Heading out on Lake Simcoe can be dangerous without proper education on how to operate watercraft and a true understanding of water safety.
In 2021, South Simcoe Police Services water unit, Marine One, was dispatched to 68 calls for service — including nine search-and-rescue calls and 32 calls to assist the public — and in 2020, there were two drownings.
That’s why it’s become increasingly concerning to resident Darren Libman the sheer number of unprepared people taking to the lake. Libman and his wife, Alyssa Krane, and their three sons (Logan, Jackson, and Luke), have rescued eight different people this year.
“Basically, we moved up here last fall and we’ve had a full summer on our hands,” said Libman. “Right away when the ice melted people were out boating and we knew we were in store for a busy summer when right as the ice melted about 200 metres from us two jet skiers were stranded. We had to call the police boat to come help them and get them to shore.”
That was just the beginning for Libman and his family, who says the vast majority of people they’ve rescued have been teenagers.
“The second time, my wife spotted off in the distance some guys and something didn’t look right,” he explained. “We checked it out and a jet ski was overturned and there were three teenagers. Right as we pulled up one frantically asked if they could come on our jet ski and when we asked what’s wrong, he said, ‘I can’t swim.’ I dropped them off on their friend's dock and one was basically hypothermic. We towed their jet ski in after. It was pretty scary, teenagers making stupid decisions and parents letting them take the jet skis out.”
According to Libman, a consistent theme has been overturned jet skis being operated by people who don’t know how treacherous the water can be.
“Then we found a couple who had overturned, and they just didn’t know what they were doing,” says Libman. “The guy said, ‘these things just happen, we’ve flipped over like three times already,’ and I told him that they don’t just happen. The general rule of thumb is that once you flip over once, something is wrong. Don’t wait to flip three or four times.”
Just a few weeks back, near the boat launch, Libman ended up lending a hand to some tourists who were struggling.
“You get what they call the ‘credit card captains,’ they rent a boat or jet ski and they don’t have to do boating exams or anything,” he said. “They were in the water and there were already two boats helping them, so we assisted. Finally, we got them back up and running and back to the dock.”
On a recent trip from Alcona to Georgina Island, Libman and his family found two teenagers stranded in the middle of the water on a sandbar.
“We were coming back and all of a sudden we saw these two guys in the distance standing in knee-deep water waving their arms,” says Libman. “I pull up and they tell us their jet ski broke and their cousin took it two hours ago and he was supposed to come back. They asked us to get them to land and we get them with 20 metres of the beach, and I can’t go any closer because it’s a swim zone. Well, they couldn’t swim, so we waved down kayakers and they hung on to the kayaks as the kayaks dragged them in.”
Libman praises the South Simcoe police’s water unit for the work they do keeping people safe on the water, but he knows they can’t be everywhere at once and the responsibility falls on those who head out onto the lake without a strong understanding of what can go wrong.
“There’s a common theme here, teenagers that don’t know what they’re doing and parents who let them go out not knowing anything,” said Libman. “The other problem is the ‘credit card captains.’ People with no training renting and going out. It’s just so scary, it’s only a matter of time until it’s something much worse than an overturned jet ski.”
