Jet Skis or PWCs, They’re Water Gnats

SACRAMENTO — They’re called “personal watercraft” by the industry, but that moniker strikes me as non-descriptive. Literally, it means somebody’s own boat and could cover anything from a rubber raft to a world-class yacht.

Most boaters like myself just call them “jet skis,” but Jet Ski is a brand name and rival manufacturers object. Thus the bland name PWC.

More accurately, they could be called water scooters. They do resemble a cross between a trail bike and a classic Vespa.

Myself, I prefer water gnats because they’re always buzzing around and pestering real boaters. Nuisance gnats. Very noisy gnats.

Sometimes killer gnats. Because they are the most dangerous vessels in the water.

Their advocates will counter that “jet skis” themselves are not dangerous. It’s just that too often they are handled dangerously. Like guns or switchblades.

There is a sound basis for this argument. But the very design of the craft tempts dangerous operation. It has one main purpose: hot-dogging.

They’re generally 8 to 10 feet long and propelled by powerful engines of 50-120 horsepower. Speeds can reach 60 mph and faster. On some you stand; on others you sit, one to three people motorcycle-style.

The favorite games: Wake jumping behind motorboats, doing doughnuts (360 degree turns), spraying down people by swerving past them and--naturally--playing chicken.

“The industry is in a real paradox,” says Chris Brewster, San Diego lifeguard chief and harbor master for Mission Bay. “On the one hand, it puts out excellent public safety information. On the other, it runs ads showing people jumping waves and climbing up waterfalls.”

*

Here are some bottom line statistics to ponder for the Memorial Day weekend, traditional kickoff of the boating season:

According to the state Department of Boating and Waterways, PWCs account for 16% of all vessels registered in California, but last year they were involved in 55% of the reported injury accidents (537 injury accidents, 298 involving PWCs.) In collisions with real boats, the PWC operator was three times as likely to be “exclusively” at fault.

Among the “representative” PWC accidents reported by the department:

* A driver tried to spray down his mother, who was sitting on the beach, but lost control and hit her. She died of the injuries.

* A driver was jumping the wake of a motorboat and swung around for another pass. But the boat slowed to enter a 5-mph zone and the “jet ski” struck it. The PWC driver was thrown into the boat, seriously injuring two passengers.

At Needles on the Colorado River last August, two girls--Lisa Ann Mooney, 12, and Shana Lynn Bellisario-Bracci, 13--were riding a Wave Runner late on a Saturday afternoon. The sun was in their eyes and they may not have noticed the pontoon deck boat heading their way, driven by a man who had been drinking. He apparently thought they were trying to splash him, and didn’t turn or slow down. The pontoon boat hit the Wave Runner, killing the girls instantly.

“I don’t think the girls should have been out there without an adult,” says Michelle Mooney of La Verne, Lisa’s mother. “I wouldn’t give my daughter the car keys at age 12.”

Why did Mooney give permission for her daughter to accompany her friend to the river? “I didn’t know those things could go 65 mph,” she says, “And I didn’t know the river had turned into a zoo.”

*

Enter the Legislature. Two bills targeting “jet skis” are pending in the Senate.

One, by Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), was inspired by the two girls’ deaths at Needles. It would prohibit kids 12 to 16 from driving any type of vessel with more than 10 horsepower unless they had taken a safety course and an adult was on board. Children under 12 would be barred, period; now they can drive the motorboat if accompanied by an adult.

The other bill, by Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), was inspired by a voter who wrote to her legislator after having sat onshore at Lake Somona and being shocked as she watched the little buggers. The bill would ban several unsafe operations, including spraying down and wake jumping within 100 feet of a boat.

PWC leaders support the bills. They fear harsher action, such as an outright ban on some waters.

Says “jet-skier” Mark Denny of Orange County, who heads up lobbying for the International Jet Sports Boating Assn.: “I just want the water to be safe when I go out there with my wife. . . . If somebody wants to jump things, they can go out in the ocean. There’s definitely some swells out there.”

For boaters like me, meanwhile, this might be a good weekend to stay off the water and away from the swarming gnats.