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History · 2024 to 2026

The current state: three bodies, 2024 to 2026

In plain words. Where the sport's rule-making stands in 2026: the IJSBA, the UIM and the newer IHRA each publish a different kind of rule book, and one regional series left the IJSBA and later joined the IHRA. None of the documents gives entry or attendance counts, or prize money by class, so they cannot show whether racing is growing or shrinking.

In the 2026 season three sanctioning bodies publish rule books a racer might be measured against, and one regional series left one of them while another joined one. This chapter sets the three books side by side as documents, reads what the newest one says about itself, dates the regional moves to the bodies' own posts and the trade press, records what the IJSBA announced in answer, and states plainly what none of these documents can show.

Three bodies, three kinds of book

Confirmed

For the 2026 season three rule books from three sanctioning bodies are held here, and they are not the same kind of document. The IJSBA book is not a book. Its rule book page, read on 2026-09-28 and again on 2026-09-30, links thirty-eight PDFs dated from 2021 to 2025, twenty of them class documents dated 2022 to 2025, and our body record, which extracted twenty-five of them, warns that the class documents are not from the same season, so two classes can only be compared after checking the year each document carries. No document on that page, as the records read them, names a governing law, and this chapter does not supply one. The UIM book is one document, 189 pages, published on 22 December 2025 for the 2026 season, and every class in it is read against the same edition; the body record names the Union Internationale Motonautique in Monaco as its governing body, reads an International Court of Appeal inside the book and a final recourse to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, and calls the craft an aquabike rather than a personal watercraft. The IHRA book is also one document, 95 pages in sections A to EE, carrying a version string, V.20260603, rather than a season, and its A.2.4 fixes the law of the State of Ohio and venue exclusively in Ohio courts. The three books set three homologation counts, 500, 50 and 300 units, which the homologation chapter reads side by side, and all three print 86 dB(A), the IJSBA and IHRA books at 22.86 metres and the UIM book at 24 metres, which the sound chapter reads. What the shape of each book decides is what a comparison can be. Under the UIM and IHRA books a rule cited by number is a rule of one edition; under the IJSBA documents a rule cited by number is a rule of one class's year, and this site's notes on that sanctioning body flag the places where the 2021 displacement guide and the newer class documents disagree. A claim about legality in 2026 therefore has to carry the body's name and, for two of the three, a year or a version string as well.

Sources: IJSBA rule book page; UIM 2026 Aquabike rule book; IHRA rule book V.20260603

The new body, in its own words

Confirmed

The IHRA book opens with a revision log, A.1, of four dated entries. On 02.02.2026 a Drag Racing Regulations section, DD, was added; on 02.08.2026 the Junior Ski wording in C.2.2 was updated and an aftermarket exhaust for the SXR800 was added to Ski GP3 at M.6.1.4; on 02.18.2026 four rules were added to the Ski GP3 section; and on 06.03.2026 W.3.5 clarified ribbon delete rules for Yamaha against Sea-Doo models. The version string on every page, V.20260603, is that last date, and this site's notes on that sanctioning body read the year 2026 off it, because the book states no season. A.2 names the owner: Cuttell Motorsports, LLC, doing business as International Hot Rod Association, described as a sanctioning body historically rooted in drag racing that has "expanded its legacy of excellence to the water". A.2.2 states that the absence of a rule does not imply permission, A.2.4 the Ohio law and venue, and A.5 that the IHRA president or officials may change any rule or specification and impose further ones. B.6 requires an IHRA membership valid for the calendar year; B.7 sets the eligibility bar at 300 identical units sold through a distribution network reaching the global market. C.1 describes four racing types, closed course on a buoy track of half a mile to a mile with up to 25 competitors off a gated start, endurance point to point or on multi-lap courses, freestyle in choreographed two-minute routines before judges, and slalom against the clock through five buoys with a 10-second penalty for a missed one. C.2 says organisers do not evaluate a rider's skill, the same provision the 2002 IJSBA book prints in its own words. What the book does not say is as definite. It names no territory anywhere, which the body record notes against its Ohio law and global-market clause. It prints no penalty schedule; consequences are mostly at the discretion of the Race Director or Race Committee, with a handful of fixed ones such as the 10-second slalom penalty and one-lap start penalties. It prints no purse, prize table or entry fee amount; the words prize money appear only in F.9.3, on returning an award an organiser asks back. It gives no start date for the series beyond the log's first entry in February 2026, and sections A to C name no rider, official or owner as a person.

