Crackofdawn

I'm picking up a pair of jet skis tomorrow. One of them is a 96 polaris, I think an SL700 or something like that, I will try to get confirmation tomorrow.

Anyway, when I tested the Ski on sunday, I turned it on and it started right up (idles a bit high but nothing serious). When I tried to give it some gas it just stalled instantly. Started it again (started right back up) tried to give it gas, stalled again. On the third try I pulled the choke lever out and then gave it some gas and it started going so I pushed the choke lever back in and it shot straight up to top speed and felt quite stable/fast - no issues there. I was able to drive it back into the dock after a few minutes without any further issues.

My brother hopped on it about 2 minutes later and started it and the same thing happened to him - after a few tries it got up and went and then it seemed fine. Any ideas what would cause this? Did I just need to choke it longer or did it need to warm up longer? It was only used for a total of 5 minutes or so - top speed definitely felt strong, not like it was low on power or anything. I'm having a compression test done on it tomorrow before I actually pay for it just to make sure the engine doesn't need a rebuild, assuming that comes back OK what else could be an issue, or is this just something that has to be dealt with on older skis? He also has a 97 SPX800 I'm buying and that one started right up and immediately took off with no stalling or other issues, but the engine in that one is new as of 10 months ago. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Oh and I'm getting the double trailer (new tires/lights), 97 SPX800 and 96 Polaris (SL700, SL780, not sure - felt like it was doing about 45mph) for $2300 - hopefully that is a good deal.