I'm still very new to the boating world. Got the boat last year. I'm super safe and conservative when it comes to anything safety and I feel like I know al the rules. But Maybe I don't.

So yesterday, My wife and I were surfing. Had our 7 and 10 year old on the boat with us. I was surfing and my wife was driving. All of the sudden the blue lights come up probably 15-20 yards beside me on the rope. I wave to my wife and I drop the rope.

I swim back to the boat....we get a lecture. It was all very civil. They said that we had to have a spotter (at least 10 years old) at all times. my 10 year old had actually laid down to take a nap. I didn't think anything of it. My wife and I have been out dozens of times where its just us 2. We toss the rope to the side and when the surfer falls we put it in neutral, pull in the rope and pick up the surfer. We have the standard (huge) rearview mirror. I had always been told by friends and other surfers that is okay and you don't have to have a spotter. He lectured me and the 10 year old about how she couldn't rest her eyes.

I never get argumentative with authority, but was I in the wrong? do you always have to have a 3rd person on the boat? I see it literally every time I go out, 1 driver and one surfer all the time. I did not as the police for a clarification because I felt like the less I said the less likely we'd get a ticket...and we did not get one. Just a lecture.

Best I can find in Mississippi is that the 3rd person/spotter rule only applies to towing on a PWC which makes sense.