Lake life is changing

[ST3]

We are fortunate to be on a larger lake and have not had any wake boats come closer than 200ft to our dock, however, there are plenty of 25-28ft boats that cruise by looking at homes in a displacement mode with their bow up in the air. I can assure you that wave is equal to a wake boat. Bottom line is awareness and common sense is the only solution.


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[xxrb2010]

Xxrb....Come on...seriously ......which one is more destructive?? ANY boat with ballast....is bigger and more destructive technically than 90% of any runabout I/o or outboard. Not sure what kind of boats you have on your lake...but the difference is easy to spot.

It was my guess a few years back, but apparently some big runabout I/O create very steep and massive wave in a short frequency. Where I am, without counting, I will say 50% of the big wave come from surf boat and 50% from those big runabout I/O. The lake is big, so most of the guys who knows what they are doing go main lake for surfing, and we do not see any of those waves in coves.

[shouse]

I live on a big enough lake in TX where there's someone with a helicopter pad and a lot of people feel the need to own these giant freight liner yacht boats. It's really not that big of a lake though. I for one am very unhappy with the surfers.

1. Its pretty much the only water sport I see adults doing now. And like another poster said, they don't even drop the rope. It honestly doesn't look like it requires a lot of skill.
2. Whhhyy do they seem to seek out the calm water? Please someone explain why calm water is required.
3. My boat hates it. My '00 nautique just cant handle the waves.
4. Our lake gets enough chop from just the wind. Adding these boats on a weekend day and the lake is unusable.

[Kenv]

Shouse.....the ONLY reason I personally seek out calm water is the spray over the bow into the windshields when I am weighted down. That is it....period. If I'm surfing rough water...I have to go with the wind to avoid the extra shower. BUT....I am super considerate of where I surf I my lake because I own a dock. Doesn't take long to see what the inconsiderate surfers do to the docks and boats tied to the dock. It is so much nicer when the cove/lake is full of smart drivers that think of the overall actions of their driving. Pipe dream I guess.

[72Miles]

The problem is not the boat. Any boat (or activity at all really) comes with the opportunity for a user to be irresponsible and inconsiderate. Surf boats are just fine if you stay away from docks and shoreline as much as possible. If you're not dead center channel, make sure the surf side is toward the farthest shoreline. And if you're cruising, get your speed up enough that you're not plowing through the water with the stern.

[Kenv]

It SURE IS the boat...as far as this post goes. On any given lake or river in the U.S. He wouldn't have posted this if it wasn't for the huge wakes of the modern surf machines. You RARELY had this issue back in the 70s, 80's 90s. It wasn't until about 10 years ago that you really heard complaints about these particular wakes. Now I'm not talking about jerk drivers, really big boats, etc. that have always been around. But I'm saying it IS the boat in this case.

[scottb7]

"It’s a shared resource and we all have a right to the water..." This is a true statement...Well kind of...There is no denying that the bigger the waves/wakes one makes the more we (myself included) are messing up the water for others.

So one can make the argument that a surf boat has as much right to be out there as a stand up paddle boarder...But it is kind of a dumb argument. The surf boat is screwing the water and the stand up paddle board is NOT, the fisherman is NOT. So we (again myself included) can call ourselves courteous and safer. But we are screwing up the water more then sports that push less water or no water.

If I make big waves I send rollers across the entirety of a small lake. I am not saying we shouldn't do it. But I am not going to say to myself that I am fair, or courteous or safer. I am going to admit that I am just doing what I want...

p.s. in a way the name of the thread "like life is changing" is correct. because the more things change the more they remain the same, as the saying goes. lake life is not changing. like other have said, the newer more resource intensive water pushing sports are always getting complained about by the previous sport out there. you can't really blame them can you?

If some new sport came along, and you could NOT surf your $125-$175k boat. You would SO NOT go away quietly. You would be first to rally the companies, associations, etc...

Me...if you know me...I am a bit different. I gonna pass the torch and move on...

You know why?

Wait for it...

Cause snowboarding is way better!

[F725]

There is data concerning waves from wakeboats. The wave after 150ft has just as much land eating power as a wind wave. The waves decrease in size over distance unlike the wind waves. Again it comes down to staying at least 150ft from shore and showing respect to others who want to enjoy the water.

[GMLIII]

"It’s a shared resource and we all have a right to the water..." This is a true statement...Well kind of...There is no denying that the bigger the waves/wakes one makes the more we (myself included) are messing up the water for others.

So one can make the argument that a surf boat has as much right to be out there as a stand up paddle boarder...But it is kind of a dumb argument. The surf boat is screwing the water and the stand up paddle board is NOT, the fisherman is NOT. So we (again myself included) can call ourselves courteous and safer. But we are screwing up the water more then sports that push less water or no water.

