Wake boat bashing - Slow news week??

[DLafont]

Hi all,

I thought I'd post this and see where the discussion leads. Over the past 5 days, a major newspaper in my area (LaPresse - www.lapresse.ca) has run a few articles where wakeboat usage (not specific to Nautiques of course) has been debated. In short, what the articles are focusing on are the wakes created by our boats destroying the shorelines at a rapid pace. Have any of you seen reports such as these in your area? What worries me is that many lakes around me are starting to put restrictions on certain types of boats (no ballasts allowed) and the last thing I want is to loose the privilege to enjoy my beautiful lake and create more awesome memories for my family.

[Connor]

This is a big debate on Lake Austin (TX) as well. I do not see how a surf wave is any bigger than a large cruiser or yacht puts out... I believe it is more the loud speaker systems, partying, etc on these boats that gives people (property owners) a reason to hate.

***I have wetsounds and blare them while drinking a few on the water! I am not putting this down at all, just stating that many of the older wealthy people with pull are most likely the ones going after wake specific boats and crying erosion and property damage is the easiest way to do it...

[HS]

I think it is on the Willamette River in Oregon where this has taken place -- I think PN member Daniel will have to fill us in on the details.

[DLafont]

This is a big debate on Lake Austin (TX) as well. I do not see how a surf wave is any bigger than a large cruiser or yacht puts out... I believe it is more the loud speaker systems, partying, etc on these boats that gives people (property owners) a reason to hate.

***I have wetsounds and blare them while drinking a few on the water! I am not putting this down at all, just stating that many of the older wealthy people with pull are most likely the ones going after wake specific boats and crying erosion and property damage is the easiest way to do it...

Agreed on the larger boats/cruisers creating as much damage. We also get the odd cigarette/speed boat coming to the lake a blasting from one end to the other making everyone deaf with their engine noise!! Also, those older wealthy people would probably own wakeboats if they were younger... I'm a little worried, since I don't have much of a community around me to support me if someone gets on their soapbox. By my count, I have the only Nautique on the lake, and there may be one XStar. Some I/O boats with towers, though.

[nyryan2001]

there are things like this going all all over the place.

boat length, horsepower and wake enhanching / ballast restrictions

"Invasive Mullusk" restrictions out west that end up restricting wakeboats

just this last weekend in California a slammed MC X46 reportedly sank a deckboat while surfing in a busy area from his rollers. ..pics of it are on Facebook, everyone is pissed. Everyone but wakeboat owners HATE wakeboats. Fisherman, property owners, skiboat owners, speedboats, old ladies on SUPs, and those tiny 8" above the water line loudest youve ever heard 1000hp jetboats especially hate us.

just this last weekend I had a property owner come at me on the water in his IO agressively while we were surfing....approx 2-300ft from his property and try to run me off. We recorded the confrontation, he was actually in violation of the law, coming within 75ft of a boat / trailing with someone in tow/watersports. Once he came in close, saw me and my demeanor he left.

A little later I had a run in with a bass fisherman who was in a tournament, gotta hit 70mph, almost ran over my line.

One thing you gotta know is the general rule of thumb is you are responsible for your wake. If you can, take your big wake sports to an isolated area, do it. If you can, do your big wake sports early AM or late, do it. Keep your big wake sports to areas designated or known for it. Dont throw massive rollers into docks, marinas and folks fishing. Keep your stereos down around others. Be respectful.

Honestly my biggest concern is hurting someone, it wont be directly my fault, it'd be from them going too fast for conditions. The scenario will be 200ft away while I surf... bass boat at 60mph+ or small IO at 40mph+ mph full speed launching into the air off my rolelrs and folks slamming down or some small child coming out of the boat altogether. No one wants to see something like that happen, regardless of who's fault it may be. I have started keeping my biggest surf side rollers against an isolated shoreline to lessen the risk of a boat mishap.

Be respectfull fellas and do what you can to lessen the impact of your wakes and stereos on others.

[DLafont]

HS - The debate is taking place in multiple areas in Québec, mainly around smaller lakes closer to big cities (Laurentians and Eastern Townships close to Montréal).

A study is referenced where the effect of wakeboat wakes on shorelines is being measured for the first time. It is a preliminary study, unpublished or peer-reviewed, but the complainers will latch onto this study as gospel for sure!!

From this study, it is recommended that wakeboats should stay at least 300 meters (almost 1000 feet) from shore to negate their effect on the shoreline. Not really feasible on many lakes! I guess we are the new bogeymen!

[DanielC]

See this thread. 2008.
http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/sh...hlight=ballast

[simplysanj]

In Canada, boating is regulated federally by the Canada Shipping Act. I am not sure what has been passed into law but there are provisions for municipal regulations but it seems they have to go through a specific process to do so and just can't arbitrarily pass a regulation with a city council vote:


"4. If a local authority seeks, in respect of certain waters, the imposition of a restriction that is of the same nature as a restriction imposed by section 2 or subsections 11(2) or (3), the local authority shall submit to the provincial authority in the province for which the restriction is proposed, or to the Minister if no provincial authority exists, a request together with a report that specifies the location of the waters, the nature of the proposed restriction, information regarding the public consultations held, particulars regarding the implementation and enforcement of the proposed restriction and any other information that is necessary to justify regulatory intervention."


