And the ski weighs twenty one thousand pounds.
I don't know what the deal is with people saying these things weigh so much. I've found specs listed in multiple places saying they have a dry weight of 300 lbs. That's only 10 pounds more than a stock superjet! Heck, when my SJ was waterlogged it probably had 20 pounds on one. I'm sure a lot of people are riding around with heavily reinforced waterlogged SJs that easily outweigh an Octane. I know from lifting my brother's Octane that it doesn't feel that far off my stock square nose SJ with dry foam. Check out the specs for yourself:
https://www.wamiltons.com/octane/tech_specs.php
Now to offer a possible reason of why you're having difficulties jumping the Octane, the only reason I can think of is the buoyancy of the Octane in comparison compared to the 550. The 550 is a lot less buoyant than the Octane. When you try to bounce the back of the ski and compress it into the water, it's probably not going as deep as the 550. If you can't get the back of the hull that deep into the water, your take off angle is going to be pretty shallow, thus making your boat shoot straight forward instead of into the air when you squeeze the throttle. If it has a long ride plate, it will also hinder your ability to get extra height off flat water. I can hardly get a stock SXR off the water with a long ride plate because they are so buoyant - I can't get the darn things to sink in the water without doing a couple of pre-hops. My brother who has about 80 - 100 lbs on me, can get a lot more air on a SXR than I can.... but he can also get the back end of the ski sunk a lot more than I can.
Things that will help you out: a shorter ride plate and footholds/straps/lifter wedges.
