1977) introduced the public to the personal watercraft when actor Roger Moore rode a water-going motorcycle, a one-off, Tyler Nelson-patented, ski-steering craft which was later manufactured by Spirit Marine, then a division of Arctic Cat. The first dual (front and rear) steering PWC, the 50-hp Suzuki-powered Wetbike® was given a 60-hp 800cc engine and a much lighter body in 1986 by its later marketer, the Ultranautics Corp., who stopped production six years later.

Wisconsin-based Surf Jet Corp. begin manufacturing in 1980 a 17-hp Subaru-powered surfboard. The company's guiding light, competitive surfer and entrepreneur Bob Montgomery, later founded Powerski International, maker of the current Jetboard®, a Surfjet-inspired board powered by a Husqvarna engine. Wetjet Corp. introduced a 428cc craft by the same name in 1985. The company was sold to new owners in 1992, and seems now to be out of business, although they eventually produced four 701cc models.

PWC magazines such as Splash, Personal Watercraft Illustrated and Water Scooter (now Watercraft World), appeared in the mid-80s to coincide with this period of rapid industry growth. In 1987, Yamaha debuted its own exciting Waverunner®, and 15 years later would market the world's first major name four-stroke craft, the 9000-rpm FX140, based on its highly successful R-1 sportbike engine. In 1988, Bombardier re-entered the market after a 17-year hiatus by returning the Sea-Doo®, a sit-down watercraft powered by engines built by the company's Rotax subsidiary. In returning the Sea-Doo®, Bombardier enlisted the help of the sons of the two engineers of the original 1968 project. In 1992 and 1993, snowmobile giants Polaris and Arctic Cat, joined the fun. Polaris quickly established itself as a major force and earned kudos from the California Air Resources Board for being the first PWC to meet that state's stringent 2001 emissions standards, while Arctic Cat's Tigershark®, a craft powered by a Suzuki engine and actually marketed as part of the Suzuki product line in Europe, ceased production in 2000 after making a very good showing with a DFI model -- the TS 1100 Li. In 1995, Southern California-based Aquajet Corp. introduced the Jetbike®, a narrow, dual-steering, water-planing motorcycle after the Wetbike tradition, but with the requisite 90s styling. At the 2001 model dealer show, Honda unveiled an upcoming turbocharged four-stroke powered PWC based on its 1100XX bike engine.

PWC Sales
At the beginning of the 2000 model year, there were four major players in the PWC market: Kawasaki, Yamaha, Bombardier and Polaris. These manufacturers' three- and four-person models are showing the strongest growth. According to the USCG, there were approximately 1.1 million PWC on the water during the 1998 boating season. The average retail price of a PWC is about $10,000. Since the mid-1990s, sit-down style, multi-passenger watercraft have made up the vast majority -- over 97% of all PWC sales.

Research indicates that the average purchaser of a new PWC is 41 years old and has a household income of $95,400. Eighty-five percent are male, 71% are married, and 69% owned a powerboat prior to their PWC purchase. This buyer rides a PWC most often with family and friends, and surprisingly, the majority of PWC owners shun aggressive maneuvers while riding and fewer than one percent report racing around buoys as a typical activity. PWC owners spend more than $300 million on their sport annually. In addition to the purchase of the PWC, money goes to boating registration fees, launch fees, trailers, fuel, insurance, clothing, accessories, travel and watercraft-oriented vacations.

Societal Impact
The personal watercraft industry has changed somewhat due to the effect of PWC on local communities. The first skirmish between municipal authorities and PWC enthusiasts was over the sound level of PWC engines. Makers such as Yamaha and Bombardier responded with sophisticated exhaust silencing systems. The next issue was the effect of PWC on shorebound waterlife. Unlike boats, PWC can be ridden in extremely shallow water, arguably disturbing plant and animal life that are part of the ecosystem. The average PWC's top speed has climbed into the 50s, and most manufacturers offer an ultimate power version of their largest models which easily exceeds 60 mph. The PWC is however becoming more irritating to the public occupying shoreland areas. These concerns -- the raspy, droning two-stroke motor and the shallow water disturbance -- have been addressed by legislation which defines off-shore distances PWC are to be restricted to, and in many cases restricts PWC use to certain times of the day. In a few cases legislation has completely barred the older PWCs from certain waters -- the National Park Service has closed 62 U.S. park waters to PWC, and California's Lake Tahoe permits only CARB 2006-complaint craft.