If I make big waves I send rollers across the entirety of a small lake. I am not saying we shouldn't do it. But I am not going to say to myself that I am fair, or courteous or safer. I am going to admit that I am just doing what I want...

p.s. in a way the name of the thread "like life is changing" is correct. because the more things change the more they remain the same, as the saying goes. lake life is not changing. like other have said, the newer more resource intensive water pushing sports are always getting complained about by the previous sport out there. you can't really blame them can you?

If some new sport came along, and you could NOT surf your $125-$175k boat. You would SO NOT go away quietly. You would be first to rally the companies, associations, etc...

Me...if you know me...I am a bit different. I gonna pass the torch and move on...

You know why?


Wait for it...

Cause snowboarding is way better!

So are you throwing the towel in for good on water sports and will just snowboard now?

[scottb7]

Not yet...but when I can't get good water, I will go quietly. It really is not a problem for me at all. We have the lake pretty much to ourselves April, May, Sept, and October. I don't get at all worked up June, July and August if the water is bad.

"Again it comes down to staying at least 150ft from shore and showing respect to others who want to enjoy the water." I just think that quotes like this, from probably a really great guy, are at the end of the day silly. You can't reasonably argue that a guy in a 5000 lb boat with 3000 lbs of water in it 150 feet away from you is as respectful as a fisherman or paddle boarder. Not only is the argument selfish it is delusional.

[Phil8uga]

There are a lot of respectful boaters out there and to them I say thank you. However, with the size of these new tow boats and the wakes they are producing they are inadvertently causing damage to docks, boats, and shoreline. I know that is not the intention but it happens. If anyone owns a dock (especially a floating one) on a main channel I can assure you they have mixed feelings about large wake producing boats with inconsiderate drivers.


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[Kenv]

Not yet...but when I can't get good water, I will go quietly. It really is not a problem for me at all. We have the lake pretty much to ourselves April, May, Sept, and October. I don't get at all worked up June, July and August if the water is bad.

"Again it comes down to staying at least 150ft from shore and showing respect to others who want to enjoy the water." I just think that quotes like this, from probably a really great guy, are at the end of the day silly. You can't reasonably argue that a guy in a 5000 lb boat with 3000 lbs of water in it 150 feet away from you is as respectful as a fisherman or paddle boarder. Not only is the argument selfish it is delusional.

I hear you Scott...good posts....BUT one thing I think you missed on the last post. 150 feet away....is A LOT better than the folks running literally 25 to 50 feet away from the docks !!!!The was does have some time to mellow and disperse. See...the thing is....some rivers/coves don't have 150 to play with....especially the river chains in Central Texas......but my lake does. So the middle of my cove is 400-500 feet away from my dock...or more...so the argument is in no way selfish....or delusional.....it is respectful. I run the middle when I can. G21's rule!!!! LOL PS....It's hard to snowboard in Texas...but we do mountain bike a lot and fish at the lakes and coast.

[doug69]

I get up early to take pictures of the wildlife and I can’t stand those people out for Their morning swims and scaring away the loons.

I get up to take a swim and hate those paddle boarders and kayakers who almost run over me.

I get up to paddle board and kayak and hate that fishing boat.

I’m trying to fish and the stupid water skier is scaring all the fish away.

I’m trying to water ski and stupid wakeboarders are ruining it.

I am trying to wakeboard and the wakesurfers and chopping up the water.

I’m trying to wakesurf and stupid tubers are
Doing donuts and messing things up.

And the guy In the Prius is probably angry that you are towing your boat with your 3/4 ton and ruining the environment. Age old story. Note that water skiers are in the middle of the pack at best.

As someone who wakesurfs and on a very busy lake we try not go out before 9 to be considerate but at the end of the day your hobby does not trump mine - no matter how much you feel your entitled.

Cheers fellas.


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[srock]

The destruction of shorelines and property damage are a whole different issue than everybody playing nicely in the pool. If you can quantify the damage you have a good argument for action.

[mooneywa]

Everyone seems surprised and aghast that people operate their boats inconsiderately. Take a drive and see how bad automobile drivers are - phones, speeding, braking for no reason, not using cruise control, hanging out in the left lane... and that's on a vehicle they operate every day! Now you put those same people in their boat that they use, at best, a few times a year and suddenly we're to expect them to morph into considerate, law abiding operators? Ha! On fourth of July weekend we went to the merge almost 3 times while holding a steady line with a surfer while someone was just driving straight at us. No amount of deviations to the right (or even left when they kept following) reduced the constant bearing decreasing range that these folks set up. Last weekend we had kids in the water getting ready to knee board and a weekend warrior pulling a tuber came so close I could see the whites of his eyes. It was the first time I've ever had to blow the horn to get someone's attention.

Operating something in a two or three dimentional space is all about situational awareness and keeping your head on a swivel. People aren't being taught this whether they are driving a half sunk G25 or pushing a grocery cart through the store.

My point is, if you are serious about your watersports and thusly serious about safety and the situation at hand, you're very likely not the problem.