Goodman’s Bay Jet Ski Operators Plead for Proper Ramp…Again

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NASSAU , BAHAMAS – All week, the alleged assault of an American tourist by a jet ski operator has dominated headlines.

And as the spotlight remains on the jet ski industry, operators at Goodman’s Bay Beach say they’re hoping the attention will also bring change to a longstanding problem: the condition of the beach ramp.

They say the ramp has been in poor condition for years, making everyday business more difficult for operators who depend on it.

Renwick Rolle Jr. – Water Sports Operator
“This ramp has been like this since 1993, since they’ve built this, when I was still in school. Of course, being fair, the ramp was better than it was. Still, there was no wood, there was no sand over it. Over the years, where we had hurricanes, flash storms, whatever, it’s been covered in sand. We’ve been requesting for the longest time for them to fix this for us. Whoever is in charge, it doesn’t matter, as long as it gets fixed.”

And it’s something I’ve witnessed before…

Up to six men at a time struggling to lift jet skis off of a dolly into the water, a task they say they have to carry out every single day.

Renwick Rolle Jr. – Water Sports Operator
“We’ve been reaching out, trying to say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on.’ We have a different set of tourists coming in now. When that ramp was first built, it was just people coming to the beach randomly. But now we have cruise ship guests coming into this beach because of the overcrowding of Junkanoo Beach and all of the areas downtown. They would like to come to the beach where it’s more spacious, so we have an influx of tourists that are coming to Goodman Bay in the thousands.”

It’s something they say they’ve been pleading for, for years.

And for those who may not understand why the ramp is so important, the operators use a simple comparison: a car and a road.

Imagine having to drive your car on poorly maintained roads every day, despite paying high fees to use them.

They say that’s essentially what they’re dealing with.

The ramp is their roadway, and they say its condition is simply unacceptable.

Renwick Rolle Jr. – Water Sports Operator

“This represents The Bahamas, as well as it represents me as a businessman or any other businessman out here. This has to be fixed because this is what the tourists first see when they come out of a taxi, and if they see us struggling and nothing is being done about it, it’s not beautified or in a way being fixed up for them, then it’s looking about all of us in this whole country.”