Wakeboat Study / Legislation

[uniwarking]

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!

[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.

[BigOrange]

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?

[SONIC]

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.

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.

[Josh828]

These new laws were pretty common sense but this floated around a few months ago and had me worried haha

[Holdmybeer]

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!

[brad460]

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..

[zabooda]

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

[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.....

[Zog]

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.