Riding a personal watercraft is a thrilling experience. The ride alone gives you a great sense of excitement. But have you ever thought about the history of such machine. If not, then read and learn how the personal watercraft came to be.

The concept was initially started by the Bombardier family in the late sixties. They have this notion of transforming their patented Ski-Doo snowmobile into something that could traverse the waters, much a like a water scooter. Being a family who spent their summers on and around the lakes of the Laurentian region of Quebec, the Bombardier household would naturally have a penchant for water sports.

In a move to realize their goals, the Bombardier family approached vehicle engineer Clayton Jacobsen II. Jacobsen happened to be planning to initiate a similar project, a motorcycle-like vehicle that can be driven on water. The two parties joined their heads and their resources to create the first ever personal watercraft.

Jacobsen initially began with a stand-up design. Bombardier, on the other hand, pushed for a model that allows that rider to sit while operating the machine. The Bombardier family gave Jacobsen with an 18-hp Rotax engine to begin with and eventually made a successful prototype of a sit-down design of his machine.

In 1968, the combined effort of the Bombardier family and Jacobsen produced the very first of the Sea-Doos (a play on the name of Bombardier’s famous snowmobile line). A year later, Bombardier made changes in the engine and incorporated it with a liquid cooling system, an update of Jacobsen’s design, which relied on air intake for the cooling mechanism to work. But problems with corrosion and engines made the Bombardier’s gave up on the project.

Jacobsen tried to convince the Bombardier company to go on with project. He insisted that the models needed to be tweaked and adjustments should be made like integrating rubber components and waterproofing the body. Jacobsen’s suggestions were ignored by Bombardier and the project was shelved.

Jacobsen, determined to finished what he started, bought the rights of the patent and presented the design to Kawasaki in 1971. With some tweaks of the initial design by Jacobsen, Kawasaki was able to create a better, more practical variant of the personal watercraft. In 1973, Kawasaki introduced the Jet Ski, the first commercial personal watercraft. Today, the term Jet Ski means all types of water crafts, even though Kawasaki Motors is the registered owner of the trademark.

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