How much water to I need?

[cvbwaller]

So I've been testing my luck on the river, went up some pretty big rapids today, and I was looking down, saying holly crap can I back out of here. But I know the faster you go the less water you need so I gassed through, took a 10 minute break and made it down without smacking any massive rocks.... So roughly what would you guys think these things need at full throttle ???

[brisyl]

no less then 3 feet, less then that and you're looking for problem

So I've been testing my luck on the river, went up some pretty big rapids today, and I was looking down, saying holly crap can I back out of here. But I know the faster you go the less water you need so I gassed through, took a 10 minute break and made it down without smacking any massive rocks.... So roughly what would you guys think these things need at full throttle ???

[GZA]

We do quite a few river runs and have often ended up with ski's up on their sides getting stones/rocks out of the jet unit. At speed I reckon we have skimmed over river bed stones in about 1 foot of water.
Large rocks are another story, they would quite easily damage the hull and i personally would stay clear of them,

[cvbwaller]

Yea I was def up in a territory where I shouldn't have been unsupervised, so I lucked out big time, but down on the lower parts I was taking some tight corners and just kinda wondering how shallow they can go

[brisyl]

You don't need big rock to damage the pump, only sand will do alot of damage. you can run in 1 1/2' at idle but riding under 3 feet you take the chance of pulling the bottom into the pump, the pump is like a big vacuum and the more power your ski have, the more it will suck. On the 300 for exemple, there is almost no clearance at all between the impeller and pump,so only grains of sand can wear the impeller pretty fast.

It,s always fun to ride in new place where almost nobody can go, but sometimes there's a price to it

Cheers