There also were changes specific to wakesurfing:

http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/20...ors34-eng.html

I am not a lawyer, just know how to google.

[DLafont]

there are things like this going all all over the place.

boat length, horsepower and wake enhanching / ballast restrictions

"Invasive Mullusk" restrictions out west that end up restricting wakeboats

just this last weekend in California a slammed MC X46 reportedly sank a deckboat while surfing in a busy area from his rollers. ..pics of it are on Facebook, everyone is pissed. Everyone but wakeboat owners HATE wakeboats. Fisherman, property owners, skiboat owners, speedboats, old ladies on SUPs, and those tiny 8" above the water line loudest youve ever heard 1000hp jetboats especially hate us.

just this last weekend I had a property owner come at me on the water in his IO agressively while we were surfing....approx 2-300ft from his property and try to run me off. We recorded the confrontation, he was actually in violation of the law, coming within 75ft of a boat / trailing with someone in tow/watersports. Once he came in close, saw me and my demeanor he left.

A little later I had a run in with a bass fisherman who was in a tournament, gotta hit 70mph, almost ran over my line.

One thing you gotta know is the general rule of thumb is you are responsible for your wake. If you can, take your big wake sports to an isolated area, do it. If you can, do your big wake sports early AM or late, do it. Keep your big wake sports to areas designated or known for it. Dont throw massive rollers into docks, marinas and folks fishing. Keep your stereos down around others. Be respectful.

Honestly my biggest concern is hurting someone, it wont be directly my fault, it'd be from them going too fast for conditions. The scenario will be 200ft away while I surf... bass boat at 60mph+ or small IO at 40mph+ mph full speed launching into the air off my rolelrs and folks slamming down or some small child coming out of the boat altogether. No one wants to see something like that happen, regardless of who's fault it may be. I have started keeping my biggest surf side rollers against an isolated shoreline to lessen the risk of a boat mishap.

Be respectfull fellas and do what you can to lessen the impact of your wakes and stereos on others.

Absolutely spot on! Can't add anything more. A few less considerate members of our brethren might make it more complicated for the rest of us to enjoy ourselves.

[wawasee]

On Lake Wawasee, the water is always rough and it is seawall'd. The problem I hear from others on our lake is the music being so load that the kids swimming on shore can hear every curse word from the rap music passing by. There are too many people on our lake doing shoreline cruises blasting music in there wakeboard boat. The loud music is not drawing attention to the large wakes adding to the rough water problems on our lake, imo.

[SilentSeven]

I can see how it's going to an ongoing concern. As someone who's been away from skiing for about 6 or 7 years, I was astonished to see the proliferation of surfing and surf boats in our area (Seattle). The wakes are pretty **** big and its not hard to see how they are going to get blamed for a lot of shore related issues.

We have some property on a smaller lake - private community - and they have already banned surf boats and ballasted boats due to erosion and dock related issues.

I don't think we have heard the end of this.

[DanielC]

A quick update, since my post in 2008.
This issue came up again, in a part of the Willamette river, by down town Portland. There is this island, Ross Island, that seperates the main channel of the Willamette river, from what was one a nice smooth spot to ski, close to downtown.
Since wake surfing got popular, the Ross Island channel ws closed to ALL towed watersports. And yes, that includes wakesurfing.

[lucky7t]

Wake boat bashing - Slow news week??

A few things...
There could be 5 wakeboats and three toobers and I assure you the toobers throw much more damaging wakes. Ban tubes!

Another ..
I don't understand why anyone would crank up tupac with small children close to you. Geez that's just plain stupid and inconsiderate.

And a few more...
DONT POWER TURN! this drives me crazy
And please don't surf in a quiet glass cove when you have a huge area to surf.

We love to surf, wakeboard, wakeskate etc.. But people are ruining it for us. I watched this inconsiderate moron last weekend in a Moomba blast through a no wake zone under a bridge with fisherman tied up as he laughed.

[DanielC]

"There could be 5 wakeboats and three toobers and I assure you the toobers throw much more damaging wakes. Ban tubes!"

And one boat surfing will throw out more that all eight combined.

[Ryan1776]

Couple weekends ago I was out with a few people and this new(er) mailbu was pulling a couple wakeboarders, one had a gopro on his helmet recorded the other guy. Ok cool.
Except they were going diagonal across the lake! We were stopped letting the boat warm up getting my sister ready to waterski and he came close enough that the rider could have easily touched my boat without any trouble. Mind you we were about 200' from shore, so no where near the middle of the lake. The resulting wave was so massive for my little 20 supra SKI BOAT that we all and to lean over the other side of the boat, and we still took on some water. This guy continued to go diagonal across the lake the entire time we were out there, 3-4hours. Other people skiing, fishermen, a guy barefooting all had to give way to this a**hole who thought he was top "dawg".
I'm obviously a major supporter of wakeboarding and really any sport behind the boat but idiots on the water will ruin it for everyone.