How water police are cracking down on jet ski hoons

Although most personal watercraft (PWC) riders do the right thing on the water, a small but highly visible minority of rogue riders are ruining it for the rest – and authorities have had enough.

Water police and maritime safety officers across Australia have ramped up their education and enforcement efforts over the recent summer and plan to enhance their current measures before next season.

Here are just some of the ways authorities are reeling-in bad behaviour on the water.

NSW Police and NSW Maritime currently have a network of at least 36 CCTV cameras monitoring known trouble spots across the state.

The footage can be viewed at any NSW Maritime or NSW Police Marine Area Command base along the coast – plus on mobile tablet devices they carry with them on their patrol vessels.

It means boating safety officers can view CCTV footage in their area in real time while they are on the water, and redirect resources – and their patrol vessels – to areas where riders are playing up.

And this is just the start. There are more CCTV cameras to be rolled out across the state. Other states may follow.

Marine safety authorities in Victoria and Queensland have begun using laser speed detection devices (or “laser guns”, also known as “radar guns” even though they use laser to detect speed) in go-slow zones.

Most modern jet skis have speedometers, and the speedos in the latest jet skis are GPS-based, so they are super accurate. This means riders have no excuse for not knowing how fast they are travelling in 4 knot, 6 knot or 8 knot zones, for example.

The laser gun technology works the same as when detecting the speed of a car.

Officers simply point the laser gun at the jet ski and the vessel’s speed is displayed instantly on the device.

Rather than using only a visual estimation of speed, which is still enforceable, officers now have the added back-up of a laser gun to confirm their observations.

Water police in most Australian jurisdictions can confiscate a jet ski for dangerous riding offences, however confiscations are not as common as you might think.

Fewer than a dozen jet skis have been seized over the past five years, but to date all but one have been returned to the owner after a period of three months.

In NSW, the owner must pay storage fees plus the fine or fines for the original offence.

In the eastern states, jet skis (and boats for that matter) can also be held temporarily as part of investigations into serious injury and fatal crashes on the water.

Authorities are also considering crushing jet skis – or forfeiting jet skis to the crown – for dangerous offences, though this is yet to occur.

Jet ski riders risk losing their boating licence for serious and dangerous riding offences, and can even be banned for life if the incident is deemed dangerous enough, or if the rider is a repeat offender.

For now, sanctions on boat licences (and jet ski licences) do not transfer to car licences.

However, authorities are under pressure to link boating and car licences in an attempt to bring rogue jet ski riders into line.

The theory: if bad behaviour on the water restricts your ability to drive a car, then perhaps more riders will do the right thing. 

However, this is only a proposal in a discussion paper, and linking boat licence offences to car licence demerit points was nowhere near being approved as this article was published.

It’s also worth pointing out that in some states, such as NSW, the fines for jet ski riders are at least double the fine for the same offence committed by a boat operator.

Do the wrong thing on a jet ski and it could be an expensive day out.

The minimum age for jet ski riders varies across Australia, from 12 to 16 years old.

In Queensland, Victoria, South Australia you must be at least 16 years of age to hold a provisional jet ski licence and it comes with adult supervision orders and speed restrictions.

In Western Australia the minimum age is 14 years.

In NSW and Tasmania, the minimum age for a jet ski rider is 12 years old, also with adult supervision requirements and speed restrictions.

However, NSW authorities are understood to be reviewing the minimum age and may increase it from 12 to 16 years after a fatal crash in Sydney's south last year.

The fatality involved a high-powered jet ski being shared by two 14- and 15-year-old boys who were riding unsupervised, on dusk (when jet skis are banned in NSW) and travelling at excessive speed near a “no wash” 4 knot zone under a bridge.

Data from NSW Maritime during a recent crackdown showed nearly 25 per cent of all repeat jet ski riding offenders from July 2025 to March 2026 were under 18 years old. 

This is compared to 13 per cent for the full 12-month period of the 2024-25 financial year, even though under 18s represent just 2 per cent of boat licence holders in NSW, the report said.