There are several ways to get from Seattle to Haines: fly, drive, ferry or even bike. But there’s one way that few have tried until now.
Jet ski.
Five men, one a Petersburg native, spent six days on Sea-Doos last week, traveling up the Canadian coast and Inside Passage as part of yet another reality series based on Alaska.
“Dangerous Waters” has been picked up by the network HDNET. The series is filming now and will air in March.
The show is the brainchild of Steven Moll, creator of Seadoo Adventures, a venture that promotes its travel adventures on Sea-Doos.
“It’s kind of a dream come true,” Moll said of the show.
Moll of Sacramento, Calif., and his touring partners, Patrick McGregor of Boise, Idaho, Charles Davis of Petersburg, Wes Davis of New Orleans and Andrew Mazzella of Bozeman, Mont., were in Haines on the Fourth of July after their arrival from Seattle. They even joined in the parade.
“Someone at the bar last night said we should be in the parade, so we showed up this morning and here we are,” said Charles Davis as the crew lingered around their truck and trailer parked near Tlingit Park. Three of the crew went off to compete in the nail driving competition at the festivities while Moll and Davis talked to curious passersby.
The idea for a show came to Moll when last year he toured Southeast Alaska on a jet ski as part of Seadoo Adventures. His ski broke down near Petersburg. He was towed to shore where Davis, owner of Bottled Gas, spent 14 hours fixing the jet ski. Moll told Davis of his idea to create a show about his jet ski adventures and said he would contact Davis when the idea jelled.
Davis got the call earlier this year.
Moll had pitched the show to the Discovery Channel and a few other outlets before HDNET picked it up and asked for 10, one-hour episodes, Moll said.
The show begins with the trip from Seattle to Haines, including stops in Petersburg, Juneau and elsewhere along the way. The four Sea-Doos are equipped with a total of 10 cameras, but they don’t have a support boat traveling with them. The crew wears dry suits and other gear. Their three-person GTX Sea-Doos average 30 miles an hour, Moll said.
The crew has seen wildlife and windy weather. Choppy water between Juneau and Haines last week threw Moll off three times in one day, he said.
“It felt like a baseball bat just hit me,” he said.
After a day in Haines, the crew was driving to Anchorage with the Sea-Doos to begin the next part of the adventure; traveling to Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Bristol Bay and up the coast to Nome. Moll is pondering the idea of jet skiing to Big Diomede Island or the Russian mainland, although he said he hasn’t fully explored the logistics or paperwork necessary.
Moll said he would like to see the show picked up for seven seasons – a season on each continent.
Moll travels with a hand-held camera, recording several hours each day. He recorded the crew in the parade, people as they gawked at the truck and 250 horsepower skis, and the fireworks later that night. He posts the videos on the crew’s blog and Facebook page. He’s adamant that his show, out of all reality shows, is going to be light on drama but heavy on what jet skiing the world’s roughest waters is really like.
“It’s to-the-bone real,” Moll said.