Graded source by source
Where the sport came from
1965 to 2009, from one prototype to three manufacturers. Every entry names the sources behind it and how far they go, and where the sources contradict each other the page prints the contradiction instead of picking a winner.
This page is the industry's milestones and the arguments over them. The racing is How the sport got here; each company's launches are in Model timelines; the engineering is How the machines changed.
What the grades mean
The same words are used across the archive and explained on how we know.
- Confirmed (7)
- Two independent sources of medium grade or better agree, or one manufacturer says it about its own product.
- Likely (2)
- One good source and nothing contradicting it. That is not the same as knowing.
- Contested (2)
- The sources disagree. Every one of them is printed inside the entry, with what each claims.
- Unverified (0)
- What is on file meets none of the three definitions above.
Sit-down patents
Stand-up patents
One inventor, two licences, two separate lines of machines. Nothing joins the Bombardier side to the Kawasaki side below the prototype, because no agreement ever did.
How we know: The six dated entries further down this page, each box carrying the grade its entry carries.
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Bombardier
Sea-Doo 1968 to 1970 (Confirmed); none for 18 years; again from 1988 (Confirmed for that date), to the end of this page's range.
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Kawasaki
From October 1972 (Confirmed for that date), to the end of this page's range.
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Yamaha
From November 1986 (Confirmed for that date), to the end of this page's range.
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Honda
AquaTrax 2002 to 2009 (Likely).
- Confirmed
- Likely
- Not graded past its start
One lane for each of the 4 makers this page's milestones date, on a shared scale from 1965 to 2009; a maker with no entry here has no lane. A filled bar is a span its entry dates and grades, a thin line runs on from a dated start that its entry grades only at that start, an arrow at the right means this page records no exit before its range ends, and the gap in the Bombardier lane is the 18 years with no Sea-Doo on sale.
How we know: The dated entries below, each bar or start mark carrying the grade of its entry.
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1965
Clayton Jacobson II runs the first personal watercraft prototype
Jacobson, an American inventor, has a working jet-pump personal watercraft running several years before any licensed production craft exists. Every machine on this site descends from that prototype, through one of the two licences below.
Open the sheet at full size (2320 by 3408 pixels) to read its numbers
The five figures
- FIG. 1 the craft seen from the front, at an angle
- FIG. 2 the same craft cut lengthwise, showing what is inside
- FIG. 3 the rearward portion seen from underneath
- FIG. 4 a second form, whose side wings fold up so it takes less room in storage
- FIG. 5 that second form cut across, along the line marked 5 on FIG. 4
The patent's own numbers
- A the hull, with its flat deck, 10
- B the hollow support rising from the bow, carrying the handles
- C the engine
- 88 the propeller, inside a tube within the hull
- 94 the nozzle at the stern; it pivots, which turns the jet and so steers the craft
- 98 the hole through the nozzle that the jet of water leaves by
- 106, 108 the two handles
- 134 bars across the water opening in the bottom, to keep out weeds and debris
The drawing sheet of US patent 3,369,518, unaltered. No Copyright, United States.
The drawing sheet of the inventor's own patent: US patent 3,369,518, Aquatic vehicle, filed 3 November 1966 and granted 20 February 1968, shown as printed. It describes a craft the rider could stand on or sit in, and it is a patent drawing, not a picture of the 1965 prototype.
How we know: the patent itself: its list of figures in column 1 and the passages naming each numbered part, columns 1 to 4. It prints no copyright notice.
Sources: Wikipedia on Jacobson · JetDrift on PWC history
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1968 to 1970
Bombardier licenses the sit-down patents and builds the first Sea-Doo
Bombardier takes a licence on the sit-down design and produces the first Sea-Doo, built from 1968 to 1970. This is the fact that decides every argument further down this page about who built the first sit-down: it was Bombardier, and it was 1968. One source on file, the JetSkiPlus Sea-Doo reference, ends production in late 1969 with the remaining units destroyed; the two sources this row rests on both say 1970.
Models named: Sea-Doo
Commonly told wrong. Red Bull's history calls the Sea-Doo the inventor's own first model. It was Bombardier's product built on a licensed design, and the prototype came first by about three years.
