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This boat was just so much fun but it was expensive
to run so next came another bright idea. Let's get other people to
pay for the fuel.
We had the boat but
it cost around $200 to fill with fuel in 1989 so you had to think
about where you were going to go and for how long. Not that we
ever really did!!
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Then the bright idea. Lets start up a
Parasailing and other Watersport's business because that
way we could have fun and other people would pay for the
fuel.
So we registered Mandurah Watersport's
Hire and started business in the sea off Silver Sands,
Mandurah, on
Sunday 24th January 1988.
Well it wasn't that easy actually. We
had to convince the local council that it was a good
idea because it was a tourist attraction.
Once they agreed I then had to
get a Coxswains Certificate which you needed to drive a Hire Boat.
I also registered John Dwyer Marine as a business
which allowed us to buy skis, tubes and other fun
things for wholesale.
We also became the WA Distributor
for the Parasail's that we were using.
Roger Connelly
also gave us the distributor rights for the Connelly
Craft in WA.
Now all we had to do was put a
Parasail in the air before we took on some paying customers.
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Ha...that wasn't as easy as it looked
either but we had plenty of volunteers for practice. You had to strap the
game person into a harness, have a couple of people hold
open the chute, head the boat into the wind and take
off.
Alana as well as a few others
finished face first in the beach sand with their chins
touching the water but we had a heap
of laughs trying to get the take-offs right until we eventually tied a
tire to the Parasail and practiced
with that until we sort of got it right.
 It didn't matter how hard you banged
people around or how many times they fell off either the
tubes or the banana's I can't remember getting one complaint in the
years that we operated Mandurah Watersports Hire.
In fact it
was the opposite as the more Xtreme the ride the more
they wanted.
We had our own area of beach with shade and a volleyball
net for people waiting for a ride. We also had caps and
t-shirts for sale with our own little logo. |
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Out
little spot on the beach at Silver Sands Mandurah. |
It
was a
seasonal business and after, I think it was 3 years, we
decided to pack it in and eventually pretty much
gave the business to a person who bought a
Connelly Craft off us
He later went on to sell the business for a nice
profit. But, for a number of years, we had a great time in the sea off
Silver Sands, Mandurah.
continued Mandurah Sounds
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I had to get a coxswains certificate to be able to
operate a boat for hire or ski boat. I had to go to night school
for a course on navigation and then had to show Marine and Harbours
that I could operate a boat.
They then let me put the CS21 (Commercial Ski 21ft) on the side.
There was only one other boat/person licensed to do Parasailing in
Western Australia at the time and he was in Perth
so I became the second with Madurah all to ourselves.
Graham Edwards MP helped launch Mandurah Watersports Hire
on Sunday
24th January 1988 which made
sure we got some nice press.
Up up and away!!
Four tubes out the back at one time was great fun.
Skiing in the sea off Silver Sands, Mandurah.
OK Go Go Go.....
No no no!!
"What's it all about Alfie......."
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