The Self-Guided Jet-Ski Tour or The Time I Should Have Gotten Out of the Business
Nov 02, 2023
Below is an episode that should have ushered my exit from the industry. Due to a combination of stubbornness and naivete I stuck around for another 18 years.
Preface
In 2004 I owned two watersports locations; Kitty Hawk Watersports in Nags Head and one in Duck (by a different name). On June 25th I received a phone call from my manager in Duck. At the time of the phone call I was twenty miles away, managing Kitty Hawk Watersports. She informs me they’ve had “a bit of weather” (understatement) and one of our jet-ski customers can’t be found. I give her instructions to contact our neighboring watersports businesses to see if our customer accidentally returned to the wrong location. I also tell her to search the shoreline in case he decided to seek cover at the nearest structure he could find.
I hung up the phone and waited.
Below is the customer’s first-person account mailed to us later that summer.
To all the fine people of your establishment,
I am writing to thank you for a most outstanding jet ski experience this summer. I also want to apologize for wandering way out of bounds on the (Currituck) Sound. Anticipating my first jet ski ride, I failed to pay close attention to the pre-launch instructions regarding the perimeter boundaries.
The sky was blue and the sound was like glass as I headed north, full throttle, that Friday afternoon, June 25th, 2004. After 40 minutes, I was approaching the (Currituck) lighthouse (in Corolla), I felt it was time to turn back. As I made a long slow turn around some islands in the middle of the sound, I first saw the wall of black clouds quickly closing on me from the south. Being several hundred yards from shore I decided the quickest route out of the water would be to get on one of these small grassy islands. The water level was quite low and the jet ski stalled about 30 feet from the island. I figured I would just walk in the rest of the way but when I jumped off the jet ski, it was like quicksand and I was in mud almost to my waist. Making forward progress to the grassy island was impossible, so I began to put the jet ski to deeper water. After much difficulty I got back on and turned the engine over several times to get the mud out. By the time I got it going the storm was now almost on top of me, moving like a freight train across the open sound.
I saw what I learned later was the Whaler house (Whalehead Club) and I could barely see a small boat launch there. That was now my target. The water was now very choppy and violent wind was blowing during the five or six minutes it took to cross the open water to the shore. Lightning bolts were dropping out of the sky and hitting the water all around me. If not for the guiding hand of God Almighty, I would not have survived. I hit the boat launch and was thrown over the handlebars. I startled a number of people who had just fled the storm and were sitting in their cars in the adjacent parking lot. As I stumbled into the Whaler house (Whalehead Club) they had just heard the tornado warning and I was brought down to the cellar with the others to wait out the storm.
Enclosed please find a case of Moet White Star champagne as a small token of my appreciation for everyone’s help, assistance, and warm reception after finally returning after the storm was over. Please send me several brochures to recommend your fine establishment to others.
Sincerely, Jim
Follow Up:
Jim is not his real name.
Jim was 15 miles outside the jet-ski boundary! Not 100 yards. Not half a mile. 15 miles!
While waiting by the phone I finally got a call from my manager in Duck who told me she received a call from Jim’s sister. He found a landline in the Whalehead Club and, because he didn’t know our number from memory, called his sister who, in turn, called us to say Jim was safe and in the cellar of the Whalehead Club.
Upon hearing this I’m shocked he’s that far away but extremely relieved to hear he’s okay (all the while wondering how he got that far away). I start creating a plan to get to Corolla so we can retrieve Jim and our jet-ski. As I’m formulating a plan I receive another call from Duck informing me that Jim has returned on the jet-ski to a standing ovation.
Later, my managers and I try to retrace what went wrong. Simply put, Jim left the dock and, instead of staying in the designated jet-ski area, immediately went north. We usually intercept people that do this but on this day Jim slipped under our radar and kept going.
My Personal Commentary:
A "most outstanding jet-ski experience"? He almost got struck by lightning!
He ran aground in the mud and again ran aground at the Whalehead Club (forceful enough to launch himself over the handlebars!). Later that summer when we had a jet-ski breakdown I wondered if that was the ski that Jim had ridden. Sorry, a case of champagne doesn't pay for that.
By the way, somebody at my site gave me a bottle of champagne and didn't explain who it was from. They kept the rest of the case! As the owner of the business don't I get first dibs?
Additional Follow Up:
Jim returned the following year and after a few laughs rented a jet-ski again. Immediately after entering the designated jet-ski area he turned north and exited the jet-ski area! Full throttle! We couldn’t believe it. We successfully chased him down and corralled him back in to the jet-ski area.
In retrospect I should have immediately exited the business after this episode.
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