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Coast Guard is working to pare risk of parasailing

By JADE JACKSON LLOYD
Published November 7, 2004

	[Photo: Eamonn Kneeshaw]
	Hanging from an untethered parasail, Chelsea Waddell, 15, and Theresa Blanford, 16, float into view. Beach-goers grab the severed tow line and pull the teens down to safety on the beach. Click to view video
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It was a public relations fiasco for the parasail industry when a towline broke and two teenage girls drifted helplessly toward land. They were saved by dozens of beachgoers who grabbed at the shredded line dangling from the girls' perch.

But the Coast Guard saw a chance to tighten policing of the nearly 30-year-old, unregulated industry. Parasailing insiders say the efforts come on the heels of the industry's work to govern itself.

On Oct. 29, Alexander Widmann, a former captain with Get Wet Parasail in Madeira Beach, pleaded no contest to charges of negligence, misconduct and violation of rule and regulation.

In April, Widmann was giving a parasail ride to two Atlanta teenagers when the boat's towline snapped, setting the girls adrift over the Gulf of Mexico before they were pulled to safety on the beach.

A U.S. Coast Guard Administrative Law judge suspended his operator's license for three months and placed him on three years' probation from the parasail industry.

Widmann also agreed to three speaking engagements at parasailing classes and to leave the industry for three years.

Coast Guard officials are using his case as a means of getting out its pro-parasail safety message: Follow the Coast Guard's new guidelines or pay with your livelihood.

"We've had our fair share of accidents," said Michael Shea, a marine investigator with the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office. "Basically, we're just not going to put up with it anymore."

According to court testimony, Widmann operated on that day in April in too-high winds and failed to do a safety talk to riders Chelsea Waddell, 15, and Theresa Blanford, 16, before setting out, Shea said.

In May, the Coast Guard debuted its Voluntary Commercial Parasail Vessel Safety Examination Program, which sets some standards for operators, in response to a string of high-profile parasailing accidents and deaths dating back to 2001.

Currently, parasailing outfits can offer varying operating hours, height restrictions and fees.

The court ruled that the Coast Guard's guidelines will remain voluntary, unless a captain has an accident, "like driving a car and having insurance is voluntary," Shea said.

"No, they don't have to do it, but every reasonable, prudent operator would do it," Shea said. "Now that we have some standards and the court has set some standards, there's a yardstick."

Operators whose businesses meet all requirements of the program - which focuses on recordkeeping and proper equipment maintenance - receive decals to be displayed in plain view on their vessels, so customers can see them.

Capt. Jay Albers, who pilots the Fly-N-Time III for Parasail City, said the nearly 6,000 customers who flock every year to the Clearwater Beach business don't typically ask many safety questions.

They just want to have fun.

"If they start seeing stories, then yeah," he said Thursday. "But you're looking at one towline snapping out of 10,000 parasail rides. So, I mean, that's pretty good odds."

At John's Pass Parasail recently, potential riders agreed. Two families of out-of-town visitors plunked down their money, signed waivers and headed out for a late afternoon ride.

As Calvin Shell and his 7-year-old granddaughter, Kayla, looked on, his wife, Debbie, and friend Lori Copeland drifted toward the clouds, flying 1,200 feet over the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's probably the safest you're ever going to get," said Shell, 44, of Anderson, Ind., when told about the unregulated industry. "There's a risk involved in everything."

With the 12-passenger boat speeding a half-mile offshore, Shell looked toward the two women and added, "I feel safe on the boat. I don't know if I'd feel safe up there."

Capts. Sean Whiteway and Bob Schroeder, who piloted the hourlong trip that day, have combined experience of more than 32 years and a disdain for parasail operators who don't make safety a priority.

"Weather keeps us going and it shuts us down," said Whiteway, 32. If winds kick up to more than 20 mph, the business shuts down for the day because "it doesn't make sense to put people in danger. We hurt more feelings here than anything."

Chris Abbott, owner of Custom Chutes/Parasail Workshop in Bradenton, said the industry is trying to change itself, so he doesn't see the case "as being any great big deal."

A pioneer in the business, the 54-year-old England native says he was involved in parasailing "before there was an industry," since the early 1970s.

Since becoming popular in the 1980s, Abbott estimates that of the 750,000 to 1-million U.S. rides per year, there have been very few accidents.

"This is a bit too easy to pick on," he said during a Friday phone interview. "It's very visible. If there's a slight accident, people are on it like hotcakes."

Despite what he dubbed the "dramatic-ness" of media reports, he said "99.9 percent of people have a real, gentle, pleasurable experience."

"Otherwise, the business would go out of business," he said.

Abbott is on the board of directors of the Professional Association of Parasail Operators, a nonprofit group of industry insiders nationwide trying to promote safety and professionalism. Abbott said PAPO is developing its own set of guidelines to "have people operate under the same rules so they're taught the same way."

By January, the organization hopes insurance companies will insure only PAPO members, Abbott said.

Shea said that although there's been a lot of interest, only two operators have completed the program: Cortez Parasail in Bradenton Beach and Parasail City, the company Albers works for.

The program's standards were developed in conjunction with parasail operators nationwide, based on principles most already practice, Albers said.

"Everything they want us to do, I did before," he said. "We wanted to do it to let the Coast Guard know we want to work with them and let people know it's safe to come out."

Why hasn't parasailing been regulated? A lack of manpower to police such a small industry - there are roughly 125 operators nationwide - and "because nobody's required them to," Shea said.

Regulated or not, Abbott, owner of Custom Chutes, said being "100 percent without accidents" is impossible for any industry.

"There's always a chance of accidents . . .," he said. "That's part of the thrill of parasailing: the unknown."

[Last modified November 6, 2004, 23:27:31]