Proposed No Wake Surfing Survey - Smith Mountain Lake, VA

[GMLIII]

Here is the proposed no wake surfing survey which was just sent out to the three counties which make up Smith Mountain Lake, VA . I wanted to post so others could see what may be coming to their lake in the future. I think we will be fine this summer but next summer will be a different story, I'm afraid on SML. The anti-wakesurfing movement is gaining steam unfortunately. Please note as stated in survey enforcement and education have not been successful.

No Wake Surfing Zone Survey | TLAC (sml.us.com)

[mgs917]

TLDR, Are they banning all together? Or, limiting ballast, setting times or specific zones?

[GMLIII]

TLDR, Are they banning all together? Or, limiting ballast, setting times or specific zones?

It is a clutter “F” right now and they are only looking for input positive or negative but in a nutshell, they want to have specific areas off limits to wakesurfing . Probably will not take effect until next season. Just surveying input now

[Nautiquehunter]

This is caused by ignorant boat owners that don't know or don't care how their wake affects others around them. When you send a 3' roller at the shore ,docks and smaller boats this is what will happen . Surfing should be in large lakes in the main channel . If you go into a small ski cove or close to the shore line this is what you will get. YOU are responsible for your wake.

[srock]

What a slippery slope with no return. It's interesting how wake boats can push through a ban but they have not been able to do much with jet skis. It's just a matter of time before this sweeps through your own lake.

[aromeo]

but jet ski's are just annoying.. they don't make much of a wake. As a ski boat owner and Super Air owner - I get these concerns. https://www.wakeresponsibly.com/

[SilentSeven]

https://www.wakeresponsibly.com/

lol...the site 'quiz'.is laughable.

[SilentSeven]

Here is the proposed no wake surfing survey which was just sent out to the three counties which make up Smith Mountain Lake, VA . I wanted to post so others could see what may be coming to their lake in the future. I think we will be fine this summer but next summer will be a different story, I'm afraid on SML. The anti-wakesurfing movement is gaining steam unfortunately. Please note as stated in survey enforcement and education have not been successful.

No Wake Surfing Zone Survey | TLAC (sml.us.com)

Interesting. Did a quick read through....looks very property owner centric. Basically if there are enough property owners willing to support the designation and the area meets the criteria, a ban will be implemented. Will be interesting to see how this would play out with property owners who also surf.....would there be enough in any given area to effectively block a ban?

I was looking for a definition of what constitutes 'sufing' and didn't see one. Curious how they plan to differentiate between wakeboarding, kneeboarding, skiing, tubing...etc.

[GMLIII]

Interesting. Did a quick read through....looks very property owner centric. Basically if there are enough property owners willing to support the designation and the area meets the criteria, a ban will be implemented. Will be interesting to see how this would play out with property owners who also surf.....would there be enough in any given area to effectively block a ban?

I was looking for a definition of what constitutes 'sufing' and didn't see one. Curious how they plan to differentiate between wakeboarding, kneeboarding, skiing, tubing...etc.

Many more property owners against surfing vs property owners who surf such as myself on SML . I filled out silly survey and sent into TLAC. Will be interesting how this proposal shakes out come next season

[SilentSeven]

The approach looks rather clever...the regulation basically removes the municipality from the decision and let's the property owners sort (duke?) it out amongst themselves. The approach appears to concede/imply there is shore and dock damage occurring from the surfing. I concur this could be a model adopted by other areas.

This approach wouldn't work on my local lake (Lake Sammamish) as we don't have qualifying finger inlets....but there's a lake 30 miles south of me (Lake Tapps) where something this like would be plug and play.

I'm still be curious on definitions. A wakeboarder on a fully ballasted boat is not materially different than surfer. Of course, not too many of us are brave enough to launch a wakeboard of a lip that big....

[GMLIII]

The approach looks rather clever...the regulation basically removes the municipality from the decision and let's the property owners sort (duke?) it out amongst themselves. The approach appears to concede/imply there is shore and dock damage occurring from the surfing. I concur this could be a model adopted by other areas.

This approach wouldn't work on my local lake (Lake Sammamish) as we don't have qualifying finger inlets....but there's a lake 30 miles south of me (Lake Tapps) where something this like would be plug and play.

I'm still be curious on definitions. A wakeboarder on a fully ballasted boat is not materially different than surfer. Of course, not too many of us are brave enough to launch a wakeboard of a lip that big....

SilentSeven They did their homework but one point I find very humorous, if this proposed no wakesurf zones gets approved and passed and you are in a wakesurf boat fully ballasted weighing +/ 9000 - 10,000 lbs on plane without a wakesufer behind the boat and you are running your boat into a wakesurf free area that is fine as long as no one is surfing. LOL . Lastly to answer your last question, Wakeboarding is still fair game on any part of the SML without restrictions. Proposed hammer coming down is only a Wakesurfing restriction. Will be interesting how it all plays out.

I do hope also that some Correct Craft "top brass folks" are following threads such as this one and have a genuine interest in their boat manufacturing future. These proposed restrictions can not all be handled or prevented through just "grassroot efforts" I'm afraid. The wakeboat manufacturing industry need to have more involvement and presences in regard to these restrictions (time to pull your head out of the sand so to speak).

[SilentSeven]

Yeah...lack of finer differentiation is likely just being pragmatic - they'll stop 90+% of the problem without having to deal with edge cases like a ballasted surf rig with a wakeboarder, towing a tuber, etc.

I too will be curious to see what the industry response is. It's notable that the SML survey basically calls out that Education and Enforcement (with capitalization no less!) have not been effective. They are effectively throwing under the bus industry PR efforts like this - https://www.wakeresponsibly.com/

Short of some state level lobbying efforts, I doubt the industry can do much...too many localities to try to engage directly. And it's likely they'll just concede those lakes where passions run high to regulation and keep building and selling boats to the high % of areas that aren't regulated. They won't be able to fix abusive operators of their product...it's almost like they'll adopt the gun lobby argument - we just build the tool, we don't determine how people use it.