Wake surfing and boating etiquette (lack of)

paulswagelock

Well-Known Member
Oct 25, 2010
2,183
pa
Boat Info
2018 SDX 270 OB 300 Verado
Engines
Verado 300
Our boating is river boating in the Pittsburgh area. The rivers are wide and deep here. It is quite common for groups to be rafted up together along the shores and still hundreds of feet of water width left.

The wake surfing popularity is lost on me, but that is a different rant. What fires me up is the rudeness of many in this group that do not care what wake they throw or the havoc it causes.

Yesterday, I was anchored within 20 feet of shore. My wife and I were floating behind the boat on a raft. There was easily 400’ of river remaining. A cruiser was beginning to anchor just up from me, so he dropped his anchor and was backing towards shore. A wake surfer decided his surfer’s fun was more important than safety and dragged his surfer behind the cruiser and within 30 feet of my bow throwing a 4’ wake. I was on the tube waving him down or over but he was too busy looking backwards to pay attention to what was coming. His wake tossed us around heavily. If we were tied up to another boat, guaranteed damage. These idiots can stroke the $140k check to buy the boat but not able to spend 45 minutes learning basic seamanship. Ugggg.

Rant over.
 
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Yeah, those things throw tremendous wakes - two of them can wreck a quiet cove! I think most of them don't have a clue about where the wake ends up. I often anchor on a sandbar (really a shallow area) in the middle of a large cove, the wake boats tend to circle in the cove - the wakes moving to the inside of that circle (where the sandbar is) get huge! Luckily on LKN there are plenty of places to get away from them.

But I get a kick out of a wakeboat full of young kids - stereo just rocking the whole place - takes me back to the day! But I only like to go there occasionally! The marina I am at sells Bennington, Cobalt and Malibu - they can't hardly keep the Malibu boats in stock - seem to be outselling the others by a long shot. Mostly 30 somethings with young kids. My old SeaRay looks like a relic next to those things!
 
Our boating is river boating in the Pittsburgh area. The rivers are wide and deep here. It is quite common for groups to be rafted up together along the shores and still hundreds of feet of water width left.

The wake surfing popularity is lost on me, but that is a different rant. What fires me up is the rudeness of many in this group that do not care what wake they throw or the havoc it causes.

Yesterday, I was anchored within 20 feet of shore. My wife and I were floating behind the boat on a raft. There was easily 400’ of river remaining. A cruiser was beginning to anchor just up from me, so he dropped his anchor and was backing towards shore. A wake surfer decided his surfer’s fun was more important than safety and dragged his surfer behind the cruiser and within 30 feet of my bow throwing a 4’ wake. I was on the tube waving him down or over but he was too busy looking backwards to pay attention to what was coming. His wake tossed us around heavily. If we were tied up to another boat, guaranteed damage. These idiots can stroke the $140k check to buy the boat but not able to spend 45 minutes learning basic seamanship. Ugggg.

Rant over.

I'm further up the mon river than you and they beat the heck out of my docks and boats with their wake.Sadly theres nothing we can do about it. But there is a rule on the books that if your anchored out of the channel they must be 100' away and no wake , but they seem to forget that one from the safe boating courses!
 
I absolutely LOVE wake surfing. I can't do any major tricks (yet), but it just "feels right" doing the surfing thing. Maybe it's because there's no rope so it feels more free? Maybe it's because at 10mph, the water is still nice and soft when you fall ;) Then again, carving a turn at 32mph on a slalom feels pretty darn nice, too!

But all of that is simply an opinion. What is NOT an opinion is that a boater is responsible for his/her wake. Period. Just because someone has money (or daddy/mommy do), doesn't always mean they have common sense. As we all know - common sense can't be bought. Sending a big wake towards someone - especially someone that has purposefully anchored out of the main traffic area - is just rude.
 
I have heard that some small inland lakes are not allowing wake boats with ballast tanks because a few wake boats ruin the water for everyone.

One way to get some control is is anyone damaged by their wake would file insurance claims against them. Then insurance companies would have to price in the damage artificially creating a monster wake causes when used in inappropriate areas.

Even on Lake Michigan their wakes suck. For some reason they love to run near the shore when others are anchored at the beach. They create a wake similar to a big cruiser but because of their shallow draft can do so much closer to shore.

Most ski/wake type users have absolutely no Captain level knowledge of boatmanship and no interest in it, they are put-put golfers to pro/am golfers. There are some exceptions like Dennis, but talk with some of them over a cocktail, ask a few questions and you will soon see they know nothing about etiquette and responsibilities...

MM
 
We were surfing behind my 15’ Glastron with 85 Mercury back in the 70’s. A lot of fun!
Called it Skurfing.
 
They wake surf near anchored boats and near the shore because it's part of the "Look At Me" syndrome.

A spud gun works wonders in keeping those pests away.
 
Similarly, I have a problem with fishermen and pontooners. We anchor out on the lake in a no wake zone behind a land bridge break on purpose. We don't usually go to sleep until about midnight. But, bright and early, these fishermen with 300 hp outboards running 90 mph through the no wake make a hell of a wake up call at 5 am. The bastards do it right in front of DNR who are supposed to stop this. Then there are all the drunkards on pontoons that apparently don't think a pontoon leaves a wake. SMDH
 
Similarly, I have a problem with fishermen and pontooners. We anchor out on the lake in a no wake zone behind a land bridge break on purpose. We don't usually go to sleep until about midnight. But, bright and early, these fishermen with 300 hp outboards running 90 mph through the no wake make a hell of a wake up call at 5 am. The bastards do it right in front of DNR who are supposed to stop this. Then there are all the drunkards on pontoons that apparently don't think a pontoon leaves a wake. SMDH

Monroe?

MM
 
Monroe?

MM
Actually Raccoon. We anchor around the bend on the 36 bridge. Realistically, no wake should ever reach us if rules were followed.

However, we are going to Monroe this coming weekend. Not had our 240 out there yet. But, spent most of the summer last year there on our 180 bowrider. Any tips on best anchor spots?
 
Actually Raccoon. We anchor around the bend on the 36 bridge. Realistically, no wake should ever reach us if rules were followed.

However, we are going to Monroe this coming weekend. Not had our 240 out there yet. But, spent most of the summer last year there on our 180 bowrider. Any tips on best anchor spots?

Yes, a marina on Lake Michigan. LOL

Once the Admiral and I were anchored off in a cove on Monroe, it was late, like 11 PM on a Sunday night, when she noticed a pair of eyes looking at us. A fishing boat had trolled over was was peeping on us. I just cannot deal with the small lakes anymore.

MM
 
Similarly, I have a problem with fishermen and pontooners. We anchor out on the lake in a no wake zone behind a land bridge break on purpose. We don't usually go to sleep until about midnight. But, bright and early, these fishermen with 300 hp outboards running 90 mph through the no wake make a hell of a wake up call at 5 am. The bastards do it right in front of DNR who are supposed to stop this. Then there are all the drunkards on pontoons that apparently don't think a pontoon leaves a wake. SMDH
Your problem seems to be that they do all of this before the kind folks from DNR are even opening their eyes. Perhaps a phone call to DNR when their office is open to lodge an official complaint would stir them to action.
 

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