Hailing from Alaska didn’t stop this legend from becoming an incredible 8 time world champion, with a unique racing style using his famous leg drag turns, Victor “The Slasher Sheldon needs no introduction! We cover his career from his first experiences in the water, racing for Butch’s Jet Ski Shop to being on the big factory teams like Kawasaki, Pro Tec Yamaha and Polaris. We go through how he got his name “The Slasher”, the cutting edge innovations he used to get ahead of the competition and stories of his time racing at the very top of the sport. We hope you enjoy this episode from a true legend from the world of Jet Ski racing!

• 00:13 Intro and welcome
• 01:22 How did someone who grew up in Alaska turn into Victor “The Slasher” Sheldon?
• 02:27 Spending your last $1500
• 03:00 1986 World Jet Ski Finals
• 05:25 MotoX and snowmobile skills carried over
• 06:24 How much wrenching did you do?
• 07:02 Travelling with David “The Flash” Gordon
• 08:12 Bill Chapin
• 09:03 Your first years in racing, from Arizona Jet Ski to Butch’s
• 11:00 How he became “The Slasher”
• 12:45 How did you start with Butch’s?
• 14:20 “We kept it fun”
• 16:38 Travelling with The Fish
• 21:34 Disqualified from slalom
• 24:05 Jet Ski innovation really got going in the late 80’s and early 90’s
• 27:48 Jet Ski spec’d to the max
• 28:19 What were you doing to the pumps?
• 30:10 Testing days
• 31:13 91’ and the new fuel injection systems
• 36:35 History of the Jet Ski
• 39:00 92’ and the 750
• 42:09 You finally become “The Man” and win the national championship
• 43:11 World Finals race in 92’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-iIi5bTv2I)
• 48:44 The leg drag turns
• 50:43 94’ Season and Kawasaki started supporting riders
• 53:20 Great stories about Bill Chapin and training with Christy Carlson
• 54:43 How Kawasaki helped the individual riders
• 55:43 The downfall of innovation
• 57:41 95’ Season and the sit down’s
• 59:15 Bonus money became big money
• 61:06 Kawasaki gave you an ultimatum, take it or leave it
• 62:23 The reality of being on the biggest team
• 63:54 What do you ride now and the test ski
• 66:00 Mechanical issues in the lead
• 67:53 “We have a deal for you”
• 69:30 Going over to Yamaha and Pro Tec
• 70:59 How did you get onto the Polaris Octane?
• 74:14 Yamaha SuperJet painted like a Polaris
• 75:32 Building a nice little team of your own
• 77:38 Where did Jet Skiing go wrong and how can we make it big again?
• 81:26 What is your setup?
• 83:50 Secret tech tips from back in the day
• 84:49 Ignition
• 85:43 Compression
• 86:40 Carburetors
• 87:11 Best racing memory
• 90:27 Thank you Victor and final thoughts
• 93:42 Outro and Cam’s final thoughts