Jetskis - spawn of the devil?

Thanks to an almost total lack of regulation, you can rent a jetski on every stretch of beach around Pattaya. For a few hundred baht you can whizz around generating noise and oil pollution whilst lining the pockets of the undesirables who rent these machines. You will probably be drunk, which means you will make stupidly dangerous manoeuvres near other craft on the sea, will narrowly miss swimmers, and will generally act like a dick. There is a chance you will drive head-on into another drunk jetski-riding idiot and kill yourself, a delightful example of Darwinian evolution in action.

Yes, I hate jetskis, the scum who own them and the muppets who rent them. This view is undoubtedly coloured by having to windsurf in the same waters as jetskis for several years. Jetskis would hunt us down and amuse themselves by driving round us, they would be so busy yelling to their idiot friends on the shore that they would drive straight into us. Boards and riders were damaged, luckily no windsurfer was killed, sadly not enough jetski riders drove into each other. One of the advantages of the new club is that we are not troubled by these pests.

So it was with mixed feelings that I went to photography the King’s Cup Jetski tournament today. Originally planned as a five day event, it had been compressed into two days because the international riders could not fly into the country.

But in a confined space, a collection of highly tuned jetskis are impressively fast and clearly require a degree of skill to handle. Not that easy to photograph, as they spend much of a corner covered in spray:

But in the forty minutes or so before my back cried enough, I got a few shots.

Comments 🔗

2008-12-07 | Pete, FrogBlogger says

Incredible that there are no effective alcohol controls. Was like that in France until not so long ago, if I remember right.

Great photos - what camera do you use?

2008-12-07 | Spike says

There are probably laws, but there is very little enforcement here; part of the charm in some instances.

Thanks. Canon 1D Mark 3 with a 300mm lens.

2008-12-07 | Pete, FrogBlogger says

Yes makes a change from a nanny state interfering with everything we do, but as you say, it has it disadvantages here, at times…

2008-12-07 | Pete, FrogBlogger says

Nice camera by the way - I use a Nikon D2X with a 70-200 VR zoom plus 1.4 converter. The VR’s handy - I need all the help I can get ;-)

2008-12-07 | Spike says

I have image stabilisation on some of my lenses too, including the 300mm. The shot below the “all spray” photo was taken at 1/200th second which would be impossible at 300mm without stabilisation, in my hands anyway!

2008-12-08 | Jock says

Pity those international jet ski riders …. come all the way to Thailand and don’t even get the courtesy of some Pit Girls ….

2008-12-08 | Spike says

They brought their own: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3030/3091941285_e230c94d15_o.jpg

2008-12-09 | Jock says

OK for a ferang I guess .. but doesn’t beat the real deal …