Faced with new regs aimed at pushing him offshore, Flyboard Long Island owner says he may leave Riverhead

Riverhead officials want Jimmy Bissett’s flyboarding operation to move out — out of the cove where it’s been operating and out into the bay.

But that may very well mean the young entrepreneur will move it out of town.

“Port Jefferson and Patchogue have both expressed an interest in having me relocate there,” Bissett told RiverheadLOCAL Friday. “They have open arms.”

FlyBoard Long Island drew nearly 500 customers to downtown’s Treasure Cove Marina in its inaugural season this year.

It also drew complaints from neighbors — and 40 or so summonses from the Town of Riverhead bay constable, who wrote Bissett up for water-skiing within 500 feet of shore in violation of town code. The charges are all still pending in town court, though the town admits Bissett’s flyboarding activity is not technically water skiing.

Riverhead officials and attorneys are currently grappling with amending the town code to specifically address the new water sport. After a public hearing last month, the town board sent a newly drafted code proposal back to the drawing board. At Thursday’s work session, board members met with the town attorney and members of the conservation advisory council to discuss revisions.

All five board members agreed to push Bissett’s operation off shore — way off shore, into the open waters of the bays. They directed town attorney Bob Kozakiewicz to amend the draft to require flyboard operators maintain a minimum distance of 300 feet from the shoreline.

“It’s just not the right place for this,” Supervisor Sean Walter said, referring to the sheltered cove where Bissett has been operating. The cove is home to Treasure Cove Marina, which is part of the aquarium and hotel complex cofounded by Bissett’s late father, James Bissett III.

Walter and board members expressed concern about boaters navigating in and out of the marina, past Bissett and his flyboarding customers — Bissett on a jet ski and the people tethered to him by a 50-foot hose. The relatively small area of the cove also puts Bissett’s customers at risk of colliding with a dock or piling, they worry.

Officials are also concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the activity. Participants in the new ‘extreme’ water sport, wearing jet-propelled footgear, are thrust into the air by a high-pressure water hose attached to a personal water craft equipped with a jet pump. The water pressure stirs up the silt bottom of the riverbed — a layer of “muck” that can be two feet thick, according to bay constable Jim Divan.

The high-pressure jet stream disturbing the river bottom will cause soldis to be suspended in the water and decrease its dissolved oxygen levels for hours, Kevin McAllister, former Peconic Baykeeper and founder of a new waterways protection organization called Defend H2O, told board members Thursday. McAllister was in the audience during the work session.

Bissett disputes assertions that the flyboarding disturbs the river bottom and also argues that the location is safe for participants. In fact, he says, it’s safer than the open bay waters, where vessels are operating at high speeds.

FlyBoard Long Island didn’t have a single accident this year, Bissett said.

Moving the operation to the bay would require a boat to ferry customers to and from the site, and a captain to run it, he said. Friends and families of participants would not be able to watch the activity if it moves out into the bay, which is part of the attraction.

Bryan DeLuca, executive director of the company that runs the aquarium, hotel and marina, is exasperated by the town’s stance.

“They can’t figure out how to embrace the only flyboarding on Long Island, an operation that’s been covered by CNN, that’s brought hundreds of people to downtown Riverhead. They come here, they stay the night, they eat at restaurants. This is helping to make downtown Riverhead a destination, which is what the town says it wants. If they can’t see that, and find a way to embrace this, then there’s nothing I can say that’s going to convince them,” DeLuca said.

DeLuca maintains the town is being reactionary.

“Two people complained. If not for those two complaints, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion right now,” he said.

“They’re only concerned about pushing him off shore. You can see that by the code they wrote. There’s no safety issues addressed in it, no helmets or anything,” he said. DeLuca says the town should be guided by temporary regulations implemented this year by the state of Maryland. But he would really like to see the state of New York step in.

“This is something that should be regulated by the state, not the town, consistently all across the state,” DeLuca said. To that end, DeLuca said, he has been in touch with State Sen. Ken LaValle’s office.

“I don’t want to kill this guy’s business,” Walter said Thursday. “And I don’t want him to leave Riverhead. But it’s got to be out of the creeks. It has to be in the bay.”