Wake Surfing Laws Coming to a Lake Near You

[GMLIII]

Realistically all we have to do is teach people how to drive like *******s. I get very pissed when I see people who should not have a giant boat because they donât know how to handle it driving all over the place or driving in circles and sending rollers all over the lake.

That is only one piece of the puzzle. We had a proposed wakesurf bill which was defeated on my home lake in Virginia recently. We even had safe wakesurf awareness campaigns in and around the lake in addition to educational in-boat classes for wakesurf drivers and the proposed bill was still brought to our state legislators prior to it getting defeated. Education is an easy "go to catch phase" and "cure all" answer to everything that is wrong with wakesurfing is simply not true. To phase it another way it would be like saying if we educated drivers not to drink and drive when they are on the road then we would not have any drunk drivers on the roads which is entirely not true. I wish there was a silver bullet to solve the problem you describe but unfortunately there is none.

[Brien]

Realistically all we have to do is teach people how to drive like *******s. I get very pissed when I see people who should not have a giant boat because they don’t know how to handle it driving all over the place or driving in circles and sending rollers all over the lake.

[jhiestand]

A loaded 210 puts out a pretty good wave...not sure that will resolve the issue.

A length restriction of 20' or under takes care of the "loaded 210" wave problem.

[srock]

As much as I hate to admit it the solution may be to impose length limits that rule out boats designed to throw massive waves, at least on smaller bodies of water. That also would solve wake issues from massive boats just trolling about, blissfully unaware they're sending giant rollers everywhere. Banning wake enhancement devices seems largely unenforceable nor does that help from other huge rigs that just throw big wakes at slow speeds.

And of course, a length limit as such would definitely rain on our 21' parade.

A loaded 210 puts out a pretty good wave...not sure that will resolve the issue.

[Johnny_Rock]

The large yachts don't make repeated passes over and over and over the same places again. Or if they do, it seems to be rare. On Possum Kingdom they go to ****'s Gate, drop anchor, and sit and RTB later in the day or weekend. But I do agree that the (C)aptain (capitalized for emphasis) is responsible for their vessel and that isn't well regarded around lakes.

Someone commented about wind vs a surf boat here. Wind driven waves on a lake have far less energy than wake from surf boats - and I think this is really the crux of the issue: wave energy or power. Wind wave has, obviously, much higher frequency but much lower magnitude and thus less energy. To match what I see your average G put out in terms of wave height and propagation would require hours and hours of 50-60mph winds on our lake. We get both out here in West Texas. I'd have to dig really deep to the one semester of ship's engineering, but the displacement of the water with a surf barge vs wind I believe is because the area is exponential in the power equation. In other words, the more you present a sunken surface area of your boat, there is an EXPONENTIAL, not linear increase in wave power.

I'll be honest that while I knew surf boats too close to docks were bad, I had never really experienced it myself. My wife and I were floating off of our dock last month and I look down the shore only to see our brand new neighbors with their brand new Mastercraft X22. They were surfing less than 50' off of the docks. I start waving for them to move out further and the mom driving just blissfully waves back. As they get closer I see the docks they had passed rocking like absolute crazy so I start waving and yelling even more. By now, her son who is riding the wave sees what is happening and starts yelling to his mom who is still in la la land. The wave that hit us was above my head floating on an inflatable raft and pushed my wife into our dock and nearly knocked our dog off the dock as well. Not one word of apology, but they went about as far away from the shore as you could after that. Of course this is the same crew that does power turns after every rider falls and they, despite their $2M+ house and their nice MC, went super cheap on the dock and it is practically sunk with their heavy boat on it. Come to think of it, it wouldn't surprise me if they never emptied the ballast when they put it on the lift.

My overall impression is that we're probably all preaching to the choir here. If you are self aware enough about boating to have a nice Nautique, log onto a forum, do some reading, and build your knowledge base... you probably aren't the problem.

I'm the guy that commented on the wind vs. wake boat. Not a scientist. Speculated that boat wave vs. wind might be stronger. I think your last sentence is spot on.

[mooneywa]

The large yachts don't make repeated passes over and over and over the same places again. Or if they do, it seems to be rare. On Possum Kingdom they go to ****'s Gate, drop anchor, and sit and RTB later in the day or weekend. But I do agree that the (C)aptain (capitalized for emphasis) is responsible for their vessel and that isn't well regarded around lakes.

Someone commented about wind vs a surf boat here. Wind driven waves on a lake have far less energy than wake from surf boats - and I think this is really the crux of the issue: wave energy or power. Wind wave has, obviously, much higher frequency but much lower magnitude and thus less energy. To match what I see your average G put out in terms of wave height and propagation would require hours and hours of 50-60mph winds on our lake. We get both out here in West Texas. I'd have to dig really deep to the one semester of ship's engineering, but the displacement of the water with a surf barge vs wind I believe is because the area is exponential in the power equation. In other words, the more you present a sunken surface area of your boat, there is an EXPONENTIAL, not linear increase in wave power.

