Jetskiers: “Please give us some room!”

Friday 24 April 2015

Jetskiers are asking the Coastguard to designate an area for them to use safely, to reduce the unnecessary callouts and complaints that they say they get every time they go out on the water.

Joe Mourant, of the newly formed Jersey Free Riders Jetski Club, says that they have set up the association to ask the coastguard to designate part of St Aubin’s Bay and part of St Ouen’s Bay as areas for jetskiers.

He says that the coastguard receive complaints from people every time the jetskiers get out on the water – they have to go and attend each one, but there’s never a problem, and Mr Mourant says it’s all a massive waste of time.

And he has pointed out that there has never been a jetski incident in Jersey in which someone has been injured – in fact, jetskiers have been involved in three separate rescues of people who were in danger of drowning at sea.

Mr Mourant said: “Every time part of our jetski community rides, we get complaints.

“We have set up a non-profit club and we have been communicating with coastguards and the Harbours.

“We are trying to get them to give us an area which we can use, with their permission.

“We want a designated part of the sea that we can use, and at that point we can police ourselves. That’s going really slowly. Every time there’s a nice weekend, people go out, and every time people go out, there’s a complaint, and the coastguard are required to attend. They’re required to come when they’re called – they speak to us, we have a chat, and they drive off again. It’s an utter waste of their time.”

Mr Mourant said that the non-profit club – which is setting up a website - would be happy to buy some buoys to mark off a designated area, but they say that they’re just looking for a sensible solution.

He said: “It’s perfectly safe, but people will phone up and complain. We were riding in the winter when there’s no one on the water and hardly anyone on the beach, and we still got complaints – it’s just mad. It can’t be a danger to anyone when there’s no-one within five miles of you in any direction. It’s more that some people just have a philosophical problem with it.”

Picture credit: Andy Habin