Reminder: Never assume they are paying attention

This happened yesterday and I’m still pissed about it, and wanted to throw out a quick reminder to everyone.

It’s a fairly busy afternoon on the lake and my wife’s friend is learning to surf, she rides for a while then falls. I was eyeing a pontoon boat in the mirror the whole time she was riding, it wasn’t too close at the time but you never know. As I cut the throttle and turn around I notice it still hasn’t changed course or speed and its obviously getting closer. I figure he will see us any second and turn, but I wasn’t counting on it so I hurry back to my rider and place our boat between the pontoon and her. He still hasn’t changed course or speed, and is literally coming directly at us.

We all start yelling and waving our hands, I cannot see the captain at all because there is someone sitting in front of him. Nobody on the boat is looking forward. At this point a collision seems imminent, I can’t move the boat because he would likely kill my rider. I start laying on the boat horn, which isn’t very loud in my opinion, but I guess it carries over the water. Finally someone on the boat sees us, and gets the captains attention. I see his head pop up and he veers hard left less than 2 boat lengths before slamming us.

I’m infuriated now, as is the rest of my crew. I yell at the captain something about keeping your eyes on the f’n water, and my crew is telling them how they feel about it too as they pass less than 5’ off our bow. They then have the audacity to act like nothing happened saying something to me like “relax and smoke another cigarette”. I swear if I could have gotten on that boat I would’ve started drowning people, can’t remember the last time I completely lost my temper like that.

Anyway, I’m thinking about getting a giant compressed air horn to keep within arms reach of the helm.

Never assume the a**hole behind the wheel is paying attention, and always protect your riders!!!

We are going to put a different horn on ours too. It has become quite the joke about how lame the horn is on this boat.. We have a whistle in reaching distance now.

Yea the horn leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve had to use it several times and it never seems to get their attention. We will be upgrading ours as well so if anyone knows of a good, loud horn please let us know. My previous Yamaha horn had a lame sound but it was much louder and worked to alert other captains. We also carry a compressed air horn but I keep it stored in a plastic container along with the rest of our emergency and first aid supplies. I should buy another and keep it near the helm until we upgrade the horn.

Glad to hear you and your crew made it out ok from that close call. We’ve had a freakishly bad boating season here with 25 deaths on our lakes so far and near 70 boat accidents. https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2...ince-1998.html

Dude, that is scary. Last Saturday I had to wave a boat off that was following us too closely while my 11 year old son was surfing. He was pulling a tuber and I wonder if he was paying forward attention. Idiots.

Next time get their numbers and report them.

I am pretty laid back, but that would have went farther with me.

I have a bullhorn on the boat. Never been ridden up on like that, but jet skis have been told to back off.


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Originally Posted by z28ke

Anyway, I’m thinking about getting a giant compressed air horn to keep within arms reach of the helm.

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You don't need a giant one. I have a really small one that is LOUD!

SeaSense Mini Air Horn, 1.4oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019LZTKU..._70ZpDbPA0PV77

Sad but true. Had to put the boat between some other jack wagon bearing down on us and a rider in the water too many times. I kind of like the bullhorn idea tucked under the helm for easy access. I have a fire extinguisher, spot light, and bang bang down there usually anyway so a horn seems like a good addition. I would probably go for a rechargeable one.

https://smile.amazon.com/Taylor-Made...dp/B000MTXZME/

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Originally Posted by bergermaister

Sad but true. Had to put the boat between some other jack wagon bearing down on us and a rider in the water too many times. I kind of like the bullhorn idea tucked under the helm for easy access. I have a fire extinguisher, spot light, and bang bang down there usually anyway so a horn seems like a good addition. I would probably go for a rechargeable one.

https://smile.amazon.com/Taylor-Made...dp/B000MTXZME/

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That’s the one I’ll probably get, along with this to keep it in:

SEACHOICE 79361 Cruisin' Caddy UV-Resistant Marine Boat Beverage and Item Organizer, White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NU8X3S..._X00pDbA9C74JT

Yeah.. We had Capt'n Tube Douche Zigzag in front of us yesterday not paying attention. I think he learned his Lesson when his riders hit the Max Wave and were catapulted like a F-18 off a Carrier deck. We were like DAYAAAM!:cool:

Do you not carry a foghorn onboard? It's mandatory in our state. I also carry a flare gun.

$100 says he was renting the boat. Inexperienced renters scare the crap out of me.


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Air Horn, I'm glad I've never had to us it.

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Originally Posted by Arcadyus

Do you not carry a foghorn onboard? It's mandatory in our state. I also carry a flare gun.

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Really - I've been checked numerous times over the years and a working horn and secondary sounding device (whistle) was good enough for them. I suppose I should look into that again though!

Our dive rescue group uses the Fox 40 Sonik Blast whistles. Hit them with a water cannon.

stinger missles would take care of it.... permanently... :)

Or torpedos

Had it happen a couple times. Super scary.

