*The names have been changed to protect the innocent.Many summers ago I was in my home office catching up on some paperwork. It was a slow day at the Kitty Hawk Watersports location, and I had a good manager watching over things. Surely, there would be nothing to worry about.
Every now and then, despite the proactive actions we take at Kitty Hawk Watersports to keep our customers safe, there are individuals who neglect to listen to and heed our warnings. The letter below was written by one of those customers.
I really enjoy parasailing. I’m not just saying that to sell tickets, it’s a really cool activity. I would call it a “once-in-a-lifetime” activity. As in, you should at least experience it once. I’m lucky enough to have done it several times. Full disclosure: I get a little anxiety when flying in an airplane, but being tethered to a boat attached to a parachute over the water is no problem.
As a customer, I hate when businesses create rules that don’t make sense or add excessive fees they camouflage to look like something else. There’s a company I do business with (and I wish I didn’t have to because of this one bad practice) that charges huge fees for shipping. I hate it when they treat me like I’m stupid. It doesn’t cost $20 to ship one bolt. Why is it in a box large enough to ship Shaquille O’Neal’s shoes? The box doesn’t need three feet of paper to prevent it from breaking. It’s not going to break. Throw it in a padded envelope, charge me $10, and let’s call it even. Just be honest. Tell us what your shipping fee really is: a revenue producer. At Kitty Hawk Watersports, we do so much better by our customers.
As the proud owner of Kitty Hawk Watersports for the last 23 years, I’ve made a lot of good memories out on the water. When working in watersports, you’re destined to meet a few characters. One individual – I’ll call him Ron – has become a successful, small businessman. But when he was a college student mating on a parasail boat, his summer hobby was making moves on high school girls.
At Kitty Hawk Watersports, our business is so many things to so many people. It can be an emotional outlet, an adventure, a time to stretch boundaries, entertainment, or it can simply be play. Some people come out just to get away from the daily ho-hum, while some want to give their kids a new experience. Others come out for the excitement, and many customers just want to relax.
As I write this post, a pandemic is shutting down the entire country. I can go in a few directions. I can write about how this event is affecting Kitty Hawk Watersports and the entire Outer Banks, I can pretend everything’s fine and that we’ll see you this summer, or I can spend some time reminiscing about the good times so we can distract ourselves for a few minutes.
As the longtime owner of Kitty Hawk Watersports, I can tell you from experience that the Outer Banks offers great fishing. For the record, I consider myself a horrible fisherman. But, on the bright side, the Outer Banks can occasionally make me feel like a pro.
I met my future wife in Buffalo. The connection we made was through windsurfing. I was shocked to find a pretty lady in Buffalo who knew how to windsurf. I’m still not sure how I impressed her, and for some reason she didn’t disqualify me.
If you spend 22 years in the watersports business, you’re bound to see or experience some interesting things. Some things make you laugh, some things leave you in awe, and some things just make you want to quit.