Abstract: A blow back rudder consisting of a rudder blade, rudder shaft and a plate assembly that is pivotally mounted to the nozzle of a jet nozzle of a personal water craft is spring biased in the steering mode and is positioned out of the water by the impingement force of the jet stream discharging from the nozzle acting on the plate. This provides off throttle steering. The plate is contoured to allow the plate to remain in the jet stream at low thrust and water craft speeds for rudder steering. In another embodiment, these features are contained and the plate is contoured with a concave face and its position relative to the discharge port of the jet nozzle is controlled in order to obtain reversing of the water craft.