
DATE: Sunday, July 20, 1997                 TAG: 9707180293

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 48   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:  120 lines

TEAR UP THE WATER PERSONAL WATERCRAFT LET YOU SPEED AND HAVE FUN, TOO.

You either love to speed. Or it scares you to death.

If you love it, try renting a WaveRunner or a SeaDoo, personal watercraft that offer the best of both worlds: lawful high speed in wide open spaces.

With vast stretches of sound water for your playground, the Outer Banks is prime territory for a wild ride that you'll survive to talk about.

Maligned in civilized circles for its noise and pushy intrusiveness, the personal watercraft was once the bad boy of water sports. But the new versions are cleaner, quieter and safer.

Now even middle-aged, upstanding citizens - like Manteo resident and State Senate Leader Marc Basnight - enjoy their leisure time whipping around on the compact speed machines.

So much for the rip-roaring rowdies of yesteryear. Today's personal watercraft are respectably quiet - most engines are no louder than 85 decibels, the volume of an outboard motor.

``They're really not that loud,'' said Bill Meredith, owner of The Waterworks in Nags Head that rents dozens of the daredevil crafts. ``That perception is because they stay in one area and after awhile it can get annoying.''

Meredith has owned his water sports rental and retail business for 10 years. It was one of the earliest of its kind on the barrier islands. Since then, the craft have become increasingly popular. Today, there are at least a dozen personal watercraft rental companies from Corolla to Hatteras.

Jet Skis, called ``stand-ups'' because - duh - you have to stand to operate them, have been blown out of the water by the easier sit-down models like the WaveRunner. Most of Meredith's Jet Skis, in fact, have been garaged, Meredith said.

``If you don't have good balance, you can forget it,'' he said of Jet Skiing. ``Your brain is like a gyroscope. You look at the horizon, you can keep your balance. You look down at your feet, you can fall. If you don't have any speed, you can fall.''

But young speeders still prefer Jet Skis because they can do better stunts with them. ``You actually can do more on them than the sit-downs,'' Meredith said. ``You can play around a lot more on a Jet Ski. They're tough to ride. They're fun, though.''

At that, Meredith, 56, good naturedly demonstrated that he's still got the knack. He deftly mounted the machine and took off without a hitch, bucking and churning up the water as gleefully as his 20-year-old customers.

The sturdier-looking WaveRunner, on the other hand, can be operated with absolutely no athletic prowess. Can you push a button? Move your thumb to control a throttle? Hold handlebars? OK, you're off!

Meredith, however, makes sure that operators - who must be at least 16 years old and are required to sign a release before renting - first get a quick lesson on proper watercraft etiquette and safety rules. In Nags Head, for instance, water scooter riders must idle out at a no-wake speed (about 5 mph), must wear flotation devices and must wear a stop-start lanyard attached to the machine that cuts off the engine when the operator falls off.

Jet Skis splashed into the water-sports arena in 1974 and held dominion over the sport until sit-down models came along in 1986. Like its cousin the snow mobile, Jet Skis quickly made enemies among lovers of serenity and contemplation. The machines' incessant buzzing in waterways and their operators' sometimes inconsiderate behavior helped clinch personal watercraft's bratty reputation. Despite more local laws that regulate their operation and many improvements in the machine itself, Jet Skis and WaveRunners are still regarded with suspicion by many.

It was that very reputation that made me hesitate to give the WaveRunner a whirl. But I've galloped across fields on a horse, dashed around winding roads on a motorcycle and raced over frozen lakes on a snowmobile. I like to go fast. My teen-age son jumped at my invitation to join me.

With the Roanoke Sound smooth as glass and warm as bath water, conditions were perfect. And we lucked out visiting Waterworks on changeover day for tourists - there was little competition to rent the crafts last Saturday.

I first tried a WaveRaider, a WaveRunner model made by Yamaha. Sleek and racy-looking, the machine felt stable. I quickly figured out how to drive it, and experimented carefully with steering it. I was easy on the throttle at first. Soon, I felt safe enough to speed up, and within seconds was tearing across the water toward the bridge to Manteo.

My son, meanwhile, wrestled with and conquered the Jet Ski, and was dipping and swerving in grand circles - obviously delighted to able to speed around in obstructed spaces. The older Jet Skis top out at 45 mph. But newer models go up to 65 mph.

Still giddy from the 50 mph jaunt on the WaveRunner, I shared a ride on a SeaDoo XP, a 110 horsepower racing model that can go 65 mph. We took off like shots. The ride felt nearly roller-coaster fast. Scenery raced past in a blur. Speed freed my adult-induced inhibitions - we sprung off the banana-yellow water toy grinning from ear-to-ear.

Despite the potential for trouble from high-speed travel, these personal watercraft do not feel scary. They're easy to steer. They're easy to stop. As long as you stay within the buoyed area and obey ordinary watercraft right-of-ways, you won't have problems - especially if you're cautious while you get the feel for handling the machines.

``It's just the experience; it's not the machinery,'' said Waterworks employee Webb Pinner, 19. ``The machines are designed to be safe.'' ILLUSTRATION: Bill Meredith, of The Waterworks in Nags Head,

demonstrates the operation of a ``stand-up'' personal watercraft -

which lets you do more stunts, but requires more agility than newer

models. As Meredith says: ``If you don't have good balance, you can

forget it,'' he said of Jet Skiing. ``Your brain is like a

gyroscope. You look at the horizon, you can keep your balance. You

look down at your feet, you can fall. If you don't have any speed,

you can fall.''

Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON

HOW TO RIDE 'EM

Personal watercrafts have become very popular up and down the

Outer Banks. Rentals cost from about $39 a half-hour to $79 an hour.

Here is a selection of some of the larger rental outlets: