IT IS NOT AN EASY LIFE on the waves, say some water sports operators.
They tell a tale of huge costs, misunderstandings and even racism as they work the beaches.
The men who spoke to Street Beat work mainly along the West Coast. One, who identified himself as “Izon”, was sitting along Fitts Village beach, St James, with barely anything to do as he said the seas were rough and when seas were rough, water sports operators were idle.
“Our work depends on the sea and if the sea is rough like today, we can’t work because it is too dangerous for tourists. We don’t get a salary, we get a percentage of what we earn so when we can’t do business, we can’t get paid,” he said.
Izon is one of the workers at Swammy’s Water Sports and said they worked under strict guidelines on how to behave as they could easily be identified should they do any “foolishness”. He said operators often got a bad reputation but people did not know what it was like on the beaches.
“Some people say we harass tourists but out there you find all sorts of people,” he said. “You come cross some tourists who don’t like black people and some are not nice at all. Some people think because they got a dollar bill, they always right,” he said.
Another operator, who requested anonymity, said he was just about fed up with the industry and was ready to leave. He said it costs too much just to not be able to turn a profit on a day.
“I bought my jet ski second-hand for $20 000 but people don’t understand that just to start a business like this is at least $6 000 with insurance and permits. Plus, it costs $240 to fill a tank and that goes in four or five rides. You got to like this business to stay in it and
“I getting frustrated,” he said, adding jet ski parts were not sold in Barbados and had to be imported.
Adding to his frustrations, he said, was the state of tourism in Barbados, which he said was not as rosy a picture as it was being made out.
“Everybody making out like tourism is big but it is bare old people coming in and they don’t do no business with us. Just now I leffing ’bout here and going England,” he said.
The operator said another sticking point was the actions of some of the other operators. He said there was vicious undercutting going on, where one operator would lower prices specifically to steal business from another, but with the high cost of the jet skis, such actions were not benefiting anyone.
Over at Holetown, Marvin Sobers defended his trade. He said, if water sports operators were so awful, then why was Government continuing to issue them licences? “It is Government which is licensing jet skis to operate so if it is such a problem, why do it?” he said.
Sobers said it was not a matter of harassment but simply trying to make a living.
“The only ‘harassing’ is asking tourists if they want to ride but if you ask more than twice, it could be trouble,” he said. “Just because you have a licence and insurance, it don’t mean the tourists will hop to the jet ski. You have to look to buy, insure, register and then you have to look for work. After investing all that money, will you just sit on the beach?”
Sobers said big-name catamarans already had contracts with hotels and could afford online advertising so the small man was at a disadvantage, especially in light of the hotels favouring the larger operations.
“They have the people in there and they can make the people do what they want – that is the real harassment,” he said.
Further along at The Garden, St James, Davidson Depeiza was sanding down his vehicle. He said it was in an accident while a tourist was riding it and the repairs were all on him.
“Any damage over $2 500 insurance will deal with but this is under that, so I have to deal with it myself. I got to fibreglass it, sand it and put on putty and metallic paint, a cost of about $1 000 in all,” he said.
Depeiza said it was an arduous process to become a jet ski operator and the machines were high maintenance but he still loved it, despite the criticisms.
“What keeps me going is that even though it is challenging, I believe entrepreneurship is still the way to go. I prefer to stick to this enterprise knowing tourism is still our main business, even if all the players are not together,” he said.
