The Sickos got their hands on a vintage WetBike and actually managed to get the thing out into the surf. Photo: Sickos // YouTube
The Sickos are a team of YouTubers who specialize in getting themselves way in over their heads. They also have a penchant for finding increasingly ungainly and potentially dangerous ways of getting into surf, including riding a jet-powered surfboard, towing behind an electric boat, and foiling the worlds tallest foil. This time, their chosen means of near self-destruction was a vintage WetBike.
The WetBike was a personal water craft from the ‘80s and a predecessor to the modern-day Jet Ski. The bizarre-looking contraption resembled a sort of motorcycle for the water. Once it got up to speed, a WetBike would rise out of the water on two planing skis, which were then controlled similarly to a motorcycle, by turning a set of handlebars and leaning into turns. The 50-60 hp engine could eventually get the thing up to a top speed of around 36mph.
Due to their futuristic-looking design, WetBikes saw a fair amount of screen time during their limited time in existence, including in the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me, an episode of CHiPs and Police Academy 3. However, they went out of production in 1992, relegating the devices to vintage curios in the history of watersports.
Recently, YouTuber collective The Sickos found a WetBike on Facebook marketplace and decided they needed to get their hands on it. Not only that, they decided they were going to take it out into some surf.
Before they made it out into the waves, the Sickos prudently tested the WetBike on a lake – after which it immediately broke. Undeterred, they proceeded to take it out into the ocean – after which it immediately failed again. Still, after all that, they finally managed to get the thing out into the surf…and actually ride a pretty damn sizable wave. Check it all out the video below.
