Wakeboat Study / Legislation

Hello all. There is a growing threat to our sport and the use of wakeboats. A team at the University of Minnesota published a crowd funded study of wave size comparing a 20 year old competition ski boat versus a newer "wake boat." This study is now being used by legislators as they consider regulations for wake boats. This study is not done in good faith and is clearly targeted towards wakeboats and wake surfing / wake boarding. They certainly have not looked at other newer/larger/heavier "non-wake boats." I'd urge you to reach out to the team performing these studies and encourage them to be scientists instead of special interest promotors.

Facebook - St. Anthony Falls Laboratory - SAFL
Webpage - http://www.safl.umn.edu/

You can also reach out to the University of Minnesota or the authors of the study directly.

Some states have passed or are considering bans/restrictions and this study is fueling this!

Specifically new laws going into affect in Tennessee starting July 1. With SC, Mastercraft, and Bu all out of TN, I’m totally surprised it passed. I wonder what special interests played into the new laws passing.

As I understand:
No surf/wb on a cove/finger/river less than 400’ wide.
No surf/wb within 200’ of a bank/shoreline.

Which totally ignores any other boat doing the same. What about our same wake boat which throws just as big a wake when just cruising or pulling a tube? What about big cabin cruisers?

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Originally Posted by BigOrange

Specifically new laws going into affect in Tennessee starting July 1. With SC, Mastercraft, and Bu all out of TN, I’m totally surprised it passed. I wonder what special interests played into the new laws passing.

As I understand:
No surf/wb on a cove/finger/river less than 400’ wide.
No surf/wb within 200’ of a bank/shoreline.

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I boat on a small(by Tn standards anyway) lake, so I went and measured the width of all the places we surf and they are all well over 400ft (800-1000), even in places I would consider too tight to surf in so in my opinion the laws are a no big deal.

The 20 ft from shore is a bit annoying as sometimes we will surf close to shore (with the rider/wave on the opposite side) to keep the surf wave off the shore so in my case that regulation is going to actually hurt the shoreline more. I do however regularly see people surfing with the wave going into the shore 50 ft off the shoreline so maybe it will help.

These new laws were pretty common sense but this floated around a few months ago and had me worried haha
https://www.thunder1320.com/wp-conte...61782351_n.jpg

So if you want to be topless you just have to "identify" as male?

What is the point of this law when it's easily skirted from other laws?

Also 4 people = 12 containers
Is this beers, bottles of bourbon, 1/2 gallon yeti jugs?

So dumb!

Someone email these folks and tell them they must add 1000 lbs of lead to their study…otherwise impossible to surf and have an accurate study..

Welcome to the real world. As an off roader out west, we paid big bucks to confront the environmentalists at every riding place they tried to close. The environmental groups have big bucks and lots of attorneys. This has been going on for decades with wins on both sides. Attend the public meetings, be vocal, know the laws, establish boating groups with fund raisers to support your sport, prepare to lawyer up. You need to fight fire with fire and it ain't cheap. Here is an example of the largest riding organization in Washington state. Our local club usually donated about $1k a year

WOHVA.com

not to be the debbie downer BUT imo this is not about eroding shorelines. this is more about wakeboats as a whole...

look at who uses a lake regularly and think perceptions. an old boss told me years ago that "your perception is my reality".
lets look at a day in the life of some wakeboats. not all but some.
load up in the morning with friends/beer/surfboards. spend all day going back and forth in the same spots tossing waves, partying on the boat, screaming kids and loud music. it goes back and forth in front of your dock all day.
now look at another tooner. load up with beer/friends. head out to the swim/party spot. spend the day and home. goes by once or twice and even towing a tube, they are moving at 2x the surf speed-less passes-without a tower full of speakers and a wake that can shake a dock loose.

in the 2 examples if I was a property owner. the wakeboat would annoy the piss out of me. not even so much as for the wakes but partying and loud music and seems that we find "that spot" and just go back and forth for hours.

ok. now I want to ban them. go after partying? already have dui laws on the books. go after music? nope. too hard to enforce and too many other things emit loud noises prior to sunset. go after wake? yup. easier to justify and easier to get more on board.

I hate to say this but as an industry we have done this to ourselves as the 75% inconsiderate ruin it for the 25% responsible.

and yet there's another thread on here at the same time with a couple comments on how clear and loud a new rev12 is at 450ft. we get what we get.....

Same complaints from people at Lake Powell. Surf boats running in canyons instead of the main channel hit houseboats with waves continuously and often pass less than 100 ft off the back deck of the houseboat. Having been on the receiving end, there was a lot of cursing and finger raising as the houseboat bounced on the rocks and stretched the anchor lines.

The law in Utah already says that boats are responsible for their damaging wakes and that you can't pass closer than 150 ft but good luck getting anyone to enforce it. There have been lawsuits about damaging wakes though, which I think will help fix the problem if there is good publicity.

I really try and think where my wake ends up whether it be on shore or another boat.

But good lord do the toons and tubing boats not look where they are going and cross or pass in front of my line. I just shake my head.

