Brain dead bogans on jet skis need to be booted

IT’S time for jet skis to be banned from the Coast’s busiest waterways as they are simply incompatible with most other activities.

IT'S time for jet skis to be banned from the Coast's busiest waterways as they are simply incompatible with most other activities.

Today the Sunshine Coast Magistrate's Court handed down a worthy warning to all jet ski riders - frighten people with your craft and you're committing an offence.

Minyama gym manager George Doulgeris was ordered to pay $1600 worth of fines over two incidents where he drove his jet ski too close to surfers on Point Cartwright.

Doulgeris fell foul of an obscure regulation in the Transport Operator Marine Act which obligates jet skiers and boat operators to drive their craft safely.

He basically got his jet ski and decided to ride it in amongst a group of surfers and then drove straight at them when they told him to go away - his actions were profoundly stupid and dangerous.

The case leaves me wondering how many of the quarter-wits I see buzzing about on the Maroochy River are aware of the fact they are actually obligated to give people a reasonable amount of space.

For example on the weekend my wife and I were calmly paddle boarding along the riverbank when a bright spark on a ski decided it was a good idea to cut in front of her.

And when I say cut in front of her I mean drive his ski about three feet away from the nose of her board.

My wife handled it pretty well and managed to stay on but that's not really the point.

The point is this stuff happens all the time and it's never people in tinnies, or on board boats or kite boards, or kayaks, or paddle boards, or surfboards, or paddle boats, or floating plastic sea horses that are causing the problems.

It is always brain-dead bogans on jet skis.

The simple fact is the skis not only make too much noise they are an obvious hazard to other water users and should be banned from busy areas.

I am personally embarrassed for the region when I take people down to show them our tranquil waterways only to find any semblance of serenity destroyed by screaming two-stroke ski engines.

After all there are plenty of rivers around the Coast and several upstream areas are far less crowded than our river mouths where families go to swim and there are more people living on the banks.

It's time to ban jet skis from some of the Coast's busier water ways.