Thanks for the compliments guys

Its crazy how these little boats flex and handle on the water compared to other boats. I know im comparing apples to oranges here but its quite the learing curve when youve come from driving friends' 30' Cobra and 26" Tige.
unless you have to have a diverter then i would just stick with the panther. Have tom do a rebuild on it and it will run forever. My crusader had a panther and a 454 and i kept up with any comparable jet boat out there. even beat some of them. so in my opinion the panther jet is just fine.
The whole show factor of throwing a +30ft roost is cool but it wasnt a deal breaker for me. Trust me, i did a lot of research on the different pumps and powerplants before pulling the trigger. The Energizer and rebuild from tom is on top of my to do list this winter. Its kind of an contradiction but i want to keep this boat as reliable as i can on the water for as long as i can before moving on to a bigger, crazier setup. Im new to this whole jet scene and i dont want to jump the gun by not knowing what the hell im doing and going all out from the start haha
X2. Unless your ready to dump a bunch $$$ to make it faster, the panther should be fine.
Crusader is a good boat.
How did it ride/run?
She actually ran better than i expected to be honest with you. Temps stayed low, started up and idled fine, and shot out of the hole when you punched it. The only problem i had with her the whole weekend is when i went over 4500rpms; any time i would go over 4500 and almost hit 5k, she would start surging and cut out to around 1-1.5k and id see the tach just bounce up and down until i feathered the throttle back up to 4-4.5k. Im assuming its a fuel related issue but im not sure.