Sources: IHRA rule book V.20260603; 2002 rule book

The regional realignment, 2024 to 2026

Confirmed

One regional series left a sanction and another took its first in the same December week, and the documents that date them are of different kinds. The trade press reported on 18 December 2024 that Great Lakes Watercross would not run under IJSBA sanctioning in 2025, quoting the organisation's statement: "After much consideration, Great Lakes Watercross has made the difficult decision to step away from promoting under the IJSBA." The statement, as the report quotes it, gives its reasons as a decline in the association's structure, membership fees paid without a finalised rule book in return, and lower participation at the World Finals, and says the organisation's 2025 season would mark its 20th anniversary. Those are the organisation's claims; the report is the only document through which they reach this archive, and nothing here tests them. The same report carried the other move, which the association itself had posted five days earlier. The IJSBA post of 13 December 2024 announces the sanctioning of Wild West Watercross events for the 2025 season, describes the series as the newest grassroots competition series in Northern California, Utah, Nevada and parts of Arizona other than the Colorado River, and prints five tentative dates from April to August 2025, four of them at named venues in California and Nevada and one at a venue to be decided. A year later the first move completed. The trade press reported on 1 January 2026 that the IHRA Pro Watercraft Racing Series had welcomed Great Lakes Watercross "as its first sanctioned regional series under the IHRA Pro Watercraft umbrella", and printed a 2026 schedule of five points rounds from 12 June to 23 August in Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan, with a standalone event in Virginia on the Labor Day weekend outside the points, and a sentence about increased cash payouts with no figure. Our organisations record reads the sequence the same way: IJSBA through 2024, independent in 2025, an IHRA regional partner for 2026, the one regional body on its list to have moved between the two American sanctioning bodies. What a regional partner owes the national book, and what the regional book adds, is not in any document read; the Great Lakes 2026 rule book was not retrieved.

Sources: Watercraft Journal 18 December 2024; IJSBA post on Wild West Watercross; Watercraft Journal 1 January 2026

The IJSBA's answer: a World Series and a 45th year

Confirmed

On 12 January 2026 the IJSBA posted that it, IJSBA Europe and WGP#1 had finalised a joint action plan and would run a 2026 World Series of three flagship rounds: the IJSBA Jettribe European Finals at Burgas, Bulgaria, 8 to 12 July; the IJSBA Short Block Technologies World Finals at Lake Havasu City, printed in the post as 3 to 12 October; and a final round at Pattaya City, Thailand, 16 to 20 December. The post states that the three events "will collectively offer over USD 400,000 in prize money across multiple racing classes". That is a season total across three events and several classes, and the post gives no figure per class or per event. The trade press of 17 February 2026 reports the association's further notices: that the 2026 World Finals is the 45th consecutive year of the event, every one at Lake Havasu City; that it runs 3 to 11 October as the second stop of the World Series; that the association is forming a nine-director team across three regions, working with IJSBA Europe and WGP#1, to guide the rule book from the 2027 season; and an insurance notice asking participants who want to negotiate terms to make contact at least two weeks before the event. The press of 24 August 2026 adds that the venue is under new management and renamed Red Rock Waterside, where our event record still carries the earlier campground name, that the dates are 3 to 11 October, and that the association proposes moving the first awards to a Thursday and the closing ceremony to the Sunday under the London Bridge. The two dates disagree by a day, 3 to 12 October in the January post and 3 to 11 in both press reports, and this chapter prints both. The count is consistent with our event record, which counts from 1982 as the association does; the founding-year question itself is the World Finals chapter's.