If I see fishing boats especially with planar boards out, I wait for them to clear, but I won’t wait for a fishing boat horvering over the same pocket for an hour.

No power turns for downed riders, volume only high enough for rider. Music muted when returning to rider.

I try to throw my wave to the center of lake so it can fade as it eventually gets to shore.

I try to avoid dock areas entirely.

I try not to grind an area more than a handful of passes before moving elsewhere or giving it a rest.

I fully understand we are not a well liked type on the water. I minimize the hate as much as I can. I was the same when I was a jet skier.


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Originally Posted by sandm

not to be the debbie downer BUT imo this is not about eroding shorelines. this is more about wakeboats as a whole...

look at who uses a lake regularly and think perceptions. an old boss told me years ago that "your perception is my reality".
lets look at a day in the life of some wakeboats. not all but some.
load up in the morning with friends/beer/surfboards. spend all day going back and forth in the same spots tossing waves, partying on the boat, screaming kids and loud music. it goes back and forth in front of your dock all day.
now look at another tooner. load up with beer/friends. head out to the swim/party spot. spend the day and home. goes by once or twice and even towing a tube, they are moving at 2x the surf speed-less passes-without a tower full of speakers and a wake that can shake a dock loose.

in the 2 examples if I was a property owner. the wakeboat would annoy the piss out of me. not even so much as for the wakes but partying and loud music and seems that we find "that spot" and just go back and forth for hours.

ok. now I want to ban them. go after partying? already have dui laws on the books. go after music? nope. too hard to enforce and too many other things emit loud noises prior to sunset. go after wake? yup. easier to justify and easier to get more on board.

I hate to say this but as an industry we have done this to ourselves as the 75% inconsiderate ruin it for the 25% responsible.

and yet there's another thread on here at the same time with a couple comments on how clear and loud a new rev12 is at 450ft. we get what we get.....

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As usual we're in complete agreement here.
Irresponsible people ruining it for those of us who have some respect.
We're at the end of the golden age of wake(surf) boats IMO, it only goes downhill from here unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by SONIC

As usual we're in complete agreement here.
Irresponsible people ruining it for those of us who have some respect.
We're at the end of the golden age of wake(surf) boats IMO, it only goes downhill from here unfortunately.

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Is that why prices skyrocketed? The manufactures have to capitalize while they can. I'm half kidding, but I agree the wake boats may start to see more restrictions.

Surfing, the wakesurf craze has caused this. Wakeboarding has been around for 25 years or more, never really been an issue. Many, not all, new wake boat owners buy them for the sole purpose of surfing and have never really been on the lakes before. Some are clueless, some are entitled, some just do not care. We all pay the price for the actions of a few unfortunately. If everyone was like Sonic and Larry, none of this legislation would be needed. On that, it was actually the National Tow Boat association that had a lot of input on these bills. They are trying to get out in front of this mess. Trust me, those in power want even more and stringent restrictions on our beloved boats. I just wish it applied to all boats and wakes. I am already seeing people complaining about wake boats in the middle of the lake, well, that is where they are putting us. But I digress, hopefully it has little impact on most of us, but the target is now squarely on our backs.

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Originally Posted by Josh828

These new laws were pretty common sense but this floated around a few months ago and had me worried haha
https://www.thunder1320.com/wp-conte...61782351_n.jpg

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That one was a good joke, one of my patients was telling me about it and had me wondering if it was a real thing. Never saw this letter until today.

I hate to say this but years ago we used to be proud to have a wakeboard boat and now I feel a bit embarrassed to have one. We now go above and beyond to make sure we are not the stereotypical wakeboat boaters..always careful around everyone, we launch and load quickly, we don’t blast our stereo, are super careful about where we surf and sure as F won’t be adding lead…... That being said we are not big surfers like we used to be and so now I am wishing we would have just bought a bow rider.

Monterey has a great boat called the M-45 with a 300HP outboard- I’ve already started planting that seed with my wife.

Banning wakesurfing is in our future..Too many surfers think they need huge waves, in reality it’s just compensating for their lack of skills.

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Originally Posted by KnoxMojo

Surfing, the wakesurf craze has caused this. Wakeboarding has been around for 25 years or more, never really been an issue. Many, not all, new wake boat owners buy them for the sole purpose of surfing and have never really been on the lakes before. Some are clueless, some are entitled, some just do not care. We all pay the price for the actions of a few unfortunately. If everyone was like Sonic and Larry, none of this legislation would be needed. On that, it was actually the National Tow Boat association that had a lot of input on these bills. They are trying to get out in front of this mess. Trust me, those in power want even more and stringent restrictions on our beloved boats. I just wish it applied to all boats and wakes. I am already seeing people complaining about wake boats in the middle of the lake, well, that is where they are putting us. But I digress, hopefully it has little impact on most of us, but the target is now squarely on our backs.

