Is your best ride with Sea Doo Suspension for experienced riders or beginners? A couple of years back, Sea-Doo introduced a pile of new innovations on its watercraft, making these marine vehicles the most advanced products on the water. Most notable among these still-exclusive technologies are Intelligent Brake and Reverse (iBR), Intelligent Throttle Control (iTC) and the S3 Hull. Hey wait, I missed one…what about Intelligent Suspension, commonly known as iS? I have it on my Sea Doo GTX S 155 and wouldn’t ride without it!
Too many riders are also missing it. Suspension is probably the most under-rated of the latest crop of Sea-Doo technologies, especially for Sea Doo tours. While consumers are flocking to Sea-Doo dealers asking for “the one with the brake”, they often overlook the considerable benefits of riding suspended.
Why is Your Best Ride with Sea Doo Suspension?
Photo by Martin Lortz for Ontario Tourism
Almost every other motorized vehicle has suspension. Would you ride your car, motorcycle, snowmobile or ATV without it? Heck, you probably even have suspension on your bicycle – and certainly have cushioning in your running shoes! You haven’t had suspension on the water because it wasn’t available until Sea-Doo invented it – and unless you have a newer Sea-Doo watercraft, you still won’t have it. But just because suspension hasn’t been available since Noah built the ark, doesn’t mean it’s not an idea whose time has come…
In fact, I think that for PWC enthusiasts like me, suspension is absolutely the cat’s meow, right up there on the benefit scale with Sea-Doo’s on the water brake. I’ve cruised over 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) on suspended Sea-Doo watercraft and I wouldn’t ride without it. To accommodate different riding styles (and budgets), there are now three kinds of Sea-Doo suspension: the original iS (a computer monitored automatic adjustable can also be set manually from the handlebar), S (a more basic variation with manual under seat adjustment), and aS (a fully adjustable high performance option including preload and damper compression).
I’m not a racer, wave jumper or performance freak. I’m just a guy who likes to tour on a Sea-Doo in the summer as I do on my snowmobile in the winter – destination to destination, exploring new places and discovering new sights and scenery. I’ve come to rely on Sea-Doo suspension (I’ve tried and like both iS and S) to provide a smoother and more consistent ride through the variety of water conditions I can encounter on any given day.
Don’t be fooled. Water can be a mighty hard surface to travel on. Before suspension when it got rough, I tried to cushion my body from jarring using arm, shoulder and leg muscles. I was often beat at the of day and sore at night.
No more. Sea-Doo suspension handles most of the tough pounding, cushioning me from all except the worst. It virtually eliminates any impact at all from light chop and small waves. So now I can ride longer, farther, more comfortably, more often – and I’ve almost eliminated my post-ride Tylenol budget. Best of all, thanks to Sea-Doo suspension, I’ll be able to ride for many more years because I’m not abusing my body anymore.
Sure, you pay a premium for suspension, but amortized over the number of years of reliable service from your Sea-Doo watercraft, the cost is peanuts compared to the benefits. And if you regularly ride 2-up, suspension is a game changer for passenger comfort. It may well be the difference between your spouse continuing to ride with you on the back or not. So when you go shopping for your next Sea-Doo watercraft, I’d recommend that you ask for “the one with the brake and the suspension” – and check out my other product reviews!
The tips and advice in this article are the opinions of the author, may not work in every situation and are intended only for the convenience and interest of the reader, who has the personal responsibility to confirm the validity, accuracy and relevancy of this information prior to putting it to their own use.