Night Rider

[muehlcj]

After watching several videos of people surfing at night I’m curious to know if such a thing is legal and if so where. I can say not in NY.

[dusty2221]

In Texas the limit is 30 minutes after sunset. We were pulled over last year and the game warden politely suggested "that was the laaaaast pull" I got the hint and agreed quickly!

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[skiyaker]

In Indiana you're only allowed to "tow" a skier during daylight hours- but I've always wondered about free surfing- if you did a platform start you would never be towed but I'm thinking they would site you for reckless boating and open containers or something. Similarly- the reservoir closest to us has a designated "towing area" and you're not supposed to wakeboard or pull a tuber outside of it, but I've always thought you could start surfing in the tow area then free surf in the rest of the lake. I tried to ask an officer about surfing last year and he didn't even know what it was.

[Razzman]

No watersports at all after dusk in California

[mmandley]

Same in OR cant be pulling anything or anyone after the sun goes down, but i will ride till its down, then drain the ballast and head to the ramp, more then a few times we loaded the boat in the dark lol. Nice having them docking lights.

[zabooda]

1/2 hour after sunset in washington and we use every bit of it. In the summer that can be 9:30.

[KSmith]

Similarly- the reservoir closest to us has a designated "towing area" and you're not supposed to wakeboard or pull a tuber outside of it, but I've always thought you could start surfing in the tow area then free surf in the rest of the lake.

Pretty sure that wouldn't fly... rather like saying the first speed limit sign you saw when you got on the road was 55 so the 35 MPH limit later on doesn't apply... "but officer it was posted 55 six miles back..."

or we could go the sports analogy route and say you can run out of bounds and through the stands and then back onto the field with the football to make a touchdown since you started in bounds...

[sandm]

illegal here, and imo, not a real bright idea. if you open it up to "responsible" people, then you also open it up to the boatload of guys that have been drinking all day. wouldn't be too hard to end up either running over or losing your surfer/boarder.
same as mmandley here. I have loaded the boat up several times in the dark. marina is well lit. kind of nice to be on a smooth empty lake when it's quiet out :)

[Nobodyrides4Free]

Sunset in kansas. We always ride right till dark , and turn on tower lights to get a few more runs in. We always make sure no one is in area though. Only been stopped once at the dock loading the boat and was told not to do it. It helps when you know the Park Official. In the summer we ride till 9 or 9:30. My boat has Cabin party light so we chill and cruise after.
Surfing in Kansas.......

[ryan_8099]

Our hours are 10-2:30 Fri, Sat and holidays. 10-4 Mon and Fri, 10-7 Tues-Thurs. Really makes it frustrating when everyone is trying to get their riding in a 4 hour 30 min window on weekends on a small lake. Absolutely dangerous on holidays...last year on the 4th, someone ran over our rope while I was still in the water and we were bringing the rope in. Wish I could say we had the "sunrise/sunset rule"

[KG's Supra24]

I doubt it is allowed anywhere. We used to go out on full moon nights and enjoy ourselves but did it knowing we could be fined.

[New Guy]

Damn Ryan that was close. What lake are you on? We ride the fox river in Wrightstown and head out to Winnebago on the weekends to party.

Typically we don't ride at night too many variables but my buddy did take a late footing run stepping off. We never did find that ski.

[saskyrider]

A little embarrased to say i'm not even sure what the rules are in saskatchewan. I've done it a couple times with buddies but we always put on a skateboard helmet covered in reflective tape for vis. reasons. On my buddies lake it is usually quite crowded so after the sun goes down it's perfect for surfing... he's got 6 lights facing backwards and 4 facing forwards so were like a xmas tree out there...

[bergermaister]

I've always wanted to try it but never had the opportunity - or in a few cases the guts. Late summer around here would be our best bet but that is also when the gill netters come out to fish at night. And other guys fishing the hog lines. All that extra traffic means there's a lot more law on the river than normal too. Maybe on a lake sometime...

Buddy of mine has done it a few times - said they bring a big pack of glow sticks and loop them together all over on the rider's life jacket.

I did wakeboard once in the dark about 4 years ago around 10pm. It was fun but I had a very nervous driver and a boat full of kids so it was a short run.

Saw this on weather.com this morning - pretty cool suits and boards!
http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/raw-nighttime-surfing-with-neon-suits-22758

[ryan_8099]

Damn Ryan that was close. What lake are you on? We ride the fox river in Wrightstown and head out to Winnebago on the weekends to party.

Typically we don't ride at night too many variables but my buddy did take a late footing run stepping off. We never did find that ski.

We are on the Chain o' Lakes in Waupaca. Yeah, it was close...This was on our old Forester, the rope got ripped out of my brother's hand and the stainless clips that attached to each side of the engine hit my wakeboard and chipped it a bit. They had no idea what had happened and even after the rope was wrapped around their prop they kept driving until they heard us yelling at them. They were driving way too close and now we bring in the rope everytime a rider falls. Definitely the scariest thing that has happened on the boat for us.

[New Guy]

Ryan we'll have to get together some time. I always wanted to get over there but I never really had a reason. We dropped in Bago last year and met up with some friends that have a houseboat at the Party Doll.

[muehlcj]

Wow that's crazy. It seems like they gave you the worst times for flat water.

[rdlangston13]

Where we ride you really don't want to go out night since there are very large reptiles you are sharing the water with...

[bzubke1]

I've surfed and wakeboarded at night. It's pretty cool to do, surfing is definitley more fun cause I wasn't worried about getting hurt as much as I was when wakeboarding. It's kinda scary cause when you jump you can't see you're landing. Having a transom light I thought it would light up the surf wake but I think the lights would have to be mounted towards the edges of the transom insted of right in the middle where mine is.

[Razzman]

he's got 6 lights facing backwards and 4 facing forwards so were like a xmas tree out there...

And those are illegal here too, hence the reason I don't have any. Had tower lights on my last boat, only used them a few times but damned if I didn't get popped for them. In fact any lights of any type (including speaker leds) on the tower are illegal other than nav lights while underway. They even pop the fisherman if thier night fishing lights are too high on masts.

[bzubke1]

I think tower speaker led's are illegal here too but for fireworks on the fourth there were tons of people with theirs on, even the epics with the transom led's and nobody got popped. I guess they have bigger fish to fry on july 4th.

[Razzman]

I think tower speaker led's are illegal here too but for fireworks on the fourth there were tons of people with theirs on, even the epics with the transom led's and nobody got popped. I guess they have bigger fish to fry on july 4th.

Anything below the tower is cool as long as it isn't blue, blue will get you a ticket as it's reserved for the laws boats. Any color above is a no-no period. Now i have seen them on at events like the 4th, Xmas night light cruises, etc and nobody tickets at those ttype of things.