THE explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger said that the Arab was at his best in the desert. True as that may be, he is also pretty good in the northern suburbs of Jeddah. Experience proves that when several thousand young Saudis and their friends and families gather for an afternoon of free entertainment by the seaside, there are few better places to experience hospitality or see their ability to have a good time and watch it wash over all who pass by.
So it was over last weekend when, under the patronage of Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, head of General Presidency of Youth Welfare, that the jet ski equivalent of an autocross splashed into action along the Obhur creek roadside. Organized by the Priority Option events management group, the Saudi Federation of Marine Sports staged their first jet ski championships.
A jet ski is the aquatic equivalent of a motorcycle; it takes a driver and a passenger — seated one behind the other and skims over the water using a water-jet as propulsion. The big ones, many built by well-known motorcycle manufacturers who know a thing or two about high revving engines, are very fast — traveling at speeds up to 70 kph. It may not sound fast, but on the equivalent of a hydrodynamic plastic bath tub with a large four-stroke motorcycle engine in it bouncing over waves, it is fast. It takes a considerable amount of skill and practice to slam it round the twisting course marked out by buoys just meters from the beach.
Although relatively safe as a motorized sport, track marshals and safety boats kept over-interested weekend boaters off the course and the more obdurate large-boat owners, who thought that they would have a closer look, had their particulars taken by some very sharp-eyed coastguards in nippy little cutters. If a jet ski drives into something unyielding at race speeds, it results in more than just damage to the paintwork.
The first two days of the late-afternoon-early-evening event were given over to individual time trials and heats for the races. Much attention was paid to stop watches, columns of figures, results placings and the pits, in effect the knee-deep shallows where toolboxes, spanners and bits of bent wire were wielded by enthusiastic mechanics, engines were tweaked for maximum output.
Unlike the over-serious competition displayed in the ultra-competitive industry of Formula One car racing, this event was characterized by the grins, cheerful swapping of tools between competitors and the ribald observations of the drivers to their competitors. The whole scene was redolent of the early days of sports car racing at club level. Winning was what they were there for, however fun and — there is no other way of describing it — quality sportsmanship between rivals were obviously high on the agenda.
The jet ski community is relatively small and the competitors all know each other at least to some degree. The weekend was very similar to the atmosphere that obtained, even up to ten years ago, at the Tourist Trophy motorcycle races on the Isle of Man and made that event so special. Teams or individuals who were to compete with all seriousness the next day could be seen helping each other out, sharing equipment and skills just to get a rival on the road and into the race. It seemed to be much the same with the jet ski competitors. It gave pause to ask the question in the run-up to the Olympics: Has professionalism in sport killed off that fine spirit of the gentleman amateur and friendly but perfectly serious competition?
Well not at Obhur, not yet.
The event that the crowds had come to watch was the grand finale where several (who’s counting?) of the survivors of the early rounds put on a thrilling display of racing skill and bravado. To top it all, and for the sheer fun of it, a hastily contrived ride-past, preceded by a frantic distribution of national flags and photos brought cheers, ululation and lots of hand clapping from the huge crowd that had gathered during the afternoon.
The slightly self-conscious policemen, and mercifully the Red Crescent paramedics on hand, were entirely redundant. Such was the atmosphere, even with crowds milling noisily around the dignitaries and the racers, that there was never any hint of potential disorder. Everyone was simply having too much fun!
Such was the success of the event that one of the lead organizers, Abeer Dharan from Priority Options, said that there would be a repeat of the competition in the Eastern Province in Al-Khobar within a month.
The winners of the races all got prizes as you might expect. But the real winners of the event were the crowds of families and the young people who so obviously enjoyed themselves hugely within the bounds of perfectly responsible behavior. They won the trust of the Presidency of Youth Welfare that these events can be run in the Kingdom within the bounds of propriety. It appears that the combination of sun, sea and jet skis and a very low-key security profile seems to bring out the best in everyone. Bring it on