The perils of tubing

[Steve195]

One of my closest friends bought a new 19 SPX last month and yesterday was the first day he was taking the family out tubing. They headed to the lake first thing in the morning, but I had things to do in the morning, and agreed to meet them at our slips at 2pm. I got there early and was surprised to see them in their slip, unloading all the gear. I also noticed their nephew wasn't with them and I thought he was going to join them.

Turns out nephew Jake, a 22 year old athlete who is a top notch snow skier, gym rat and amateur MMA fighter, was in the emergency room with a suspected torn MCL in his knee after wiping out on the tube. They were going in a straight line, about 25 mph and he simply caught an edge leaving the wake, slid off the tube sideways and BAM! turn MCL.

 

[Tonka Boater]

Ouch! This is the reason I tell my kids to keep their limbs on the tube at all times (except for feet dangling off the back). We usually use a friends lay down tube but we have one with a backrest so you sit upright. The lay down is fine but the kids always want to stick their legs in the water when they're on the sit up tube...no way, great way to snap your knee in two.

Also, I'm not judging your friend or his skills but I don't let my kids tube or ski with friends' parents who are not experienced boaters. Again, not saying this is the case with your friend. Pulling people on skis, wakeboard or a tube is not as easy as hooking it up an gunning the throttle. Knowing how to control the person you're towing takes practice so you don't kill them -- whether it's whipping too hard, not killing the engine on the pick up, etc.

There can be a fine line between exhilarating fun and severe injury or death.

 

[Steve195]

Good reminder on the importance of safety and inexperienced captains. My friend is an inexperienced captain, but is extremely safety cautious and always errs on the side of caution. He's been in my boat enough and I've heard him make enough comments about other boaters doing unsafe or stupid things to know it was just one of those freak accidents.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Steve, the fact that your friend is inexperienced may or may not be why the accident happened, but as to your comment about him being safety conscious, I have my doubts about that. Part of the knowledge that comes from many years of experience is being able to recognize situations that might not be safe.

The easy-to-recognize dumb acts are easy to see. Many dumb acts are not and that is where experience comes in to play. Again, I'm not saying your friend did something stooooopid, but he may not have known what he was about to do was a stupid act.

 

[dvx216]

tubing no different then anything else you do behind a boat that involves a rope and some speed **** happens the only way to prevent it is not to do it.I did a lot of tubing when I was younger and push the limits of being safe but what teenager or older doesn't when they are tubing. The driver was the key to knowing when things were getting out of hand.Never ended up in the ER but sure had my share of bumps and bruises

 

[Leardriver]

25 on a tube sounds blistering fast, because as you move sideways, you could be slinging it at 30. We try to tube at 15, and it is still a full contact sport.

 

[Boater420]

Tubing is one of the most dangerous things things you can do behind a boat in my humble opinion. You could have the most experienced tube towing captain in the world and there's still going to be accidents. Limbs twist the wrong way when out doing unnatural things such as tubing. Laying blame on the captain is ridiculous especially when you're not there to even witness the event.

 

[Tonka Boater]

Tubing is one of the most dangerous things things you can do behind a boat in my humble opinion. You could have the most experienced tube towing captain in the world and there's still going to be accidents. Limbs twist the wrong way when out doing unnatural things such as tubing. Laying blame on the captain is ridiculous especially when you're not there to even witness the event.

Agree with all of your comments but I don't think anyone explicitly blamed the captain. We all stressed the importance of being experienced before pulling anyone behind the boat. But I agree, experience does not ensure nobody will get hurt -- it does lessen the likelihood of mistakes due to inexperience though.

 

[blaster]

It's unfortunate he was injured. All in all it could be much worse, especially on Lake Anna. There is so much traffic on weekends that it's difficult to avoid. Lots of inexperienced captain's and drunk experts.

 

[Boater420]

Agree with all of your comments but I don't think anyone explicitly blamed the captain. We all stressed the importance of being experienced before pulling anyone behind the boat. But I agree, experience does not ensure nobody will get hurt -- it does lessen the likelihood of mistakes due to inexperience though.

I was referring to the comment by GoFirstClass "Steve, the fact that your friend is inexperienced may or may not be why the accident happened, but as to your comment about him being safety conscious, I have my doubts about that."

How could he possibly know anything about the captain's level of safety consciousness by reading the post? Seems to be a quick jump to judgement IMHO.

 

[Steve195]

I appreciate everybody's comments, but since I started the thread, let me make a few comments..........

TonkaBoater & GoFirstClass............ I appreciate you safety concerns, and the concerns about the ability of the captain. I wasn't on the boat at the time, so maybe my buddy was jamming the throttle,s whipping his nephew around in figure 8's at full throttle and trying to see how far he could throw him. But, probably not. There are times when an inexperienced, but educated captain can be safer than some one who has lots of experience but takes it for granted. Think how experienced you are driving your car, yet how often we tend to put our brain's on autopilot when driving. My buddy is still a bit "scared" as a new boat owner, so he's always on the lookout for trouble, and I'm confident he knows what to look for. His family had boats when he was growing up, and I know his dad (ex Navy) probably taught him some basics, even if it was through osmosis.

Leardriver - I'm not sure that I would describe 25 mph as "blistering fast". Yes it's quick, but it was a flat calm lake, he was going dead straight and wasn't whipping anybody around at the time

blaster - Yep, Lake Anna can get busy, bumpy and there are plenty of captain's that don't seem to have much common sense or care about anyone besides themselves. That probably describes most lakes in the summertime. In this case, the lake had nothing to do with it. They were the only boat in a calm cove at around 10:30 in the morning.

Plain and simple, this was just an unfortunate accident. As the bumper stickers say, $h!t happens!

Now if you want to really increase the likelihood of a tubing "accident", get one of these.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoBEtBkZh5A

 

[spikedaddy99]

Funny this thread occurred. I was on a tri-toon this weekend with a 250HP outboard. The Dad was trying to throw his kids as far off as he could (age 19,21) His daughter has a huge bruise on her hip. When my kids asked to tube (10,12) I asked for a turn driving his new boat to see how it handled. He let me, unsuspecting (I hope) I wasn't trying to decapitate my kids!!

Mike

 

[SloBurn]

I tube all the time with my kids and their friends. 18 mph is about all the speed you need behind my boat for a fun ride. I usually recommend they ride on their hands and knees, makes it easier to absorb the bumps. But, some times people hit the water and get twisted up though, even at that relatively sane speed. I know I have......

 

[blaster]

Sometimes you can get payback when you put the kids on the tube.

 

[The Bill Collector]

Wow, as a teenager growing up my buddies Dad had an American Eagle jet boat with a 455. The boat did 70+ and we got a surplus jet airplane intertube, needless to say with me & my buddy driving the boat without any parental supervision... I guess we are lucky to be alive let alone walking upright. We would whip the rider so he would be passing the boat and yes that was at full speed.