What one magazine says Kawasaki did

A Kawasaki line from 1973 to 2022, restated from a single fiftieth anniversary gallery in an enthusiast magazine and graded accordingly. It is the thinnest of the three timelines on this site: thirteen years carry an entry and thirty-seven do not, because the publication chose the machines it thought mattered rather than listing a catalogue.

These years do not decide what fits

One publication, read once, checked against no Kawasaki document. The years are the magazine's and it does not say whether they are United States model years or calendar years, so nothing here decides which parts fit which craft. The model reference is where fitment lives and it is graded separately. Engine sizes are the magazine's own words: it writes 650 for the X2 and 635 for the Jet Mate and Sport Cruiser while saying the latter two share their engine with the 650SX, so it carries both figures for one engine family and that split is inherited here rather than resolved. Where a row is blank, the magazine did not state the figure.

A model year is the year a machine is sold as, and it can differ from the year the machine came out by one either way, so a year on this Kawasaki timeline can be a year off the same machine's model years in the reference. It happens once below: the SX-R 1500 at 2016, each dated a year earlier here than in the reference.

Fitment is recorded row by row, with the document behind each row, in the Kawasaki model table.

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.

Where this comes from

Gallery: Looking Back Over 50 Years of JetSki Watercraft, The Watercraft Journal, JD Brussels. Read once, on 28 September 2026. This is not a manufacturer document and nothing in it has been checked against one.

36 years in this span have no record at all, and 1 more has a record but no model

1970s
4. 1973, models listed
5. 1974, no record at all
6. 1975, an entry but no model
7. 1976, models listed
8. 1977, no record at all
9. 1978, no record at all
10. 1979, no record at all
1980s
1. 1980, no record at all
2. 1981, no record at all
3. 1982, no record at all
4. 1983, no record at all
5. 1984, no record at all
6. 1985, no record at all
7. 1986, models listed
8. 1987, no record at all
9. 1988, no record at all
10. 1989, models listed
1990s
1. 1990, no record at all
2. 1991, models listed
3. 1992, no record at all
4. 1993, no record at all
5. 1994, models listed
6. 1995, models listed
7. 1996, no record at all
8. 1997, models listed
9. 1998, no record at all
10. 1999, no record at all
2000s
1. 2000, no record at all
2. 2001, no record at all
3. 2002, no record at all
4. 2003, no record at all
5. 2004, no record at all
6. 2005, no record at all
7. 2006, no record at all
8. 2007, models listed
9. 2008, no record at all
10. 2009, no record at all
2010s
1. 2010, no record at all
2. 2011, models listed
3. 2012, no record at all
4. 2013, no record at all
5. 2014, models listed
6. 2015, no record at all
7. 2016, models listed
8. 2017, no record at all
9. 2018, no record at all
10. 2019, no record at all
2020s
1. 2020, no record at all
2. 2021, no record at all
3. 2022, models listed

13 years with models listed
1 year with an entry but no model
36 years with no record at all

The whole span in rows of ten years. The dashed squares are years this publication never mentions; every other square links to its year further down.

How we know: This timeline's own entries, and the years it declares it holds nothing for.

The 36 years with no record, as a list

1974, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

The publication is a gallery, not a catalogue: it picks a dozen or so machines across fifty years and says nothing about the years between them. Every gap here is a year the article does not mention at all, apart from 1992, which it names only as the end of the Jet Mate run, and 1995 and 2022, which it names as the end of the X2 and of the first Ultra LX and which have rows for other reasons. A year with no row is a year the magazine skipped, and it is not evidence that Kawasaki launched nothing.

Year by year

8 of the 15 Kawasaki model entries below link to that machine's page in the model reference; the other 7 are plain text, because the reference holds no single machine under that name for that year. They carry 14 different names, because some names are listed in more than one year.

1973
- WSAA
  
  Stand-up · 400cc · 2-stroke
  
  Flat hull. The article opens the line with this machine and the WSAB, at roughly 200 lb, and calls the early stand-ups motorcycles for the water.
- WSAB
  
  Stand-up · 400cc · 2-stroke
  
  Deep-V hull, otherwise the WSAA.
1975

Sheet Molded Compound hulls

Hull production in sheet moulding compound (SMC) begins; the article says a similar method is still in use.
1976
- JS400
  
  Stand-up · 400cc · two-cylinder, the WSAA and WSAB engine · 2-stroke
  
  24.5 hp, 244 lb, just over 7 ft long.
  
  The Watercraft Journal claims: first company to bring a jet-pump personal watercraft to a mass market
Full production begins at the Lincoln, Nebraska plant.
1986
- X2
  
  Runabout · 650cc · two-cylinder · 2-stroke · 2 seats
  
  Just over 275 lb and just over 7 ft long. Built for nine years, 1986 to 1995.
  
