Jet Skis Aren’t As Cool As They Used To Be

August 13, 2008. Today was mostly a work day, but Sara and I did manage to visit the beach and rent a jet ski for an hour.

One hour on a jet ski rental is about 30 mins too much. It was a tandem unit, a “very powerful machine” according to the kid that rented it to us, and it was indeed fast. It’s always hard to tell how fast you’re really going, but I’d guess it topped out somewhere around 50mph.

Sara drove for a few minutes and she was nervous about it. She did just fine, and she even managed to go pretty fast. It was a first for her, so that was fun.

It’s not that we didn’t enjoy our jet ski – we did – it’s just not that interesting after 20 mins or so. Unless you want to take the next step and start trying to do tricks (and risking life and limb in the process), the novelty wears off quickly.

I think this means Sara and I are getting old. We sat next to a couple of 20 year olds from upstate NY on the boat ride to the rental place, and they couldn’t stop talking about how cool it was and how much fun they had jet skiing the day before. I suppose at 20 I would have found it a lot more exciting. Jumps, tricks, wiping out, etc. would have all been quite a bit of fun back in the day. Now, I just want to have some harmless fun.

We DID see some pelicans diving for their dinner while jet skiing, and I think that was the best part. That and letting Sara drive. Good fun for sure, but my advice to any mature 20 somethings reading this is to rent a jet ski for 30 minutes and call it good.