Sources: IJSBA partnership post January 2026; Watercraft Journal 17 February 2026; Watercraft Journal 24 August 2026

What the documents cannot show

Confirmed

None of the documents this chapter reads gives an entry count, an attendance figure, a purse by class, or a series of any of those over years, and each silence is a fact about the document. The IHRA book prints no purse and no entry fee, and the only mention of prize money in its 95 pages is a protocol for returning an award. The IJSBA post of January 2026 gives one prize total for three events and many classes, which cannot be divided into a figure for any class or any round. The press report of August 2026 on the World Finals venue carries nothing on prize money, entries or participation. Our World Finals record lists result sheets from 1999 to 2018 that nobody has counted, an association post of 2019 giving entries from 21 nations without a total, and the 2025 and 2026 editions as the association's own pages and its January 2026 post name them, with every entry, class and rider field null; its stated gap is that attendance and entry series have never been published by the association. The regional organisation that left in December 2024 said World Finals participation had dropped, and no document quantifies the claim either way. The UIM book, as the body record reads it, prints classes and procedures and no participation figure. So whether the sport is shrinking or growing in 2026 is not a question these documents can answer, and the chapter does not answer it. What they can show is narrower and firmer: that three books exist, what each one says, which body each regional series named in its own announcement, and what the association said it would pay in total. A reader who wants the other numbers needs a result sheet with entries per class, which is held here for some past years and has not been counted, or a published series the association has not published.

Sources: IHRA rule book V.20260603; IJSBA partnership post January 2026; Watercraft Journal 24 August 2026; Watercraft Journal 18 December 2024; UIM 2026 Aquabike rule book; IJSBA rule book page

Where to watch it change

Likely

Four documents would move this chapter when their next edition appears. The first is the IJSBA rule book for 2027, which the February 2026 notice says a nine-director team across three regions will guide with IJSBA Europe and WGP#1. What to look for is its shape: whether the per-class PDFs of differing years become one same-season document, as the other two bodies publish, whether a Ski Limited document other than Vintage Ski Limited appears on the page, and whether the 2021 displacement guide is replaced or its disagreements with the class documents resolved. The second is the UIM Aquabike book for 2027, which on the 2026 pattern would be published in December; look for whether the GP4 to GP2 rules keep 86 dB(A) and the GP1 rules 501.04.03 and 502.04-03 keep 90 dB(A), all at 24 metres and whether the GP1 prototype logbook and the 50-specimen count in 500.02 move. The third is the next IHRA version string after V.20260603, and its log at A.1 is the place to read first; look for a territory clause that A.2.4 and B.7 now leave open, a penalty schedule where discretion now stands, any purse or fee table, and whether the three class sections that state no sound limit gain one, and Ski Limited, which states no criteria and inherits the Ski Lites figure, a figure of its own. The fourth is not a rule book but a result sheet: the 2026 World Finals results, once posted, would give the entries per class, the classes actually run against the twenty on the rule book page, and the nations, and would be the first current edition we could count against our 1999 to 2018 sheets. Each of the four is a document a reader can fetch and set beside this chapter, and the chapter's own claims are written so that they can be checked against it: a version string, a date, a page, a count.

Sources: IJSBA rule book page; 2021 displacement guide; UIM 2026 Aquabike rule book; IHRA rule book V.20260603; Watercraft Journal 17 February 2026

Not covered, and why (6)

The IHRA Pro Watercraft Racing Series carries a purse of 250,000 dollars.
The Master list records the figure as single-sourced to one press article and checked against the IHRA book on 25 August 2026, where it does not appear. The held book prints no purse anywhere; the words prize money occur only in its award-return protocol.
The series has a named figurehead.
The Master list records the name as absent from the IHRA book and single-sourced to the same press article; this chapter names no person in any case.
The sport is in decline, or fragmented and strained, or growing.
The framing of our research notes, and one regional organisation's stated reason for leaving. No held document gives an entry series, an attendance series or a purse series against which any of those words could be tested, checked on 2026-10-02 against the held IJSBA, UIM and IHRA texts, which print minimum entries per class, a riders-meeting attendance rule and a promoter payback schedule, and no count or sum for any year; the organisation's sentence is quoted as its claim and nothing here adopts it.
IJSBA and the UIM clashed over an event in Shanghai in 2017.
This site's notes on the organisations call the relationship adversarial and name the Shanghai clash in one clause; the clash's substance rests on this site's research notes, and no document from either body about it was read.
Any rider count, entry count or nation count for a current event.
The Master list marks recent World Finals entry counts as unconfirmed after repeated searching, our event record holds none, and the association's 2019 post gives nations without a total. None is printed.
A regional promoter paid 500, 250 and 125 dollars for first to third, and an IJSBA class award was 500 dollars in 2024.
Figures from our research notes, one of them marked there as a single low-confidence source. Neither was read from a document for this chapter, and purse by class is exactly what the held documents do not show.

