Meat-head Steve on Jet-ski Patrol
Dec 27, 2022
I spent 25 years in the watersports business. The most basic observation I could make was that if you combine testosterone with boats, things rarely go well.
​Steve was a good worker but he was a bit of a meat-head. He was naturally strong. Muscularly strong and strong willed. When he surfed, he wanted to overpower the wave. When he played with our windsurfers he wanted to muscle against the wind instead of using skill and finesse. When his friends annoyed him he didn't want to talk it out, he wanted a physical altercation.
​Back then we were renting jet-skis in Duck behind the Sunset Grill (formerly, The Barrier Island Inn). We would use a 16 foot Carolina Skiff to patrol the jet-ski area. It had a 30hp motor on it, which wasn't strong enough to catch a jet-ski, but it was good enough to be present and deal with emergencies.
​​Carolina Skiff is still a popular brand of motor boat. One thing their early boats struggled with was sliding sideways on sharp turns. This wasn't a problem until the boat caught an edge and ejected an unsuspecting passenger over the side. They have since made alterations to their hull design and current boats rarely do this. Their early models were pretty bad. Our 16 foot skiff was one of these early models.
​We ran the business out of a gazebo which still stands today. We were renting jet-skis on a slow day. Operations in the gazebo had settled and we looked out at the jet-ski area. We saw the patrol skiff racing all over the place. Racing around at full throttle is usually only necessary when you have customers that are entirely out of control. At first we didn't pay much attention to it, but after a while we wondered what the customers were doing that was so bad. As we studied the situation we realized there was nobody helming the patrol boat. We sprang in to action.
​Two of our guys jumped on a jet-ski and raced out to the empty patrol skiff, which was still running around erratically. They came along side the patrol boat and the passenger on the jet-ski jumped on to the skiff as it was cruising at 30 mph. Just like a stuntman. He was able to man the skiff and bring it back in. After looking around we quickly found Steve treading water and we were able to safely bring him ashore.
​What happened was, Steve, because he was a meat-head, was running at full-throttle. He took a sharp turn, the skiff slid sideways, it grabbed an edge, and Steve was launched over the side in to the water.
​Steve was embarrassed and mad. Because it was my boat he felt it was my fault. Of course. I was just happy the skiff didn't run over Steve or a customer. No blood, no foul.
Best wishes,
John Van Lunen
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