Speedboats, jet skiers and so on

[Gedge]

As the weather begins to warm up it seems it is once again time for the speed boats and jet skiers to appear off the beach of Portobello. Does anyone else share my feeling that these people are exhibiting selfish behaviour in the extreme ruining the peace and tranquility of weekend afternoons? And how come they are allowed to bring vehicles onto the beach to transport their boats and so on into the water. Are they not a hazard to small paddlers? Can anything be done to stop them?

[Maria]

I don't have a strong view on this one way or another having only seen people behaving with a fair amount of consideration so far. I did, however, read about an incident last weekend, off Portobello beach, involving an adult jet skier and a 10 yr old girl who were thrown into the water when their jet ski overturned. The owner of the jet ski apparently tried to swim out to them and also got into difficulties. Thankfully they were all brought to safety by lifeboat. Anyone know anymore on this incident?
Last time I saw the jet skiers ,they were giving trips on the back of their machines to a queue of eager kids, but maybe they're not that safe after all?

[Guest]

This problem was raised last summer as well. If you go to page 3 of the forum you will find a topic named 'Jetski Danger'. I believe that once the current Promenade improvements are complete, there should only be one entrance to the Prom at either end, with a barrier to prevent unauthorised vehicular access. Hopefully this will prevent jetski owners from accessing the main stretch of beach with their vehicles. I agree that this area of the seaside should be off limits to jetskis and powerboats but it could be difficult to enforce.

[Poppy]

Here is an item from the Evening News about Sunday's jet-ski incident. I believe it was at the Seafield end of the beach.

http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=534722004

Hope the link works!

[Guest]