Sources: Wikipedia on Jacobson · JetDrift on PWC history
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1970
Bombardier drops the Sea-Doo
Sea-Doo production ends after two years, and Bombardier leaves the market for eighteen. That gap is the most important structural fact in the sport's history and almost every retelling omits it: for the whole of the 1970s and most of the 1980s there was effectively one manufacturer. One source on file, the JetSkiPlus Sea-Doo reference, puts the end of production in late 1969 rather than 1970.
Models named: Sea-Doo
Sources: Wikipedia on Jacobson · JetDrift on PWC history
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August 1971
The stand-up patents are licensed to Kawasaki
With the Bombardier agreement over, Jacobson licenses his stand-up patents and development work directly to Kawasaki, exclusively. The licence is with Jacobson personally, and one source dates it to 15 August 1971, the day the Bombardier agreement expired. No agreement between Kawasaki and Sea-Doo was involved.
Commonly told wrong. Red Bull's history says Kawasaki reached an agreement with Sea-Doo to use the designs. It invents a corporate relationship between two competitors that never existed.
Sources: Wikipedia on Jacobson · JetSkiWorld on WSAA and WSAB
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October 1972
Kawasaki WSAA and WSAB 400, the first production stand-up
Kawasaki introduces the first production stand-up personal watercraft, a modified 400cc two-stroke twin in two hulls: WSAA flat, WSAB deep-V. Introduced October 1972 and sold as the 1973 model year, which is why sources counting model years say 1973 and sources counting introduction dates say 1972. Only Wikipedia gives the month. Roughly 550 built, two thirds of them the flat WSAA. It was the only commercially successful personal watercraft for about sixteen years.
Kawasaki WSAA 400 and WSAB 400, one year apart 1972 1973 Came out October 1972 Sold as 1973 model year Yamaha MJ-500T, one year apart 1986 1987 Came out November 1986 First Yamaha row in the model reference WaveRunner (WR500), 1987 In both records the second year falls one year after the first, so two sources that count the same machine differently can disagree by exactly that much.
How we know: The dated milestones on Where the sport came from, and the model reference's own rows.
Models named: WSAA 400, WSAB 400
Commonly told wrong. Widely reported as "the 1973 Kawasaki JS400". The craft is right and the designation is not: JS400 did not exist for another few years, and which years is still contested below.
Sources: Wikipedia on the Jet Ski brand · JetSkiWorld on WSAA and WSAB · Watercraft Journal at 50 years · GreenHulk thread 2008
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1976
Kawasaki moves to end the licence
Kawasaki serves notice to terminate. The dispute that follows costs Kawasaki the exclusivity it had held since 1971, which is the legal event that eventually let anyone else build one of these.
Source: Wikipedia on Jacobson
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1976 to 1981
Kawasaki JS400, the first mass-produced Jet Ski
The JS400 is where the stand-up stops being a limited run and becomes a product: sheet moulded compound hull, 24.5 hp from the 400cc twin (JetDrift's spec table also prints 27 hp at 4,500 rpm), 244 lb, built at Lincoln, Nebraska. The years are the problem. Five sources, two of them JetDrift pages, say production began in 1976 and one lists it first under 1980 while also writing 1976 and 1973 elsewhere, and this site sells parts by model year, so the range above is printed as contested rather than chosen.
Models named: JS400
The sources disagree, and here is exactly how
- JetDrift on the JS400 · medium grade
- Dates the JS400 1976 to 1981.
- Wikipedia on the Jet Ski brand · medium grade
- Lists the JS400 under 1980 in its model table, says "The 1976 JS400" in prose, and captions a photograph "The Original 1973 Kawasaki JS400".
- JetDrift Kawasaki model reference · medium grade
- Its chart prints JS400 1976-1981, after WSAA and WSAB 1973-1975.
- JetSkiWorld on WSAA and WSAB · medium grade
- Says Kawasaki launched in mass production in 1976 with the JS400, in a page about the WSAA and WSAB.
- Watercraft Journal at 50 years · medium grade
- 1976, full production begins at the Lincoln, Nebraska plant, with the same 400cc twin as the WSAA and WSAB.
- GreenHulk thread 2008 · second-hand
- 1976, model code JS400-A, the first mass-production Jet Ski, SMC hull. Second-hand from a dead Kawasaki Canada page, so it corroborates rather than settles.
What would settle it. A Kawasaki parts microfiche or a factory service manual for the JS400. Model year boundaries decide fitment, and three sources agreeing is not the same as a manufacturer document saying so.
