Wally - is it a Universal Term?

[DanielC]

I think the initial prerequisite to being a Wally, a Wanker, or a B******* is how you operate a boat in the first place.

If you are driving a Bayliner, in a straight line, dropping back to an idle, before returning to a fallen skier, operating the boat in a safe and courteous manner, and know how to launch and retrieve the boat at a boat ramp with tying it up for a half hour, you are not any of the above derogatory terms.

[teamseal]

I think the initial prerequisite to being a Wally, a Wanker, or a B******* is how you operate a boat in the first place.

If you are driving a Bayliner, in a straight line, dropping back to an idle, before returning to a fallen skier, operating the boat in a safe and courteous manner, and know how to launch and retrieve the boat at a boat ramp with tying it up for a half hour, you are not any of the above derogatory terms.

Agreed!

[swc5150]

Agreed!

I second that!!

[dsums]

It seems that Wally is indeed universal but has variations on its precise definition. We have always used the term Wally since we have almost always been on public lakes.
If you were on the water with no apparent ability or knowledge and could back that up by proving you were oblivious to your inability to operate a boat in a courteous or safe matter so we can all share the water, then you were indeed labelled a Wally. It has been proven over and over that the terminology gets worse when I tried to educate people and what their responses were.
We had a particularly heated discussion on knowledge when I was taking my son through the course one day. I made the turn around for pass 2 and as I turned back into my wake path there was a guy in a O/B runabout coming through
the other boat gate in my direction.
I do love the term b******* and will probably be able to use it this summer. (unfortunate but true)

[Latonkaboarder]

Looks like i'm a Wanker. I have a tower, but there is an 210 under it. So maybe I can be a wanker on steriods!! I can do a slide...

We use the term B a s s h o le s for the fishermen that zigzag the river. We have other names for the skiers that like to turnaround real fast to pick up their skier. On the river we all can have calm water if you follow a couple rules.

1. Don't zigzag. follow the shore line. Keep your wake point directly up and down river. This allows to water to roll off the shore.

2. NO power turns. When the skier falls, bring the boat to idle, wait for the back of the boat to lift, then make your turn. IDLE back to your skier. Going 2000 RPM just pulls a roller up behind you and send it down river til it hit the next shore. you would be better off going back wide open if you are not going to idle. Have signals with your skier. We wave if we are ok after a fall. If the skier doesn't wave we zip back to assist.

Crad this must be a PA thing. I grew up doing the same with turning around, and the hand up after a fall and I couldn't agree with you more on the direction of driving to eliminate the rollers. My lake is pretty small, so on the weekdays we ride up the middle and back the other way up the middle to eliminate riding over rollers. I can't stand it when another boat is out making circles following the shoreline and waves start crashing against themselves. As for the weekends, those days we usually tie up with some friends and swim with the children, get a surf set in, or wake up early if we want to wakeboard, ski, or foot.

[jonfo]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wally

An insult that became popular in the 80's, meaning an idiot. Scholars of urban slang have long believed this word originated at Woodstock (15-17th Aug'69), when some hippy lost his dog called Wally. He wandered around the site shouting Wally, and before long the crowd started shouting it. After that, wally became a popular chant at music festivals. However, on a recording of a Jimi Hendrix concert on 9th Jan 1969 in Sweden (7 months before Woodstock), someone in the audience shouts wally while Jimi is dedicating a song, prompting him to say "yeah, this song is for wally too". So, while the word probably did originate at a festival, if has to be another one, not Woodstock.
"You are a complete wally."

[hourglass]

i agree that a wally is someone with no moral or ethical values when on the water. for example, driving by a dock between idle and plane when a boat is tied up, driving between a boat and the rider, power pick ups, riding a jet ski w/o towing a wakeskater, or running over the rope in your bass boat b/c you drove b/t rider and boat at about 30+, stopping, and driving to the end of the river and act like you're fishing when you're in your 50's. and we do the arm wave also on falls that drivers might consider bad.

[Noelb]

I gotta say this is a very interesting thread. Out of all the possible theories, I think the Wally Gator seems to fit the best.

I'm wondering what you would call the following idots on our lake: These guys are about five 20-year-olds. The have an X-2, full ballast with a rider doing some sort of mix between surfing and wakeboarding (probably because he can't do either properly). So they're cruising arount at about 15 MPH with about a 20 ft rope. Of course they're going around way too close to the shore and with their tower speakers blasting while demolishing everyone's docks (and giving wakeboarding a very bad name at the same time). But the best part is this: two of their buddies actually follow about 50 feet behind the boat jumping the X-2's wake with their jet skis WHILE THIER RIDER IS RIDING!!!.

As if that wasn't enough, they actually follow other wakeboard boats and jump thier wake while someone is riding. They came close to doing this to us once while my daughter was riding, but after I signalled to them they went away.

[madcityskier]

waterskimagazine had a series of articles around the early 80's where they compared Joe Pro (good form and practices) to Weekend Wally (poor form and dangerous/inconsiderate practices). To the best of my knowledge this was when Wally gained most of it's poplularity. There was also an article about a couple of clueless people trying to ski that gave rise (at least for the ski school I was working at) to the phrase Ski King.

[hourglass]

if someone starts jumping my wake while im pulling someone i either stand up on the rear deck and give them double birds until they stop, or if im solo in the boat i just turn around and start yelling. i think i've only had to stop the boat once and become vulgar and threatening.