I'll be honest that while I knew surf boats too close to docks were bad, I had never really experienced it myself. My wife and I were floating off of our dock last month and I look down the shore only to see our brand new neighbors with their brand new Mastercraft X22. They were surfing less than 50' off of the docks. I start waving for them to move out further and the mom driving just blissfully waves back. As they get closer I see the docks they had passed rocking like absolute crazy so I start waving and yelling even more. By now, her son who is riding the wave sees what is happening and starts yelling to his mom who is still in la la land. The wave that hit us was above my head floating on an inflatable raft and pushed my wife into our dock and nearly knocked our dog off the dock as well. Not one word of apology, but they went about as far away from the shore as you could after that. Of course this is the same crew that does power turns after every rider falls and they, despite their $2M+ house and their nice MC, went super cheap on the dock and it is practically sunk with their heavy boat on it. Come to think of it, it wouldn't surprise me if they never emptied the ballast when they put it on the lift.

My overall impression is that we're probably all preaching to the choir here. If you are self aware enough about boating to have a nice Nautique, log onto a forum, do some reading, and build your knowledge base... you probably aren't the problem.

[XBIGPUN66]

What about the large yachts blissfully plowing large rollers around the lake and shoreline. Same thing. Either way it is up to the captain to pay attention to the effects of his boat and its wake.

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[jhiestand]

You must be the one Ruining the shores of Griggs and Alum Creek, LOL!!!!

Griggs perhaps! Definitely not Alum.

[Stevemo14]

As much as I hate to admit it the solution may be to impose length limits that rule out boats designed to throw massive waves, at least on smaller bodies of water. That also would solve wake issues from massive boats just trolling about, blissfully unaware they're sending giant rollers everywhere. Banning wake enhancement devices seems largely unenforceable nor does that help from other huge rigs that just throw big wakes at slow speeds.

And of course, a length limit as such would definitely rain on our 21' parade.

You must be the one Ruining the shores of Griggs and Alum Creek, LOL!!!!

[jhiestand]

As much as I hate to admit it the solution may be to impose length limits that rule out boats designed to throw massive waves, at least on smaller bodies of water. That also would solve wake issues from massive boats just trolling about, blissfully unaware they're sending giant rollers everywhere. Banning wake enhancement devices seems largely unenforceable nor does that help from other huge rigs that just throw big wakes at slow speeds.

And of course, a length limit as such would definitely rain on our 21' parade.

[Nautiquehunter]

They won't ban the surfships just the place they can use them . A 500 ' distance to docks and shore would put them in the main channel where they belong.

[rbalan]

I live on Lake Lanier Georgia with 700 miles of shoreline you would think there would be room for all . The issue I see is the as the wakes get bigger the brain gets smaller. Remember when we complained about the Wallys pulling tubes and pwc's tearing it up? Now its the surf ships weighing in at 10k plus and heading straight to the ski coves because everybody knows you need glass to surf. I bought a 210 in 08 to surf its now the least used boat I own . Surfing is fine 5-10 % of the time when the water gets churned up or out in the main channel. I find it boring and driving multiple surfers is awful for the driver . Buying a one trick pony for 200k is insane to me . This fad will fade like wakeboarding or it will be banned because of reckless owners and the damage they cause to docks,shoreline and other boats.

Banning surf boats on Lanier would have zero effect on shoreline erosion, there are much bigger ocean geared boats there.

Btw, I don’t think wakeboarding is or will be fading, some have just added surfing to their mix. Skiing on the other hand...

[hal2814]

It’s all a matter of perspective. I’m ok but it’s the people who are more disruptive than me who are the problem, right? We all like a calm, wind-protected shoreline. Whether it’s for water sports, fishing, kayaking, building a dock on, it’s just the prime water. It’s a shared resource. None of us own it. The other day I felt like I was giving a fisherman plenty of room as we were surfing. He came over and asked if we could move out a little. That’s fine. If I see someone trying to ski I’ll gladly give them the shore and move out a little. I’ve had surfers move out other when I was wakeboarding before. I stay away from kayakers. All it takes is being a little more understanding of what Is going on around us.

[SilentSeven]

I get that these massive waves can be an issue in many ways, but hows it any different than anyone in any boat driving at 8-10 MPH along the shore "Just Checking Things Out"?

I disagree. There is no way my 206 on a half plane produces a wake even a third of the size of one of the big surf boats.

A fully loaded G23 - a boat that's all of 18" longer than my 206 - can weigh out at close to 11k lbs - hull, ballast, passengers, fuel - and sports a hull, mechanical mechanism and engine engineered to lay an oversized wake. Fully loaded, my 206 weighs no more than 4,600 and has no wake enhancing hull characteristics. There is no reasonable comparison between the two.

[SilentSeven]

I also believe something needs to be done but have no pragmatic solution.

IMO, the oversized surf waves pose a significant safety problem to other boaters. The problem was 'manageable' when there were a) a lot less surf boats and b) the 'mega boats' hadn't really arrived.

In my 20' 206 - a decent sized boat with reasonable freeboard - it takes significant boat skill to keep my passengers safe when running at speed or just putting along at idle My wife or kids won't run the boat when the big surf rigs are out - the waves scare them and we've had incidents with blue water coming in the boat or passengers getting violently tossed.

Sadly, my guess is it's going to take a few fatalities and the associated lawsuits applying the maritime law on boaters being responsible for their own wake for something to happen. :/