What could not be read (7)

  • IHRA's rules page refused the fetch tool, so how the body presents the series on its own site was not read; the book is read from the text held here. IHRA's own announcement of the Great Lakes Watercross partnership was not reached, and Great Lakes Watercross's 2026 rule book was not retrieved.
  • Great Lakes Watercross's statement of December 2024 was read only as the trade press quotes it; the organisation's own posting of it was not found, and no IJSBA post on the departure was found.
  • The IJSBA post of 12 January 2026 gives a prize total for three events; the class-by-class schedule this site's research notes say a companion page carries as an image was not read or transcribed.
  • The UIM book is read from this site's notes on that sanctioning body, not from the PDF. The IJSBA class documents are read from the class and body records extracted on 2026-09-07 and from the rule book page read on 2026-09-28.
  • No result sheet for any 2024, 2025 or 2026 event was read, and our World Finals record has counted no edition, so nothing here gives an entry, a class count or a nation count for any current event.
  • The World Finals sentences in the fifth section read our own event record, which is not a source row of this chapter; the record's own documents are listed on its page.
  • Whether the IHRA has issued a version after V.20260603 was not checked on 2026-09-30: its rules page could not be fetched and the Wayback Machine could not be reached. On 2026-10-02 a browser reached www.ihra.com/racing/rules and found the page sitting behind a bot check this site's tools do not pass, so the version check is still to be made.

People on record (1)

Each has a page on Key Figures, named for a public role a document records.

