In the early 70's, my father owned a Kawasaki dealership. It was there that I was introduced to Kawasaki's newest toy: the first Jet Ski. From the early 70's to early 80's motorcross was my passion, forcing me to learn to build, prep., and maintain my race machines. I spent the mid 80's working at a high volume Kawasaki-Yamaha dealership in Jacksonville, FL. I started as a motorcycle/watercraft technician and in less than a year I took over as service manager. I gave road-racing a try (goaded by friends) and garnered quite a few wins, not to mention a few hard crashes. Again, as in motorcross, I built, prepped, and maintained these high performance machines.

In the late 80's Bombardier introduced their newest product: the Seadoo. As a longtime stand up rider, I was a hard sell for a watercraft that you sit on. By 1991, I was racing the same machine that I had previously laughed at, and was having the time of my life! Between late '92 and '94, I was instrumental in Rossier Egineering's designs and development work. Then I spent several years as service manager at R&R JETTECH, one of the highest volume dealers in the world. So I saw and encountered just about every possible type of watercraft and watercraft-related scenario possible. I thought! Because even today I occasionally find myself amazed and amused at what I am seeing and learning.

The following paragraph is an account of my watercraft racing experiences.

In 1992, we won the following Busch World Cup titles:

In 1993, we won the Pro Runabout overall championship in the "Hotwater Tour". (Rider: Glen Perry)

In the 1993 Busch World Cup Series, all 3 divisions of Runabout Classes (novice, expert, and pro) were all won by Glen Perry built and tuned machines. At this point in watercraft racing, Florida was the hotbed of the runabout class. The competition was hot and heavy. This may have been my proudest moment since we had no mechanical failures the entire season in all three divisions. Results of my dedication had paid off tremendously.

When we thought things couldn't get any better in 1993, a close friend, Bo Dupriest, and I prepped machines for the first time that the Runabout class had a place at the World Finals at Lake Havasu. I'd like to say that I prepped the boat all alone, but Bo is an excellent builder/tuner. When we put our heads together, we decided that he was the man to do the riding.

Either way we were determined to win the World Championships, especially in the modified division. So that's' what we did. What a great year in 1993! My proudest season.

Over the next few years, I did some racing, during in which I snagged a World-Cup Title in '96, but suffered a severe cervical injury from a first turn crash. I continued building race machines and provided them to racers in many countries around the world. We are proud to say many National Championships were won with our over-seas efforts! (Australia, New Zealand, French West Indies, the Philippines, Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Tahiti, Kuwait, the Cayman Islands, and in the UK).

In conclusion, I would like to thank many people who were there and still are instrumental in my success. I'm sure I will forget some very important ones. Tim McKercher, Bo Dupriest, Maurice Murray, Frazier Grandison, Rick Berry, and all my good friends at R&R JETTECH. now that I try to list everyone I realize why we are called Perry Performance Group. No single mind could ever pull off some of these things we have achieved and will continue to achieve. We build, test, and tune by past experience and science, allowing us to deliver the best possible products and services.

-- Matthew Glen Perry