If you are tired of just taking a leisurely spin around the lake on your jet ski, it may be time to add in some tricks.
Jet ski tricks can make jet skiing quite a lot more fun, but you will have to take your time and learn to perfect these.
If you are not careful, jet ski tricks can be bad for you and your jet ski.
It is certainly worth practicing and feeling comfortable on the jet ski before getting out in the water and attempting any of these.
Let’s look at ten fun and exciting jet ski tricks you should try.
10 Fun Jet Skiing Tricks You Should Try
1. Jumping a Wake
Jumping a wake is one of the first tricks people want to try.
When you see all of these wakes around, it can be tempting to get involved with using them for tricks.
Jumping a wake is when you actually fly straight over it as opposed to riding the wave up and down.
You will have to get up a lot of speed to jump a wake, which is why this trick takes a little extra practice.
You will head into the wake at full speed and use the first wave that you hit to lift you up and propel you forward.
Make sure you are leaning a bit back so that you can get the jet ski far enough up in the air.
This process of jumping a wake is most dangerous when it comes to the landing.
If you do not land the jump properly, there are some serious injuries which can occur.
You will want to make sure you do not tighten up as the jet ski is about to make contact with the water.
If you do, your tight neck and back muscles could end up making you hurt quite a bit.
You can use the waves in the ocean to jump other waves, or you can create your own wake and then jump it.
Try to start with something smaller and more manageable, and then move to the larger jumps from there.
2. Surface 180
You will quickly realize that many of the tricks involved in jet skiing are going to be about speed and spinning.
These are the easiest and most fun ways to maneuver your jet ski, and that is what makes these tricks so popular.
A surface 180 takes some time and practice to master, but it is certainly the mark of a well-established rider.
The surface 180 can occur when you turn the handlebars from one direction all the way to the other while maintaining full speed.
You will start a surface 180 in a stopped position with the handlebars turned all the way to one side.
When it is time to perform the trick, you can turn the handlebars the opposite way and throttle up the jet ski.
The combination of the turn and the speed helps you to do a pretty cool spin.
With a surface 180, you can turn around completely at a very fast pace.
It can be very entertaining to watch someone who is excellent at jet skiing perform tricks like this.
When you do a 180, make sure you are leaning your body in the direction you are wanting to go.
Also, always make sure that the area around you is clear when you are performing any of these techniques.
3. Riding a Wake
Riding a wake can also be called driving over a wake.
When you ride on smooth water, it is much easier to control the speed of your jet ski and how it is going to act and stay in control.
When you ride a wake, it is a much different feeling.
Riding wakes are also different from riding on a choppy surface.
A wake is going to be a few feet up and down, different from a chop.
Driving over a wake is a good thing to practice and work on before you try jumping a wake.
Riding over a wake will give you the feeling that you need to learn to jump over a wake.
If you need a wake to ride in, try to go jet skiing with a friend.
You can use the wake your friend is creating.
Always make sure you give yourself plenty of space so you don’t get hurt while riding a wake.
You can also use your own wake to practice on if you are quick with turning around and getting a chance to use it before it dissipates.
When you are trying to ride a wake, you will want to keep the bow of the jet ski up.
It is best to do this by leaning backward and letting the jet ski raise up as you go up the wake.
This helps to make the drop-down a little bit easier as well.
As you go up and down over the wake, you are going to feel it quite a bit.
You will want to make sure your body is loose and allows you to go up and down without tensing up.
Riding up and down a wake is going to cause you to have some drops, and they can hurt when you are new to them.
Start with riding small wakes and get used to it before you switch to trying to jump over large wakes.
4. Donut
If you get dizzy easily, you may want to skip the donut.
A donut in a jet ski is going to be very similar to doing a donut in a car.
When you do a donut, you are going to be rotating the jet ski and not necessarily traveling all that far.
The donut takes some specific placement of your hands and feet, but outside of that, it won’t be too difficult.
Once you start practicing a donut, you can eventually start to try them with your legs on one side of the jet ski.
A donut can be done while either sitting or standing.
Most people say that the standing donut is a bit harder to learn how to do, so the sitting donut is a good place to start, and you can try and expand your skills from that point.
5. Circles
When you make a circle on a jet ski, you can actually create some great wakes for yourself.
Creating a wake helps those who want to jump the waves.
When you take a jet ski out into calm water, the number of tricks you can do is kind of limited.
By learning to create circles, you can then make more tricks accessible to yourself.