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although I agree with part of this, had wakesurfing never come about, I still think there would be a push on this just from a different angle. 25 years ago we did not have 4rev10's on every tower being sold nor too short/2live crew(insert more current rapper here-i'm dating myself :) ) being broadcast for a 1/4 mile across a lake where people live. today seems like more and more rusty malinoski wannabe's needs to have the latest nsfw album blaring when they ride. wakes are the easy target to clean up the majority but if they think it's going to make it all better..... I believe it's really wakes, music and partying that all combine to give the industry a black eye.
it's society that seems to have moved to a me me me thought process over the last 10 years or so. no one is considerate of others anymore.

and ya sonic, there's a few on here I wish I was closer to for a beer and some bullshartin.. met several on a couple boating forums over the years and it seems the people that we are all bashing on are the ones not part of the forums and contributing to making the scene better.

I see my buddy go to the same cove every weekend and surf it along with tons of other surf boats all fighting for the same bit of water plus fighting tubers and jet skis thru there. Knox mojo knows the cove I speak of as its right outside his place. Its downright sketchy when its a weekend and everybody is out there. Theres time boats will be 3 wide surfing down thru there, I feel for the folks who live there and are subjected to it day in and day out. I took my boat to a new launch (Tellico) and it was amazing last weekend. Deeeeeeep water 80 plus feet low traffic and can surf main channel so Im not destroying peoples docks or ruining their quality of life. It was so much better, and I dont feel like Im negatively affecting anybody by going there. My props also appreciate the fact thats the water isnt full of driftwood!

I agree with the comment that the loud music, particularly the rap with extreme vulgarity, is playing a big part in the complaints. Who wants to take their family with young kids to the lake and have to hear cussing blasting out across the water? Especially most of it being tailored around sex and the P word, F word, etc...you know what I mean. Not trying to sound old, but damn just have a little class when you know young kids are around. I have teenagers kids and when they or their friends Playlist have a song like that pop up, it gets skipped.

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This is what they are doing in Northern WI to eliminate wake surfing…coming to a lake near you.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7f67aa5645.jpg


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Originally Posted by brad460

This is what they are doing in Northern WI to eliminate wake surfing…coming to a lake near you.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7f67aa5645.jpg


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This is ridiculous. A few bad apples spoil it for the rest of us.


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LOL we have storms on the regular that kick up waves greater than 2’.

Enforcement of the 2' wave would be difficult to do. I do see it as a means to stop boats and give them a "warning" with arguments to follow.

I can’t tell you the last time I saw a cop on a lake near me in Michigan

Spent a week on Norris last summer and didn’t see one lake cop.

Who is enforcing these “rules”?

The alcohol limit to 3 drinks per passenger is sketchy, I guess as long as you don’t get caught early In the day.

How would they handle mixed drinks?

Honestly I can’t drink more than 4 beers without feeling full anymore and being passed out drunk on a boat is probably never a great idea.

I blame rap music too lol, my kid throws the F bombing and P lyrics rap on and I too hit the next button.

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I recall this from a couple years ago, I think this was a Michigan campaign……

The Wake Responsibly campaign stresses three key points that address, in part, complaints about water sports, especially wakesurfing:

1)Stay at least 150 feet away from docks, structures, and shorelines. (“Ride the core, avoid the shore.”)

2)Keep music on board at reasonable levels. We boaters know that sounds carries over water, so if it’s loud enough for the surfer to hear, homeowners can likely hear it, too.

3)Minimize repetitive passes, and once you’ve run a shoreline, move to another area.

Also some other suggested etiquette tips……

1)Drive a predicted path. In Arizona waters, for example, boats must travel in a counterclockwise traffic flow.

2)Avoid close passes to other boats, and don't follow another boat too closely.

3)Don't impede traffic. Wakesurfers usually travel at 10 to 12 mph, slower than most powercraft; avoid wakesurfing in fairways and busy areas.

4)Look before you turn.

5) Refrain from tricks when near other boats.

6)Early morning times usually have less traffic and are more conducive to wakesurfing.


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Just plain common sense and courtesy! You would think it's an easy concept.....

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Originally Posted by HFarr

Just plain common sense and courtesy! You would think it's an easy concept.....

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been sayin this for years. courtesy is long gone in me me me of today. it's even worse when driving...
bet ya all didn't know turn signals are an option on most cars today. why would anyone want to be courteous and let others know your intention to turn. it's much funner to fly by you, cut you off then make a right turn forcing you to slow down for them when there's not a single car behind you..

lack of better words... people today are by inlarge a$$holes.

It's crucial for research to be conducted objectively and encompass a broader scope. As an avid wakeboarder myself, I believe it's essential to promote fair analysis that considers all types of boats, not just wake boats. We need scientists who prioritize accuracy and transparency. On another note, have any of you heard of Colleges with Rolling Admission? It's an amazing platform that helped me find the ideal college with a flexible application process. Highly recommended!

Just saw this.

https://fox11online.com/news/local/w...waupaca-county

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Originally Posted by Tommy2slow

Just saw this.

https://fox11online.com/news/local/w...waupaca-county

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I agree honestly when you look at just how small those “lakes” are they’re talking about. Most would be considered a pond or large pond. The one large lake is littered all along the shore with homes and golf course so not surprised and still way too small of a lake IMO.

https://i.imgur.com/Q9UaJea.jpeg