Documents cited in this chapter

  • IJSBA rule book page (ijsba.com): IJSBA Competition Rule Book (the current per-class documents), International Jet Sports Boating Association; sanctioning body, high. The live page, read on the accessed date. It links no single book but per-class PDFs dated 2021 to 2025, twenty of them class documents, plus general, competition and appendix documents. The class and body records on this site were read from these PDFs on 2026-09-07; the chapter's figures for the current set come from those records and from the page itself, not from a re-reading of the PDFs.
  • UIM 2026 Aquabike rule book (uim.sport): UIM Aquabike Rulebook 2026 (published 22 December 2025), Union Internationale Motonautique, 2025-12-22; sanctioning body, high. The single 189-page UIM book that covers every class in one season. Rule 500.02 is its homologation article (50 specimens for the production classes, a logbook for GP1 prototypes) and rule 312 its freestyle discipline (five judges, ten criteria, 300 points). Cited here as the body and class records on this site read it, taken from the PDF on 2026-09-08, not from a re-reading of the PDF; the 2005 and 2006 Hungarian translations of earlier UIM books held here were not read.
  • IHRA rule book V.20260603 (ihra.com): IHRA Pro Watercraft Racing Competition Rulebook, version V.20260603, International Hot Rod Association, Pro Watercraft Racing, 2026-06-03; sanctioning body, high. The 95-page book, sections A to EE, held here as extracted text and read from it for this chapter. B.7 is the homologation bar (300 identical units, an established distribution network reaching the global market); C.1.3 the freestyle overview; H.1 to H.7 the freestyle operations; I.10 and J.6 the freestyle exemptions; CC the freestyle technical rules, whose CC.1 prints the one open-list sentence in the document. The public address is the rules page, because the PDF is served from an expiring signed link; the version string is the date to cite.
  • 2002 rule book (web.archive.org): IJSBA 2002 Official Competition Rule Book, International Jet Sports Boating Association, 2002; sanctioning body, high. The complete 2002 book in 25 sections, the oldest full IJSBA rule book held here, served from a Norwegian club's document server and captured by the Wayback Machine. Four numbered technical parts (Stock, Limited, Superstock, Modified), three divisions, the 500 and 200 unit homologation figures, and the United States class list.
  • Watercraft Journal 18 December 2024 (watercraftjournal.com): Eventful PWC Racing Week: New World Champions Crowned; Sanctioning Shakeup (The Watercraft Journal, 18 December 2024), The Watercraft Journal, 2024-12-18; enthusiast media, medium. Trade-press report that quotes Great Lakes Watercross's own statement on stepping away from IJSBA sanctioning for 2025 and reports the Wild West Watercross announcement of the same week. Medium because the statement reaches this archive only through this report; the organisation's own posting of it was not found. The author's name is not copied.
  • IJSBA post on Wild West Watercross (ijsba.com): Wild West Watercross Joins IJSBA For 2025 Season, Tentative Schedule Announced (IJSBA post, 13 December 2024), International Jet Sports Boating Association, 2024-12-13; sanctioning body, high. The association's announcement of sanctioning for the 2025 season, the series' stated territories, and five tentative 2025 dates. Read in full on the accessed date.
  • Watercraft Journal 1 January 2026 (watercraftjournal.com): Pro Watercraft Racing Series Partners With Great Lakes Watercross, GLWC Releases 2026 Schedule (The Watercraft Journal, 1 January 2026), The Watercraft Journal, 2026-01-01; enthusiast media, medium. Reports IHRA's welcome of Great Lakes Watercross as its first sanctioned regional series and prints the 2026 schedule. Medium as trade press; IHRA's own announcement was not reached because its site refused access.
  • IJSBA partnership post January 2026 (ijsba.com): IJSBA, IJSBA Europe, and WGP#1 Announce Strategic Partnership and 2026 World Series (IJSBA post, 12 January 2026), International Jet Sports Boating Association, 2026-01-12; sanctioning body, high. The association's own post naming the three 2026 flagship rounds with cities and dates, the season prize total across the three, and the joint action plan sentence. Read in full on the accessed date; no person named in it is copied.
  • Watercraft Journal 17 February 2026 (watercraftjournal.com): IJSBA Builds Momentum Toward 2026 World Finals With Rules Project, Insurance Notice and 80s-Themed PWC Fest (The Watercraft Journal, 17 February 2026), The Watercraft Journal, 2026-02-17; enthusiast media, medium. Carries the 45th consecutive year sentence, the October 3 to 11 dates, the second-stop status in the WGP#1 World Series and the nine-director rules project for 2027. Medium as trade press relaying the association's notices, which were not read directly.
  • Watercraft Journal 24 August 2026 (watercraftjournal.com): IJSBA Announces New Management for World Finals Venue, Proposes Awards Changes (The Watercraft Journal, 24 August 2026), The Watercraft Journal, 2026-08-24; enthusiast media, medium. The venue's new name and address, the October 3 to 11 dates and the proposed awards-ceremony changes; the article carries nothing on prize money, entries or participation, which the chapter records as silence.
  • 2021 displacement guide (ijsba.com): IJSBA 2021 Displacement Guide, International Jet Sports Boating Association, 2021; sanctioning body, high. The appendix document the current rule book page links as the Displacement Guide, dated 2021. Its figures are cited here as the body record on this site reads them, which also records where they disagree with the newer class documents.

Changes to this chapter

  • 2026-10-02: The IHRA version check was tried again: on 2026-10-02 a browser reached www.ihra.com/racing/rules and found the page sitting behind a bot check this site's tools do not pass, so the seventh gap records that and the check is still to be made.
  • 2026-09-30: Source check: the IJSBA page links thirty-eight PDFs, not twenty-five; all three books print 86 dB(A) and only the UIM distance differs; the IHRA book fixes a few penalties and mentions entry fees without an amount; Wild West Watercross took its first sanction rather than changing one; the sound figures of 90 dB(A) sit in the UIM GP1 rules, not 501.01; three class sections state no limit and Ski Limited inherits one.
Cite this page

“The current state: three bodies, 2024 to 2026”, BaddJet archive, https://baddjetarchive.com/racing/history/decline-and-current-state/

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