[james schaechter]

I love the Jerico', but I think the G101 is worth a look as well. It has bearing supports between third and fourth and is strong. The soft locks are good for basic ops. I would say most single ten inch have a big tuning window. I prefer a dual 7 Youngblood. Easy to tune and you can tighten it up so it doesn't wear a lot.

The two things that get newbies in trouble.
1) not having enough clearance between the fingers and the throwout bearing
2) the burnout

Make sure you work out hand signals with a crew person in case you need to abort thre burnout. Make sure the tires have some water on them. Get the rpm up enough to snap the tires loose in the water.
Don't ever shift in the water unless you race a true clutchless trans. i,e. Liberty Equalizer or GF2000 etc.

It is more fun than you can believe! Good Luck!