A speeding white wedge leaps into the water and sinks, seemingly meeting a premature end after a high-octane helicopter pursuit. But wait! With the reassuring flick of a switch inside, an unseen apparatus hums, and the sports car becomes a submarine, sprouting fins and sealing in its passengers. Sound familiar?
The James Bond franchise has set countless standards for action films and coined all sorts of iconic sayings (“shaken, not stirred,” anyone?). Perhaps the most aquatic Bond outing to date, 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me, features “Wet Nellie,” a Lotus Esprit that can morph into an underwater vessel.
But, since we’re a jet ski magazine, it’s only natural that we were drawn to a sequence near the movie’s end, which sees our hero astride a PWC looking nothing like those we know and love today. Q, the character responsible for Bond’s gadgets, had issued him a novel device called a Wetbike. So what the heck is a Wetbike?
The Wetbike was developed by Nelson Tyler for Spirit Marine, under the eye of Arctic Cat (née Arctic Enterprises). Later models were produced through Ultranautics. Like a jet ski, the Wetbike has hydrojet power; unlike a jet ski, steering is accomplished by turning the front ski, as you would perform with a snowmobile. The Wetbike looks more like, well, a bike than any contemporary PWC, and utilizes a hydrofoil approach.
The Wetbike wasn’t the first PWC, and it’s far from the most famous. The Kawasaki Jet Ski (which brought the term “jet ski” into the world), was already a thing, albeit not a very big one. The Jet Ski debuted in 1973, four years before The Spy Who Loved Me – and the Wetbike – hit the big screen. Moviegoers were not used to seeing a tiny “boat” tear up the waves. And boy, could the Wetbike tear them up: its two-stroke Suzuki motor was good for 50 horsepower, with later iterations pumping out 60. A 1979 issue of Powerboat Magazine noted that the 720cc motor was far beefier than that of the day’s Kawasaki. The top speed of the 350-pound craft was around 35 miles an hour.
The Wetbike, quite different to a traditional jet ski at speed, rises above the water upon its skis, minimizing any resistance. You can almost envision the craft dominating a powdery slope alongside downhill skiers in an afternoon following a morning of towing waterskiers. While stationary in water, the Wetbike’s skis are sunken. Thus, a 1988 Popular Mechanics write-up warns that “you have to crank the throttle to get it planing, forcing you to zip along faster than most beginners wish to go.” As opposed to your Yamahas or Sea-Doos, Wetbikes gave you greater incentive to balance, as you would have riding a motorcycle on terra firma. “The Wetbike can feel like a barrel that wants to roll right out from under you,” a 1988 Water Scooter magazine review notes.
After the Bond spotlight, Wetbikes achieved a bit more fame in both film and television, most notably in a 1982 ChiPs episode, “Overload.” Something about the Wetbike seemed perfect for staging high-stakes good-versus-evil on screen. Go For It! (1983), Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986), and Red Surf (1990) portrayed the Wetbike as the vehicle of choice for righteous pursuit in the former two and cocaine hustling in the latter.
By the final few years of its production run, the Wetbike came in two flavors, the Silver Streak and the Tomcat. Until manufacturing ceased in 1992, the Wetbike offered a compelling, if inferior, alternative to jet skis. Well, inferior if you weren’t a natural, given the greater risk of tipping at low speeds. If you want a true “boatercycle,” one of these may be your best bet.
For the more experienced rider, there is an appeal to the svelte construction of these machines. You’ll certainly have all eyes on you if you make your wake with a Wetbike. They come up for sale now and again. And hey, if they’re good enough for Bond…