Commonly told wrong. Red Bull's history dates the JS400 to 1973 and calls it the first commercially popular model. Every source consulted here puts it later than 1973, and the 1973 craft was the WSAA and WSAB.
Sources: JetDrift on the JS400 · Wikipedia on the Jet Ski brand · Watercraft Journal at 50 years · GreenHulk thread 2008 · JetDrift Kawasaki model reference · JetSkiWorld on WSAA and WSAB
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1986 to 1995
Kawasaki X2, and the argument about what a sit-down is
The X2 is a 650cc two-passenger craft, built across ten model years, and it is the reason the sport has a sport class. What it is not is settled. One source calls it the first mass-produced sit-down personal watercraft; another calls it Kawasaki's first sit-down Jet Ski; a third calls it a hybrid and gives that title to the 1989 Tandem Sport. All three walk past the same fact: Bombardier built a sit-down in 1968, eighteen years earlier, so neither craft can be the first sit-down without a qualifier, and each of the three writes one: first mass-produced, Kawasaki's first, or Kawasaki's first true sit-down.
Models named: X2, JF650-A, Tandem Sport, JF650-B
The sources disagree, and here is exactly how
- Watercraft Journal at 50 years · medium grade
- Calls the X2 the first mass-produced sit-down personal watercraft, built 1986 to 1995.
- Wikipedia on the Jet Ski brand · medium grade
- Calls the 650 X2 "their first sit-down Jet Ski, and originator of the Sport Class".
- GreenHulk thread 2008 · second-hand
- Calls the X2 a hybrid stand-up and sit-down, model code JF650-A, and says Kawasaki's first true sit-down was the 1989 Tandem Sport, JF650-B.
- JetDrift on PWC history · medium grade
- Neither. It records the 1968 Sea-Doo, which was a sit-down and predates both by eighteen years, and which is what makes an unqualified "first sit-down" wrong whichever craft you pick.
What would settle it. Kawasaki's own 1986 press material or an owner's manual, which would say what Kawasaki called it at the time. The "Kawasaki's first" qualifier is written down by Wikipedia; what remains open is whether Kawasaki itself used it.
Sources: Watercraft Journal at 50 years · GreenHulk thread 2008 · JetDrift on PWC history · Wikipedia on the Jet Ski brand
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November 1986
Yamaha MJ-500T, the first WaveRunner
Yamaha launches the Marine Jet 500T, a seated tandem craft, and the WaveRunner line starts here: domestic release November 1986, unveiled earlier that year at the Chicago Boat Show. Yamaha did not invent the sit-down, which was Bombardier's in 1968. What Yamaha did was make the seated tandem runabout commercially successful, and that is the format almost everything sold today descends from.
Models named: MJ-500T, Marine Jet 500T, WaveRunner 500
Commonly told wrong. Red Bull's history says Yamaha invented the WaveRunner 500. The date is right and the verb is not: the sit-down existed in 1968.
Source: Yamaha on the WaveRunner
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1988
Sea-Doo comes back after eighteen years
Bombardier reintroduces the Sea-Doo as a line of sit-down runabouts, ending Kawasaki's effective monopoly on commercially successful personal watercraft. Everything the sport looks like now starts from the three-way fight that begins here.
Models named: Sea-Doo
Sources: JetDrift on PWC history · Wikipedia on the Jet Ski brand
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2002 to 2009
Honda AquaTrax, in and out in seven years
Honda enters with a four-stroke turbocharged craft and leaves in 2009. It matters here for one practical reason: an AquaTrax is a discontinued machine with a discontinued parts supply, and anything describing it as a current option is out of date by well over a decade.
Models named: AquaTrax
Commonly told wrong. Red Bull's history, published in 2021, lists the AquaTrax in the present tense. It had been out of production for twelve years by then.
Source: JetDrift on PWC history
The account most retellings copy is a 2021 Red Bull article, and it is wrong in ways that matter here. 6 of the 11 entries above carry a correction to it, marked Commonly told wrong. That article is in the source list below and no entry here is allowed to cite it as evidence: it is held on file as the thing being corrected, not as a basis for anything.
The omission is worse than any single error. Bombardier dropped the Sea-Doo in 1970 and did not come back until 1988, so for 18 years there was no Sea-Doo on sale while the sport took its shape. Almost nothing about how this sport developed makes sense without that gap, and almost nothing mentions it.