Was more frustrated when lake mosquitoes, a.k.a PWCs keep buzzing back and forth across our wake while we have surfers.
I hate it for the surfer, but generally just pull the throttle down and stop to prevent an accident. I then try to coax the riders closer to have a "chat". In the past, we discussed carrying paintball markers for the mosquitoes but figured the range wouldn't be sufficient.

Yep, I’m thinking paintball gun is the way to go on Conroe. Last Friday before the jam we were out testing some changes to the boat and had a water roach that wouldn’t go away. Just out jumping the wake well within 100’ of my rider and still wouldn’t stop even when they crashed. We tried getting his attention, but he was ‘too cool’ and wouldn’t even acknowledge.
It’s kinda crazy with Conroe being a police state lake, but cops are never anywhere to be seen when skis are out being stupid.
A nice rope of paintballs at 400’/sec will get their attention.
I hate that it’s come to that, but that’s the quickest way to light my sometimes short fuse...

Thinking shooting with paintballs will be a form of assault.

I think the best approach is shut it down in the water and wait for the offender to leave. If words are required to get offender to leave fine.

Getting close enough to capture registration numbers should be effective.


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Originally Posted by larry_arizona

Getting close enough to capture registration numbers should be effective.

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But I'm mad now
~Homer Simpson

As much as we like to say PWC’s are lake lice and pontoons don’t pay attention, wake boats are on the list of hated watercraft,

Huge wake, loud music etc....

Fishing boats are annoying too lol


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Fishing boats are not annoying until its noon and they are still trying to catch fish in the middle of a nice smooth cove long after the morning bite is over and I have to run them off with my rollers to get rid of them.:-D

If an aft approaching boat makes you uncomfortable, have the spotter toss the surfer the rope, make a course correcting and then resume surfing. Be offensive.

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Originally Posted by Prospersigman

Fishing boats are not annoying until its noon and they are still trying to catch fish in the middle of a nice smooth cove long after the morning bite is over and I have to run them off with my rollers to get rid of them.:-D

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Or during a bass tournament when 18 bass boats jam up the boat launch and shoreline and they set up the weigh in station right at the boat ramp.

And fishermen throw there fish back in with dead or half dead fish.


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Originally Posted by MLA

If an aft approaching boat makes you uncomfortable, have the spotter toss the surfer the rope, make a course correcting and then resume surfing. Be offensive.

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There really wasn’t time for this once I got back between her and the pontoon, especially considering she was a noob and this would have left her exposed, and if she couldn’t hold the rope it would have been game over (some of my experienced buddies who are ready and waiting for me maybe, but it all happened so fast I felt the only option was to do whatever we could to get their attention and protect my rider).

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Originally Posted by z28ke

There really wasn’t time for this once I got back between her and the pontoon, especially considering she was a noob and this would have left her exposed, and if she couldn’t hold the rope it would have been game over (some of my experienced buddies who are ready and waiting for me maybe, but it all happened so fast I felt the only option was to do whatever we could to get their attention and protect my rider).

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Of course there are always variable, and of course once the rider goes down, you do what you have to do. Thats being defensive. I did not mean that you could get the downed rider back up. My point was the approaching boat you watched the entire time. If its on your radar so to speak, change your course by making an offensive move.

This was not directed at you solely, but to the group as a whole. Everyone can learn something from others experiences.

been in the same situation several times. it sucks. agree that all you can do is aggressively get in the path of the oncoming watercraft.

kind of crazy that you need to go through all sorts to get a drivers license but watercraft, basically anyone can operate.
said it before but most times this is more of an issue with pwc's. sad that irresponsible 'rents hand the keys over to young kids to "just go play" on and that's how accidents happen.

no one would give the keys to a 150cc scooter to an 11 year old but have no issues handing over the keys to a seadoo that sports 10x the horsepower and the ability to hit 50+mph.

that being said, every group on the water pretty much despises every other group but it's really no different than on the road with harleys, sportbikes, lifted trucks, sports cars, minivans etc.

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Originally Posted by MLA

This was not directed at you solely, but to the group as a whole. Everyone can learn something from others experiences.

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I 100% agree and I appreciate you pointing out potential options that may help others avoid a similar situation.

And... never assume they are paying

[emoji23] I thought this thread was talking about people paying for gas.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...dfe739b266.jpg


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Once had a bass boat almost hit my downed rider on Lake LBJ. He was flying down the lake and at the last minute made a 90 degree turn at about 50 mph. Super scary and even with a hard power turn I didn't have time to get back between him and the rider. Conroe is bad too but I think LBJ is worse since it is basically a river so all of the traffic gets funneled into one spot.

This year on that trip we did most of our riding on Friday or early morning and when we were out in the afternoon we had a spotter on the jet ski trailing us. Sounds like over kill but made me feel better as they could immediately get to the person in the water while I brought the boat around.

One other thing I have learned to do is quickly disengage the cruise when a rider falls and I see a boat headed in their general direction. With the cruise on at surf speed I don't have enough power to quickly get the boat into position to protect my rider so I like having it off when I circle back on crowded days.