They’ve become a familiar site off Hawaiian shores in recent decades: colorful, wind-filled chutes that hover several hundred feet over the islands’ turquoise waters, giving visitors a bird’s-eye view of the tropical beauty around them.
But parasailing remains largely unregulated in the U.S., and the thrills don’t come without risks, particularly if companies aren’t taking the proper safety precautions.
"It’s real safe if you’re trained, but if you’re not trained it’s really dangerous," Mark Neumann, owner of Hawaiian Parasail, said Wednesday. "The laws should be stricter."
The National Transportation Safety Board agrees. Earlier this week the federal agency released a new report recommending the U.S. Coast Guard license parasailing operators around the country, including in Hawaii, where two people have died in recent years in parasailing accidents.
"Passengers seeking to enjoy the thrill, adventure and panoramic views of parasailing risk becoming accident victims," the NTSB report issued in Washington stated. "Due to the nature of parasailing, accidents usually result in either serious injury or death."
The agency found that "human error" by operators is the main cause of parasailing accidents due to "poor judgment, lack of sufficient experience, improper training" and other factors such as worn or poorly maintained gear, ignorance about overloading tow lines and other equipment, and failure to monitor wind speeds and changing weather.
The NTSB said there are currently no regulations for operator training, no requirements for equipment inspection and no requirements to suspend operations in bad weather.
Neumann, who said he introduced parasailing to Hawaii back in the mid-1970s, was joined by other local vendors who say they embrace more stringent requirements because they would make the industry safer.
"I’m wholeheartedly for regulations. They’re really needed for a minority of operators" who don’t properly maintain their equipment, said Tommy Berg, president of a new Honolulu-based firm, Paradise Watersports. Such parasail operators "make it bad for all the good guys, if you will."
Stricter safety laws would also likely lower parasailing companies’ insurance costs and make more companies willing to insure them, Berg added.
But some operators also caution against imposing certain kinds of regulations.
Neumann said he believes that any weather restrictions enacted by the Coast Guard would likely go too far.
"It would limit it so badly that you might not want to be in the parasail business. It’s very expensive to operate. To do this business safely … it’s just like operating an airline." His firm constantly monitors the weather, Neumann added.
The Parasail Safety Council estimates that 73 people died in parasailing accidents in the U.S. between 1982 to 2012, with 429 seriously injured in the course of taking 130 million rides.
In Hawaii the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources issues a handful of permits that allow 14 parasail operators to do business on three islands: six on Oahu, six on Maui and two on Hawaii island. The permits go to the highest bidder, and those selected must meet state insurance requirements and adhere to Coast Guard regulations, a DLNR spokeswoman said.
"It’s not a thorough examination, from what I’ve seen," Neumann said. "It’s fairly easy to fill out this questionnaire that makes you a legitimate bidder."
The NTSB report cited parasailing accidents since 2009 in which seven people died and four were injured. Some victims drowned as they were dragged through the water; others crashed into buildings or power lines; and one died when a worn-out harness separated from the flight bar.
Two of the report’s fatal accidents took place in Hawaii.
In 2012, 68-year-old Palm Springs, Calif., visitor Jack Banaszynski and another Palm Springs man were critically injured when they were dragged about 1,000 feet in the waters off Kewalo Basin behind an X-treme Parasail vessel. Banaszynski died from his injuries five days later.
Earlier, in 2009, 24-year-old Cole Ciliax, a SeaBreeze Watersports deckhand, attempted an improvised zip-line ride down the towline that connected the parasail to the boat. The rope broke after Ciliax had traveled only about five feet down — he fell some 40 feet into the waters of Maunalua Bay and was killed.
The boat’s captain later had his merchant mariner’s license suspended for a year because of the incident.
State court documents shed light on other Hawaii parasailing accidents as well.
In July 2005 a 12-year-old girl visiting Oahu with her family was severely and permanently injured when, while parasailing with X-treme off Kewalo Basin, her legs were "struck repeatedly" by the rotating blades of the parasail boat’s propeller after she and her brother somehow tumbled back into the ocean. The injuries required multiple surgeries, extensive physical rehabilitation and left her permanently disabled, according to a suit filed by the girl’s family against X-treme’s president and co-owner, who was driving the boat. The suit was eventually settled out of court, documents show.
X-treme Parasail did not return requests for comment for this story.
Even Neumann’s company, Hawaiian Parasail, has seen serious accidents. In 2010 it was penalized when it failed to immediately report an incident in which a wind gust broke off the tow line connecting the parasail, causing one passenger to receive a minor concussion and black eye. In 2012 a Utah woman was seriously injured off Ala Moana Beach Park when Hawaiian Parasail’s tow line again broke and the parachute dragged her backward, causing her to lose consciousness as she struggled to keep her head above water.
At the time, Neumann said the weather conditions weren’t dangerous but that an unusually fast squall had swept in, prompting the accident.
"I hope the regulations come through, because it won’t change the way we operate" and will make others safer, Berg said. "It’s a very safe sport if you just do things the right way and utilize common sense."
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
