Conceived in Hawaii's monster surf

Jet Wings sponsons were conceived and developed in Hawaii, where the huge winter waves are the ultimate test of man and machine.

When the new sport of tow-in surfing took off in Hawaii, PWC became essential equipment for the wave riders. Using PWC to get towed into the waves made it possible for a new crop of heroic watermen to surf waves that were previously unsurfable.

Without the entry speed that getting towed in provides, these huge waves were too large for a surfer to paddle into - even the fastest paddlers couldn't generate enough speed to overcome the uprushing water on the wave's face.

When Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, and friends started pulling themselves into these huge waves with PWC, a new sport was born, dramatically raising the bar of large wave riding potential and performance.

The problem

The action starts with the driver towing the surfer into the wave, but the driver's job has only just begun. As the surfer rides the wave, the driver follows him from the back of the wave, ready to pick him up at the end of the ride, or rescue him in case of a wipe-out.

A wipe-out in these conditions is literally a life or death situation, and the driver has to be very alert and brave, and rush into incredibly scary situations to save his man - the waves can be 70 feet high with thundering 40 foot walls of whitewater!

Under these extreme situations, the limitations of PWC handling became obvious. PWC are like surfboards without fins - they slide on turns, broach on the walls, and are totally uncontrollable in the white water.

Traditional handling solutions

The industry has long been aware of the turning limitations of PWC, which is why there is a brisk aftermarket business in handling parts, such as ride plates and sponsons.

Ride plates

Aftermarket ride plates use grooved bottoms to help direct the PWC. Although such plates are expensive, the results are very unimpressive, due to the location of the plate, in the center of the craft, far from the inside corner where the action is, and the very limited effect that shallow grooves have on directional stability.

Conventional sponsons

Conventional sponsons are a more useful alternative, working as rudimentary fins that help traction in turns. However, the design is fundamentally flawed, for the following reasons:

• The conventional sponson's long, slab-like outline provides a very clumsy pivot point , which creates a lot of turbulence
• The sponsons are only a couple of inches deep, which doesn't give much bite
• Most importantly, since the sponsons are parallel to the sides of the craft, they can't be made any deeper, before their natural tendency to track and resist turning becomes unmanageable

What is necessary for smooth, positive turning is an anchor point on each back corner, so that when the craft goes into the turn, the inside corner holds.

These anchor points should provide just that - a point that serves as the pivot of the turn, not a rectangular slab, such as a sponson, that creates turbulence and an inexact, skipping turn, with the length of the sponson fighting itself.

Further, providing an anchor point for the turn is only part of the turning equation - the PWC also needs to make smooth transitions from left turn to right turn, and handle neutrally on the straightaways.

It's this last point that really shows up the limitations of conventional sponsons. For smooth side to side transitions and neutral handling on the straights, the left and right side anchors need to be toed in, in an arrowhead shape (imagine the vee shaped wake of a boat) - this is the proper orientation for the anchor points.

When the anchor points are set up parallel to each other, as is the case with conventional sponsons, severe tracking is the result, where the craft resists turning, and, even worse, hunts from side to side on the straights.

This is why conventional sponsons are only a couple of inches deep - any attempt to make them deeper makes all too obvious the limitations of this crude design, resulting in a wildly grabbing and tracking ride.

In addition to the proper toe-in, for ultimate smoothness in side to side transitions, as well as increased bite in the turns, the anchor points should be cambered out, so that the lower tips of the anchors are further apart that the tops.

The Jet Wings Sponsons Solution

Jet Wings sponsons are a patented PWC handling system that elegantly solves the handling limitations of jet-powered water craft.

Jet Wings sponsons consist of a pair of wings, with attached fins. The triangular wings mount in the place of the stock stabilizers, and extend horizontally, with the wide part of the triangle to the rear. The much smaller fins are attached to the bottom of the wings, at the outside edge, toward the back.

The triangular shape of the wings sets up the necessary toed-in attitude for the fins, and the fins themselves have built-in negative camber, so that their tips are farther apart than their bases.

This design provides minimal drag on the straights, since the wings are horizontal, and the fins are quite small, yet when the craft is leaned over in a turn, the inside wing extends into the water, and the tip of the fin becomes the pivot point of the turn, providing a very smooth, positive, and precise turn.

Due to the toed-in, cambered-out attitude of the Jet Wings system, side to side transitions are perfectly even and predictable, and straight line performance is smooth and very positive, since the toed in fins provide a centering force, similar to that of the toe-in in the front wheels on a car.

The results

Jet Wings sponsons make a PWC into a very precise, smooth handling machine. The PWC will turn on a dime, and enjoy increased stability on straights and when towing.

Although Jet Wings sponsons were designed for extreme situations, where precise handling is critical, the benefits apply to any PWC in any situation - who doesn't want their craft to react precisely and predictably on the river or the lake?

The racing tradition

This development cycle parallels that of automotive design - most advances in automotive design have been developed in competitive racing, and have then trickled down to the general consumer market, such as disc brakes, ABS, fuel injection, multi-link suspension, turbo charging, etc.

The extreme needs of the competitive racer foster an innovative, results-oriented attitude that winds up serving us all, and the same principle holds with Jet Wings sponsons - you may not be riding your PWC in huge Hawaiian surf, but you will certainly enjoy having your craft handle like the pros'!

Construction

Unlike factory stabilizers and aftermarket sponsons which are made of crudely molded plastic, Jet Wings sponsons are precision made of state of the art carbon composite. This space age material is light, stiff and durable, as well as very attractive visually.

Each set of Jet Wings Sponsons comes with two pairs of fins, a smaller and a larger pair, so you can fine tune your Jet Wings sponsons exactly to taste.

How do I get mine?

Browse through our shopping section, and you'll find Jet Wings sponsons available for many Yamaha, Sea-Doo, and Kawasaki PWC. If Jet Wings sponsons aren't yet available for your PWC, let us know - we are constantly adding models to our line-up and may be able to accomodate you.