  The Watercraft Journal claims: first mass-produced sit-down personal watercraft
1989
- Jet Mate
  
  Category not stated · 635cc · two-cylinder · 52 hp · 2-stroke · 3 seats
  
  A jet-pump craft closer to a small boat than a ski, 527 lb, 9 ft by 5 ft, steered by a joystick. Built 1989 to 1992, and the article puts the total at about 1,200.
1991
- Sport Cruiser
  
  Runabout · 635cc · the Jet Mate and 650SX engine · 2-stroke · 2 seats
  
  Two riders side by side, 441 lb, 9 ft by 4 ft, with an articulating rectangular steering wheel so either rider could drive.
1994
- 750 ST
  
  Runabout · 3 seats
  
  The Watercraft Journal claims: Kawasaki's first three-seater runabout
1995
- 900 ZXi
  
  Runabout · 891cc · three-cylinder · 2-stroke · 2 seats
  
  The Watercraft Journal claims: first JetSki on Kawasaki's new three-cylinder engine
The X2 run ends after nine years, per the span the article gives it.
1997
- 1100 STX
  
  Runabout · 1100cc · three-cylinder, shared with the 1100 ZXi · 120 hp · 2-stroke
  
  The first of the STX line.
The STX line begins.
2007
- Ultra LX
  
  Runabout · 1498cc · four-cylinder, double overhead camshaft (DOHC) · naturally aspirated · 160 hp
  
  The first-generation Ultra LX ran fifteen years, 2007 to 2022, which the article credits with establishing the Ultra line's reputation for capability and reliability.
- Ultra 250x
  
  Performance runabout · 1498cc · four-cylinder DOHC, derived from the Ninja ZX-14 engine · supercharged and intercooled · 250 hp
The article says the Ultra name was first carried by the Ultra 150 and Ultra 130, which shared deck and hull with the ZXi line, and gives them no year. It describes the Ultra hull as a deep-V in SMC with gelcoat and credits the line with class-leading horsepower and touring and rough-water ability.
2011
- Ultra 300
  
  Performance runabout · 1498cc · supercharged, Eaton Twin Vortices Series roots-type · 300 hp
  
  The Watercraft Journal claims: first personal watercraft with an Eaton Twin Vortices Series roots-type supercharger
Two-stroke engine production ends under tightening emissions rules. The article names the Special Edition 800 SX-R as the last and highest development of the two-stroke stand-up, without dating it, and counts the two-stroke stand-up era at roughly forty years.
2014
- Ultra 310
  
  Performance runabout · 1498cc · supercharged · 310 hp
  
  The article attributes the step from 300 to 310 to continued engine and cooling upgrades.
2016
- SX-R 1500
  
  Stand-up · 4-stroke
  
  Over 60 mph, per the article. The stand-up returns five years after two-stroke production ended. Kawasaki Motors, Ltd.'s own history and the US parts catalogue code JS1500AHF both put the SX-R in 2017; the 2016 here is the magazine's.
  
  The Watercraft Journal claims: the industry's most powerful four-stroke stand-up
2022
- Ultra 310
  
  Performance runabout · 1498cc · supercharged · 310 hp
  
  Second generation. The article says the platform was modernised and the hull left almost entirely unchanged.
The first-generation Ultra LX run ends after fifteen years.

Read this before you use any of it

One publication, and not the manufacturer: A named author, a date and specific figures put this at medium grade, and it is still a single enthusiast article with no Kawasaki document behind any number in it. Kawasaki Motors, Ltd. publishes its own corporate history, read on 28 September 2026, which lists fourteen JET SKI releases by name from the 1973 WSAA to the 2023 ULTRA 160 and gives no specifications. Where the two disagree the manufacturer wins; where this record is checked against it, the check has not yet been made.
Launch years are rows and endpoints are not: The article gives three production runs: the X2 from 1986 to 1995, the Jet Mate from 1989 to 1992, and the first Ultra LX from 2007 to 2022. A run is recorded once, in the notes of the year it began. 1992 therefore stays a gap, and 1995 and 2022 have rows only because a different machine launched in each.
The first sit-down claim is contested: The article calls the 1986 X2 the first mass-produced sit-down personal watercraft. Bombardier's Sea-Doo was a sit-down in 1968, eighteen years earlier, and a Kawasaki Canada museum page held on this site calls the X2 a hybrid and names the 1989 Tandem Sport as Kawasaki's first true sit-down. The likeliest reading is that the magazine means Kawasaki's first, but it does not say so. The claim is rendered with the publisher's name on it and nowhere as this site's own.
Blanks that are blanks on purpose: The JS400 is given 24.5 horsepower, which is not a whole number and so sits in its notes rather than in the horsepower field. The 1,498cc Ultra engine is never called a four-stroke by the article, so the stroke column is empty on every Ultra row even though nobody doubts it; the SX-R 1500 is called a four-stroke and carries the figure. The Ultra 150 and Ultra 130 are named as the first machines to carry the Ultra name and are given no year, so they have no row.
Spellings are the publication's: The article writes the trademark as JetSki in one word and writes the 2007 supercharged model as Ultra 250x with a lower-case x. Kawasaki's own history writes JET SKI and ULTRA 250X. Names here follow the publication because that is the document the record rests on, and the trademark is used only in the claims the publication makes in its own voice.
What has been left out: The article names the inventor of the stand-up, gives three nicknames for the 1991 Sport Cruiser, and frames 1973 with the average family income and the price of fuel. None of it is restated. The nicknames are contested and belong in the glossary, the name belongs on the origins page where it is sourced properly, and the colour is the writer's own work.

6 claims on this page are The Watercraft Journal's own, marked as such wherever they appear. Other timelines · Model Reference, where fitment lives · Where the sport came from

Changes to this timeline

2026-09-30: The 2016 SX-R 1500 entry now says that Kawasaki Motors, Ltd.'s own history and the US parts catalogue code JS1500AHF both put the machine in 2017, and that the 2016 here is the magazine's.

Every change across the archive.

models in 13 of 50 years · 15 model entries · 37 years with none

What one magazine says Kawasaki did

Year by year

1973

1975

1976

1986

1989

1991

1994

1995

1997

2007

2011

2014

2016

2022

Read this before you use any of it

Changes to this timeline