Science Horizons

How can you not love summer? For me it is the best season of the entire year. There are just so many things you can do in the summer. You can enjoy the outdoors, whether it is out of town or in your back yard, you can have lovely bar-b-ques on the back deck, or go for walks around the city without fear of frost bite or slipping on ice.

I recently had someone ask me what it was about summer that I loved so much. They asked what my top three favorite things about summer time would be. Well, I couldn’t decide right away, because there are just so many things that you can do in summer that you can’t do in the winter, and I love everyone of them. I wanted to make sure that if I came up with a list of top three summer things, it would really be my favorite things.

I took about a week to decide on my final list of excellent summer time things. After narrowing down the endless list of awesome things, I finally decided on: 1) spending time gardening in one of my many gardens (house and cottage, front and back yards), 2) spending time riding my seadoo at our lake cottage, and 3) having gourmet meals that I cook with my Big Green Egg.

I love to cook and consider cooking to be a hobby. I didn’t really love to BBQ until approximately 5 years ago when we started to BBQ on a Big Green Egg. The BGE is a charcoal smoker BBQ based an ancient Japanese method of cooking. The BGE is a large ceramic BBQ that has a huge range of temperatures and great temperature control. It can quickly cook the perfect steak at 700 degrees or slow roast ribs at 200 degrees all afternoon. A summer time BBQ is much more fun if you have a Big Green Egg.

I love the water and love to be on or in the water as much as possible. I have always had a love of personal watercraft such as windsurfers and canoes. My most recent personal watercraft passion involves Seadoos. I love to pull off the Seadoo cover early in the morning and get out on the lake. I don’t love the roar of anything motorized. I just love to putt around the lake and take in the sounds of the morning.

I love growing things and I love flowers. The time I spend in my garden just flies by. I get excited about new plants popping their heads through the soil. Over the years I have tried to plant perennials that will bloom at different points during the summer. The timing of the different flowers is not yet perfect but it is a work in progress. I add some annuals every year to brighten the colour and every fall I add some spring time bulbs to the mix.

I pondered my list of the top three things I love about summer time for a while. However, once the list was finalized I was certain that it encapsulated perfectly my love of summer. It includes three different activities that collectively mean summer time to me. So whether I have a spatula in my hand or I am pulling off Seadoo covers, or I am holding a garden spade, I am bound to have a smile on my face.

Jane A Moore Gardening big green egg, Boating, Gardening, Hobbies, seadoo covers, summer, Summer time, summer time activities

I was looking around for some information on Seadoo pwc covers and came across some really interesting information on the history of Seadoos and personal watercraft in general. I am a bit of a history buff so I put off the seadoo cover search and gobbled up a little history lesson.

I have to admit that I’m definitely part of the older crowd now, so you would think I already know when these water machines were created. I didn’t have the money back then to even consider buying one, so in fact I didn’t pay close attention to them at the time. I had always thought that pwcs came out in the 80’s, but little did I know that was only the refinement – digging a little deeper gave me a much better picture of the early evolution.

It was actually in the mid 1960’s that the Canadian family who invented the ski-doo snowmobiles (the Bombardier family) started to think of a snowmobile type water vehicle for getting around their lake in Quebec, Canada. After starting some design ideas they ran into some difficulties, at which point they found an inventor from the US by the name of Jacobsen who was already designing a similar vehicle.

Jacobsens inspiration for his watercraft was the motorcycle – his concept was to travel on water just like you would on a dirt bike. So Bombardier and Jacobsen started working together on Bombardiers idea. Jacobsen came up with the first seadoo, which Bombardier purchased the rights for. Then Bombardier promptly painted it the recognizable yellow and black just like the bombardier snowmobiles. These seadoos were sold in 1968 and 1969.

The Bombardier Seadoos of 1968 and 1969 had some problems. Engine technology was a big limiting factor in the lack of success of the early Seadoos. The first engine was air cooled and the later engine was liquid cooled. Both engines had drawbacks. Corrosion was also a huge problem. the salt water literally ate away at the machines. Jacobsen’s idea about using rubber and plastic were carelessly not embraced by the Bombardier family.

After a few false starts the Bombardier family moth balled the idea of the modern day Seadoo for the next 20 years. Jacobsen bought the rights to his ideas and joined forces with Kawasaki. While at Kawasaki, Jacobsen developed the first Jet-Ski. The history of Seadoo pwc is colorful and interesting.

John A Moore Boating boat, boat accessories, boat covers, Boating, cottage, extreme sports, lake, personal watercraft, pwc, pwc covers, recreation, seadoo, seadoo covers, watersports