Medway’s Ellis Lockyer picks up UK jet-ski race title in his debut season
“When they drop the flag and you’re all racing to a point in the distance, getting close to each other at quite high speeds, it is a rush”
Image by Anthony Haddaway
Seven races, 300 horsepower, 80 miles per hour, zero pit stops and one large pot of Sudocrem.
The Aqua Adrenaline Tour is not for the faint-hearted. Racing jet-skis over the waves in four sets of 25-minute intensive bursts, across 48 hours of action-packed water sports, is a helluva way to spend a weekend.
“All the skis line up next to a boat. They drop a flag and it’s a wild dash straight across the front of a bay to the first boy, where we turn left or turn right and then we race for 25 minutes for Round One on the Saturday morning,” explains racer Ellis Lockyer.
Hailing from Medway, Ellis joined the sport a little over a year ago and has just bagged the title in the Pro Class in his first season.
In association with the Offshore Circuit Racing Drivers Association (ORCDA), the Aqua Adrenalin Series sees racing across powerboat, jet-ski, waterski and Zapcat disciplines as well as flyboarding stunt displays heading out on tour around the UK, with competitors racking up points from April through to October.
While Ellis only joined the sport after a sample day at Allhallows back in September 2021 and has now brought home the trophy to Kent, he has been jet-skiing since he was a child.
“I got into it with my dad when I was really young,” he says. “It’s just what we’ve always done as a family. We always took them on holiday, but I’d never raced one until I went to the fun day and, yeah, I fell in love with it.”
Image by Duncan Wallace
Now with his own family, who also attend the race meets in places like Torquay, Kings Lynn, Dunoon, Cardiff Bay and Caernarfon, Ellis got to work accumulating the ski and the equipment ahead of the first race in April 2022... and you could say he dived in headfirst.
“Yeah, I entered into the top class. Someone I was speaking to recommended it. So I just got launched in at the deep end and had to learn,” he explains.
But while he is not a fan of all fast things (he doesn’t like motorbikes), Ellis does admit that once the adrenaline kicks in, it’s hard to not want more.
“It’s when you first set up at an event and you haven’t been around the course yet. You only get one sighting lap on the Saturday morning. And there’s 10 of you all lined up next to a boat. When they drop the flag and you’re all racing to a point in the distance, getting close to each other at quite high speeds, it is a rush. It’s really good to get the butterflies in your stomach on a Saturday morning now.”
Ellis races a distinctive black-and-yellow Sea-Doo, which carries the number 13, while the standard 300 horsepower is the starting point for skis in the Pro Class.
“We’re allowed to modify,” he says. “So we can modify all aspects of the ski and get it a bit quicker, change the prop, change anything in the engine. So you can push speeds of 80 miles per hour - that’s on very flat water, but if you can imagine offshore, you won’t get to 80 because you’re fighting with waves. You don’t know what’s coming 10 feet in front of you. So when you hit a wave and you’re launched in the air, obviously you lose a bit of speed.”
After their first race of the weekend, the jet-skiers have a couple of hours off before heading back out on to the water for Round Two, before repeating this on the Sunday, really putting concentration and endurance to the test, not to mention the seat of their wetsuits.
“It’s punishing on you and punishing on the machine,” says Ellis. “You do develop a very strong relationship with Deep Heat and Sudocrem. You can’t get around that, you do come home absolutely battered.
“And then you have to drive 200 miles home on the Sunday night!”
The undertaking to take part in the tour is hefty in terms of both time and costs, with sponsors playing a hugely important role for racers.
“It’s a big commitment to try to do every round,” explains Ellis. “I’ve had a lot of help from The Jetworks in Whitstable, my local Sea-Doo dealer. They’ve done a lot of work for me and helped me get the ski right.”
Having joined and won the top tier of the tour in his first year, Ellis could surely expect a few disgruntled regulars, right? Not a bit of it.
“Everyone’s really friendly,” Ellis says. “We haven’t had too many rivalries. I’ve made loads of new friends and obviously we’ve all got similar interests. We do give each other a bit of stick but not too much. We’ve met other families - we all take campervans and the kids have a great time. It’s a great family environment.
“I think what makes it so good, to be honest, is there isn’t the financial reward, it doesn’t give you all the problems with that. People are just friendly. You’re gonna enjoy weekends, taking the ski around the country to lovely, different locations and race it.”
While there are other tours for jet-ski racing across the UK and into Europe that Ellis could try his hand at, he isn’t looking too far ahead, instead just taking in his debut season victory.
“I’m not sure what we’re going to do next,” says Ellis. “I think my wife would like some weekends indoors and a holiday without the jet-ski.”
Image by Duncan Wallace
