My Top 3 Favourite Skis Of All Time – This Will Surprise You

1st Spot - Seadoo XPDI 2003 951cc

So top spot has to be my beloved Seadoo XPDI 2003 951, now for many this will be a very controversial pick but for me the XPDI holds a lot of nostalgia, which is ultimately a lot of what Classic Jetskis is all about for me. The XPDI was the first ski I remember seeing at around the age of 10. As a kid my Dad gave me lots of different jetski brochures and I vividly remember that the XPDI was one of the first skis I fell in love with, albeit, through the power of flicking through dealer brochures. Red has always been my favourite colour, so the Di with that fury red and jet black, always grabbed me more than the older cabriolet yellow XP’s that came before regardless if many prefer the carb models, the XPDI aesthetically for me was the crowning version of the final gen XP.

I remember being mesmerised with what I called at the time a ‘spring seat’. For its time the revolutionary suspension seat which coupled with the parabolic V hull always to me looked like a motocross bike on the water, and still to this day grabs people’s attention for looking so different to anything else. I literally get comments to this day of people asking ‘wow what is that’. Imagine how the Seadoo Spark in 2014 turned heads for its unique aesthetic, this is exactly what the XPDI was!

Whilst the XPDI receives a lot of abuse and hate with 25 years removed for the issues with the introduction of the injection system, back in 2003 direct injection was still in its infancy for Seadoo and for its time the di was revolutionary. What people always quickly forget is back in 2003 the dealers and buyers alike lapped up the XPDI in the masses, still to this day a correctly running XPDI in my opinion has way better pick up and a much smoother power band than a comparable 951 carbed engine. Plus the XPDI with the injection system genuinely has fuel economy compared to modern day, so in terms of its deliverables for its time, it was a success, yes did it have mechanical bugs, yes but so does any new model in the first couple of years of its life span but I digress...

I remember in 2003/2004 my Dad was buying a brand new Seadoo GTX 4 Tec 4 stroke super charged and around this time obviously all the brochures he was getting from the dealership had the XPDI in the Seadoo model lineup in the brochure.

The XPDI for me was always the most exciting and as a kid felt the most like a toy, which even to this day is what excites me about older skis vs new, they have an unapologetic, toylike quality, that seems to have been lost along the way in search of a more premium product styling, which to me undermines the ethos of the fun we crave in these machines.

2nd Spot - Seadoo XP X4 1995 717cc

The next classic in my line-up, and this is a very hard pick and has pushed other machines out of 2nd and 3rd spot based on its pure riding experience, is the iconic X4 hull 2nd gen XP. Since day one of starting the Classic Jetskis channel virtually everyone has constantly said how the X4 hull alongside the Yamaha Blasters & Seadoo HX is some of the best riding experiences you will ever have on these old machines. Being completely honest, as I was born in 1993 the XP X4 1995 & 1996 XP were skis I just don’t remember seeing a lot of as I was 2-3 years old. My earliest memory of a ski is the Seadoo SP but this is snippet fragmented, baby-like memories, but if you’re talking about core memories where I can completely remember seeing skis from this period, I was looking at late 90s and early 2000s brochure with the likes of the GSX Ltd and Parabolic V final gen XP.

I have obviously since taken the time to learn a lot and completely understood the XP model history from the OG XP in 1991 through to the X4 XP in 1995, but a lot of my understanding was based on old YouTube racing footage and reading forums and Facebook group accounts and so on, so whilst I was after the fact excited, it’s kind of like when your friend says ‘you have to watch this film’ vs you watching a film by accident and it’s hitting you hard without prior knowledge of that film.

I really couldn’t understand how this little small X4 717 or 787 X4 XP would come anywhere near close to my beloved 951 XPDI or even my GSX 951... but boy was I wrong.

When I was lucky enough to stumble across a pristine 1995 XP 717 where the owner had it for the last 17 years, it was the perfect star-aligning moment to buy an X4.

From the first moment of seeing this XP X4 be pulled out of the garage under its OEM cover, seeing the cover be taken off and seeing those beautiful retro decals, I just knew I was looking at something special. I knew in that very moment I had the chance at owning a showroom-standard example, the ski was already in incredible condition but I knew with a complete restoration including taking the engine out, I would have a timepiece.

Plus for me I wanted to experience as close to a brand new X4 as I could... many don’t believe me but I honestly didn’t ride this X4 until every bit of the restoration had been done... from the purchase day to the first ride it was months of waiting and building up the X4, it could have gone either way but man it was worth the wait!

From the very first moment of firing up and hearing that iconic 2 stroke engine, I was in love. What has followed is hours of riding this X4 and for me it encapsulates everything I love about older 2 strokes, it’s the epitome of ‘lightweight playful fun’ and much to my surprise that little 717 engine is a pocket rocket hitting 50mph... yes it’s not 951 speeds but what it lacks in top end it more than makes up for in low end and spin around handling fun. I now understand why even to this day many put the X4 XP on the top spot, and I haven’t even ridden the considered best X4 in the 787, now that I can’t wait to ride!

3rd Spot - Seadoo SP 1990 580cc

So the final pick that completes my top 3 classics is again a hard choice and being completely honest, if I was picking based purely on riding enjoyment it would be the B2 or GSX Ltd, but for me there are criteria that are more important than just riding, and that’s the relevance to me, my story and also emotional pull, and for that it has to be the Seadoo SP 1990.

As mentioned earlier, back when I was 2 or 3 I just remember seeing baby snippet memories of the yellow and blue SP strips. I recall seeing the SP on the back of the car likely from my car seat at the time, to seeing it on the driveway. As a baby your memories are little fragments but 100% to this day I remember the SP so strongly.

But above all else I feel incredible privilege to be able to in some way complete the full circle of life and find and buy this SP with my Dad 30 years later. He owned the exact same SP model back when he was 27 years old. It’s a very powerful thing to get close to your parents’ history and live out just a fraction of what they would have felt back when there were younger.

My dad recounts stories of how back in the early 90s the SP was like nothing else, it was generally an incredible machine for riders back then. Of course, fast forward all these years later riding the SP vs the likes of a 951 XP or even say a 1630 RXP, it’s a baby but the respect I have for the fact all those years ago this was A) all my dad could afford and B) was top of the tree in terms of what you could buy on the water. The likes of the SP is where it all started and honestly when I ride the SP it makes me smile every bit as much as a 70mph new ski! The SP fittingly was Seadoo’s easiest attempts at making a fun machine, and ironically they nailed it on a level which no matter how many HP they add nowadays, just isn’t present in today’s machines. I would take wave jumping and spinning on old skis any day over new.

The fact I now have the exact same model in the garage which hopefully one day I could hand down to my kid(s) is for me at least what Classic Jetskis is all about... a shared mission of ‘Keeping these classics alive’!

‘Keeping these classics alive’!

Thanks for reading