No WED/Slow-No-Wake Law Shut Down In Oregon!

[ActiveWaterSports]

Recently, the Oregon Legislature attempted to ban wake enhancement devices and inflict a Slow-No-Wake law throughout part the Willamette River. Here is more on the proposed laws:

Oregon Legislator will pass or deny House Bill 4099 and House Bill 4138 next week. The bills will implement laws prohibiting boaters from using wake enhancement devices (WED) and require boats to abide by the Slow-No-Wake law within 200 feet of docks, boathouses or moorages. These laws will be enforced within Willamette mile 50 (Roger's Landing in Newberg) and Willamette mile 30 (10th Street in West Linn) if the bills pass.

If you love to boat and participate in watersports, email your local representative and the Oregon transportation committee with the subject line "NO on HB 4099 and HB 4138" now to voice your concern of these potential laws! Go to the Oregon Legislature website and type in your address to discover who your county representative is. Also, if you want to stay up-to-date on the status of these bills, find them using the search bar, then sign up for the email subscriptions.

If these two bills pass, boaters with WED within the mile mark 50 to 30 radius or boaters that do not follow the Slow-No-Wake laws will face a fine of up to $2,000 on the first offense and up to 30 days in jail, a $5,000 fine, or both, and prohibition from operating a boat for two years on a second offense within three years.





But, after Oregon boaters' massive support, a huge thank you goes to all who have shared your opposition to House Bill 4099! Our collective efforts have succeeded in changing House Bill 4099 from a proposed law into a proposal for an Advisory Panel to look at the best ways to share our waterways while mitigating the impact of wakes from towboats. Another thank you goes to State Representative Vial for agreeing to take more time to look at this issue from all sides.

At this point, let’s work together to educate ourselves and other boaters. We all need to work together to keep our waterways open and safe. Below is a quick list of things to remember when we are out on the water:

- Stay at least 150 feet from shoreline, docks and other structures
- When picking up a fallen rider, stop and turn around slowly, avoiding power turns that throw waves in all directions
- Avoid repetitive passes through the same area
- Listen to music at reasonable levels

Be a good steward of the sport and we will continue to enjoy all the access we have now!

[kaneboats]

That's good news for all of us. You know that once stupid legislation gets passed in one place it gets copied all across the country. Glad to see it nipped in the bud.

[zabooda]

This is just the start. They will throw the environmental issue for the shore line. You need to follow the organizations that are pushing this and counter them. They are relentless and you can't let it go.

[bergermaister]

Wish they would add this to the WA state boaters license requirement. We see morons doing power turns all the time. My daughter was better than most of these "river pilots" when she was 14 and first got behind the wheel. Back off, spin, idle back. Not rocket science! Penalize the idiots, but don't take away our water.

[5:00]

They added the first no wake buoy in Virginia on the northern part of our lake. Just waiting for it to spread south toward us and other lakes. Smith Mountain Lake is probably next. I didn't know about the hearing, held over the winter when no one was around, but the testimonies and photos were about 50% BS and the other half probably being true.

[beat taco]

Hardly a win and hardly over, it's important that the boating community gets organized. When the president of active gets up and says "I'm against this because it will hurt boat sales" I was really hoping he would've been better prepared.

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[beat taco]

I mean this post was better organized than your CEO.

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[bergermaister]

^^^ Wow. Adds to the reasons I avoid going there anymore.

[beat taco]

He made sure to mention some of our other local inboard dealers that didnt even bother coming.

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[ActiveWaterSports]

Yes, it would hurt boat sales, which would hurt our company that has been in business for over 35 years. But above that, everyone that works at AWS grew up on the Willamette River boating with their families every summer. And when those future opportunities out on the river have potential to be taken away from us we want to do everything we can to stop that. AWS has a passion for boating and boarding, so we hope you understand that that is most important to us above sales.