When you want to create circles, you will just need to ride around in circles by leaning on one side of the jet ski as you turn.
When you are a beginner, the idea of the circles may seem a little scary.
Luckily, you can start out by doing very wide circles and then narrowing them down from there.
The wide circles are much easier, and you can just start making them tighter and tighter until you get better at making circles.
This is one of those tricks you are going to want to learn as a new rider, and it will certainly make you a better rider overall.
Practicing circles before you start on something like a donut is a good idea as well.
6. Carving
Carving is just going to be performing sharp turns and essentially carving a path in the water.
When you are carving with a jet ski, it essentially means that you are getting better at performing turns and maneuvering.
When you start learning how to carve, make sure you have a wide-open space to work on it.
Carving may seem like a basic trick, but it can get more complicated as you add speed and complexity to the moves.
When you are carving, you can be either sitting or standing.
If you are new to riding on a jet ski, carving should be done from a sitting position.
7. Standing and Riding
Sometimes your jet ski is a standing model, and other times, it is going to be a sitting jet ski.
Regardless of the type of jet ski you have, you can still learn to stand and ride.
Standing and riding on a sit-down model takes a bit of practice and work to figure out.
You will need to have very good balance and control.
If you have been sitting and riding for quite some time, you probably know that your core and upper body is how you control the jet ski.
When you stand, your legs need to be very strong and capable of keeping you balanced even if you go over a wave.
In order to ride a jet ski while standing, you are going to need to be in very good shape.
If you are not an athlete, you may struggle with this.
When you first start standing and riding, you are going to need to start slowly.
Do not use a lot of speed when you first start standing and riding.
If you end up slipping off the jet ski, you could get seriously hurt.
8. Speed Up and Stop
Before you can get involved in some very high-end tricks and maneuvers, you should be able to stop and start on a dime.
It takes a bit of time to learn to stop a jet ski properly.
Most jet skis don’t have a brake, although some models will.
If your jet ski doesn’t have a brake, you will need to just throttle down, and the jet ski will stop.
Of course, doing this very quickly is going to be difficult and cause you to feel like you are losing control a bit.
When you speed up and stop, you will then be able to add other tricks as well.
Practice this trick at various rates of speed until you find one that you feel comfortable with.
Speeding up and stopping is not going to be the most difficult trick on a jet ski, but it is certainly necessary to learn to expand your abilities as a jet ski rider.
9. Speed Up and Sharp Turn
Similar to the speed up and stop, the speed up and sharp turn is another jet ski trick that is worth trying.
Learning how to speed up and handle the higher speeds is difficult to become comfortable with on a jet ski.
Many people are going to start to speed up and then get nervous about it.
This will lead to slowing down and not being able to get these same performance maneuvers on the turn.
Learning how to speed up and then turn fast is a fun trick to try on a jet ski.
You will have to do this quite a bit at varying rates of speed in order to get the maneuver down.
In addition to moving the jet ski, you will also need to move your body.
Being able to manipulate your body to get the jet ski to work in different ways is crucial to performing any tricks.
When you take turns at a high rate of speed, your body needs to work with the turn as well.
Working against the turn will slow you down and cause you to lose some control.
As you become more comfortable with the jet ski, you should be able to gradually work on these sharp turns and perfect them.
10. Superman
A superman is a highly advanced trick which is really not recommended unless you are a very advanced jet skier.
The superman trick involves a jet ski rider getting to such a high level of speed they actually remove themselves from the seat.
When doing a superman, you are going to have your hands on the handles, but your body will be elevated over the actual jet ski.
There are lots of things that can go wrong with this trick.
This is a terrible position to be in should an accident occur.
Make sure you are aware of the dangers when doing a trick like this, or any trick, for that matter.
Keep yourself away from others as well to make sure you don’t injure anyone else.
This trick is not possible if you are traveling slowly.
You must be moving at a very high rate of speed in order to get the elevation off the jet ski.
Are Jet Ski Tricks Safe?
Now that you have a good idea of ten different tricks to try on your jet ski, it is good to consider if this is a safe thing to do.
If you are brand new to jet skiing, you are going to want to master basic maneuvers before you start trying to do tricks.
If you have been jet skiing for many years, then these tricks will likely come more easily to you.
Work your way up when it comes to trick difficulty.
Don’t start with something that is very difficult.
You should also make sure you have a friend or spotter nearby in case you do get injured while doing the trick.
Always work on tricks in an area that has a lot of space.
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