One source on this page is a manufacturer writing about its own product: History of WaveRunners (PWC). The rest are two encyclopedia articles, six enthusiast media pages, one second-hand forum post and one editorial article, and no Kawasaki or Bombardier document has been read for any of it. That is why two entries read Likely rather than Confirmed: they rest on one good source each, and one good source is not agreement.
The dates are where this will bite first. Model year boundaries decide which parts fit, the JS400 window is contested above, and nothing on this page should be used to answer a fitment question. The model reference is where those live, and it carries its own warning about the same thing.
Sources
Every row the entries above are graded against. Reliability is not how much we like a source: it is what kind of thing it is.
| Source | Kind | Reliability | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| History of WaveRunners (PWC) Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. | Manufacturer primary | The manufacturer, writing about its own product | Manufacturer primary source for the 1986 MJ-500T launch and for the Yamaha make timeline, 1986 to 2027. |
| Clayton Jacobson II Wikipedia | Encyclopedia | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | Basis for the 1965 prototype, the 1968 to 1970 Bombardier licence, the 1971 Kawasaki licence and the 1976 dispute. One article carrying four milestones. |
| Jet Ski (brand) Wikipedia | Encyclopedia | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | Source for the WSAA and WSAB October 1972 introduction, and for the Kawasaki model list that dates the JS400 to 1980 against five sources saying 1976. |
| Who Invented Jet Skis and Sea-Doos? History of PWCs JetDrift | Enthusiast media | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | Source for the 1988 Sea-Doo return and the Honda AquaTrax window. |
| 1976-1981 Kawasaki JS400 Review and Specs [Video] JetDrift | Enthusiast media | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | Dates the JS400 1976 to 1981. Conflicts with Wikipedia on the Jet Ski brand. |
| Kawasaki WSAA and WSAB, 1973 - World Exclusive JetSkiWorld.gr | Enthusiast media | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | Corroborates the WSAA and WSAB designations, prints the Kawasaki licence date as 15 August 1971, puts the run at roughly 550 craft with two thirds of them the flat WSAA, and says mass production began in 1976 with the JS400. |
| Gallery: Looking Back Over 50 Years of JetSki Watercraft The Watercraft Journal , JD Brussels | Enthusiast media | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | Named author, dated, and specific: 24.5 hp and 244 lb for the JS400, built at Lincoln, Nebraska from 1976. Calls the 1986 X2 the first mass-produced sit-down PWC, which is the claim GreenHulk thread 2008 contradicts. Held here as a fact extraction; the article text and its photographs are not ours to republish. |
| Kawasaki JET SKI History (forum thread) GreenHulk PWC Performance Forums , shawn alladio | Forum, second-hand | Second-hand, anonymous, or wrong on something checkable | A 2008 forum post reproducing a Kawasaki Canada museum page that is now dead, so the manufacturer original cannot be checked. Graded low for that reason and for that reason only: it is detailed, internally consistent, and its model codes (JS400-A, JF650-A, JH750-A) are real Kawasaki designations. Cited here solely to record that it contradicts the first-sit-down claim. It may not carry a milestone on its own. |
| 1973-2024 Kawasaki Jet Ski Model Reference [Chart] JetDrift | Enthusiast media | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | The title now ends "[Chart]" as printed. The page prints no author and no date. |
| History of Jet Ski: Everything you need to know Red Bull (MEA English) , Red Bull Kuwait | Editorial | Second-hand, anonymous, or wrong on something checkable | Nothing. Held as the thing being corrected; no entry here is allowed to cite it. |
| Sea-Doo Model Reference JetSkiPlus | Enthusiast media | An encyclopedia, or enthusiast media with a named author and a date | Not a milestone on this page. It carries the Sea-Doo model timeline instead. |
Nothing on this page is rehosted. Every source is a citation and an outbound link to whoever published it. One of them reproduces a Kawasaki Canada page that no longer exists, which is why it is graded second-hand and why it carries no entry on its own.
- How the sport got here: the sport as organised competition, from racing sources graded for reliability, with the claims nobody could source listed as held back.
- How the machines changed: the machines and the companies behind them, every section naming its source.
- Model timelines: which machines each company made, year by year, from one named publication per make.
- Where the sport came from, this page: who built the first one, from milestones graded one by one, including the two the sources contest.
11 milestones · 1965–2009 · 2 contested