Water Races Level 1 -50

Water Races in GTAO are neatly divided into Ranked Sets, with the following having been added to the game (so far):

Ranked Water Race Distribution

The Water Races are similar to the other races save for the fact that the selection of Vehicles is a lot narrower. While boats tend to have more power because the water races often feature short straight runs with a lot of turning and jumps involved, the massive power of the boats larger engines are actually at something of a disadvantage to the smaller personal sports watercraft.

Canal Passage

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 1

Players: 1 to 8

Area: Vespucci Beach

Distance: 2.36 Miles.

Go back over Daddy's wake with this Seashark race along Vespucci Beach and through its canals. Laps are pretty lengthy.

Hints and Tips: There is no choice as far as the ride, but then since you are going through the canals you would not want a boat anyway... The canals have short docks along the edges at different spots so you are best off sticking to the center of the canal than the sides.

Wet and wild! In tight corners and narrow openings like those on this route the player with better water skills will shine!

Delta V

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 1

Players: 1 to 8

Area: Fort Zancudo

Distance: 1.42 Miles.

Because man's first instinct when he sees an area of natural beauty is to burn through it as fast as he can churning emissions into the atmosphere and leaking oil and gas into the water, here's a Seashark race through the Zancudo Wetlands. Try to avoid getting beached on the tight turns.

Hints and Tips: They are not kidding about getting beached -- while the course is wide enough on the run out, once you turn around and head back it gets wicked narrow and you have no choice but to slow down for the second bit. When you have other racers too close though, you can easily find yourself being knocked onto the shore.

Gone Coastal

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 8

Players: 1-8

Area: La Mesa

Distance: 2.96 Miles

Point to point for boats starting in the LS River, and taking you to the Palomino Highlands on the East Coast. Hugs the coastline, but features some turns and opportunities to jump rocks and islets.

Hints and Tips: The Seashark is the preferred ride for this race largely due to the choke-points, the tight-turns and the serpentine course between the markers at mid-course. Pulling the nose of the Seashark out of the water and keeping it out allows you to add a third again to the speed, while still retaining tight control over the craft - something that should become second nature for sea racing.

Jetty Jumping

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 15

Players: 1-8

Area: Paleto Cove

Distance: 1.44 Miles

Negotiate waves and small islands at this prime surf spot with no surfers. Maybe it's the sharks. Lap race for boats off Paleto Cove.

Hints and Tips: Racing this with the jetski can be a bit of a challenge - but if you remember to pull-back on the joystick so that only a small part of the jetski is actually in contact with the water you will find it is much faster and easier to control...

On the Rocks

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 8

Players: 1 to 8

Area: Pacific Ocean

Distance: 0.98 Mile.

Braved choppy waters and hidden rocks as your Seasharks take laps off the East Coast of Blaine County. Fortune favors the brave who jump the small islands out to sea from El Gordo.

Hints and Tips: This is a very fun course - though other than the first jump and the one just before you turn the curve are more or less useless... Watching for the rocks is a must-do, but the trick to this race is really not making mistakes and not letting the other players mess you up.

Water Race: Pier 400

Pier 400

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 8

Players: 1 to 8

Area: Elysian Island

Distance: 1.51 Miles.

Be the fastest moving vessels Los Santos harbor has seen in a while in this point-to-point race for boats. Pass container ships, Port City, and the Airport. Possible jump if its worth the risk.

Hints and Tips: It is easily possible to run this route with a Seashark, considering the open spaces available on this route it is one of the rare instances when you can fully justify going with one of the fast speedboats -- though it may take abit of getting used to to make the tight turns.

Basically what you get is a nice twisty race that, as long as everyone is using boats, is great fun via boat. However if there is no consensus or agreement to use boats, the Seashark will have a decided advantage here.

Sea Change

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 18

Players: 1-8

Area: Alamo Sea

Distance: 1.58 Miles

Seashark race from the Alamo Sea to Lago Zancudo. Starts along the super-salinated South shore of the Alamo Sea, goes into the Zancudo River, and through the wetlands. Narrow path down waterfalls with tight turns.

Hints and Tips: This race is locked to the Seaashark - and for good reason - there are some tight choke points and challenging turns that would be well beyond the limits for boats.

The trick to getting ahead on this one is to get the nose of the shark out of the water and keep it out, turn as little as possible on the straight-run in, and stick to the center of the narrow river as much as possible, taking care to keep the nose pointed towards the center ahead when jumping down the falls and rapids.

Avoid the temptation to over-turn -- or slalom -- the river, because while that sort of racing is fun, it tends to eat up time, and you want the shortest time (obviously) you can mange.

Truss Issues

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 18

Players: 1-8

Area: Banning

Distance: 0.95 Mile

Where the river meets the Ocean meets a lot of iron and concrete - spiraling lap race for Seashark's under the road and rail bridges of South Los Santos. Tight turns and water ramps should make it interesting.

Hints and Tips: This course has really tight turns and reverses, and while there are ramps it is not always in your best interest to use them. This can be frustrating for players who do not process the marker arrows well so keep an eye out for the ones that reverse.

Water Rings

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 1

Players: 1-8

Area: Pacific Ocean

Distance: 0.84 Mile

A figure of eight race for boats taking you around the islands North of Paleto Bay. Look out for a ramp to help you get one over on your competitors.

Hints and Tips: This course will handle a speedboat, being one of the rare races that seems to be made for the boats over the Seashark...

Remember to make use of the small green ramp to get over the large rocks in the center after the second turn rather than going around them and you should make excellent time on this.

Water Sports

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 1

Players: 1 to 8

Area: Palomino Highlands

Distance: 2.83 Miles.

Get intimate with the little known East Coast of San Andreas with this point-to-point. Wind your way from an inlet off the Palomino Highlands to a cove under the San Cianskis. Tight turns and short cuts over land... for boats.

Hints and Tips: This race has Seashark all over it, with lots of tight turns with short distances between them. Keeping the nose out of the water to max your speed and takking care to know the direction of the next marker at all times - use the available ramps - and never let up on the throttle and you will find this one is pretty easy to win!

Jetski racing is fine but when you have reasonably open-spaces you want to be racing boats! Fast boats!

Without a Paddle

Created by: Rockstar

Rank: 1

Players: 1 to 8

Area: Alamo Sea

Distance: 1.38 Miles

San Andreas at its most scenic, particularly when it's not raining fire. Race boats down the rapids of Raton Canyon on a point-to-point that takes you from the Ocean to the Alamo Sea.

Hints and Tips: This is an odd race in that you can pretty much choose from the entire selection of water Vehicles but, due to the presence of narrows, sandbars, and rapids, using anything but a very small and very maneuverable ride would be ill advised.

That concludes the Water Races for GTAO -- clearly the smallest race segment in the game.

We hope that you have enjoyed our more-or-less guided tour of the Water Races, and we hope that you found our suggestions to be helpful to you!

Everything below here is present for our convenience for cutting and pasting guides for new entries - you can safely ignore it :)

Created by: Rockstar

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