Am I being rude?

[airdvr1227]

Saw this post in another thread...

Also, if you're wakeboarding you should not be making sharp turns under power anyways as this chops up the water for the next time you pull up your rider, or the other riders in your vicinity.

When I'm pulling the tube I'm always making sharp turns under power.

 

[SeanT]

Re: Am I being rude?

I agree with the italicized statement in the context of wakeboarding. My wife usually drives while I ride, and if she decides to go off in some funny direction towards choppy water I let go of the rope.

With tubing - I'm all over the damn place. I can wreck calm water for about a kilometer after a good tubing session with the kids.

EDITED: MY APOLOGIES

 

[cwhite6]

Re: Am I being rude?

I would imagine it would depend greatly on where you are doing this. In a wide open area cutting around is fine. On smaller closed in places, it would rude if others where already there fishing or something similar. Where we go to tube, everyone is turning all over. Makes it an adventure sometimes to keep track of everyone else. Notice I said that where already there fishing or something before you got there. If you are tubing and they choose to come in and try to fish or anchor there, that is their problem IMHO.

Could you edit the post above to remove the expletive? Lots of folks here get offended by that particular cuss. Thanks.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Am I being rude?

I don't get it, my boat makes a big wake turn or no turn, if I slow up where it just starts to fall off plane the wake is at it's highest just where we like it.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Am I being rude?

Back when I used to waterski, we were always searching for glass. (Tubers, however, like bumps). That often put us close to shore and up in coves and shallow water, making a lot of wakes for others and landowners.

The "new" wakeboats designed to make a big wake make it worse for those looking for smooth water, but they are just as entitled to do so as the kayaker is entitled not to. But there is a purpose to big wake when pulling someone.

I think the point of the post, and it is a good one, is that when a boat, especially a wake boat, is NOT pulling someone--for example, turning around to pick up a dropped skiier, then it is considerate to minimize the wake you send out, especially on a hard turn to go back. Cut speed, drop off plane, turn, resume speed.

now don't someone start lecturing about why he has to do a bat-turn to zoom back and protect his fallen-off babies from being chopped up by other boaters. It's all about exercising judgment in the circumstances, and being courteous when you can.

 

[SeanT]

Re: Am I being rude?

I agree Home Cookin - it's actually better for the fallen rider if the boats stops immediately upon the spotter shouting "DOWN".

Part of the reason, is if, after saying "DOWN", you gun it to turn around, at that point you are actually getting FARTHER away from the fallen person.

Then you stall (just sayin, could happen, though not on any of our finely honed machines of course).

Then your worse off.

Could happen.

Also staying slow generates minimal wake when approaching the rider, making it easier for them to rest/recover.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Am I being rude?

...It's all about exercising judgment in the circumstances, and being courteous when you can.

Truer words have rarely been uttered here.

Look around, assess what you're doing and the impact on others. Minimize that impact, not only when you should, but when you can.

Imagine a world with nothing but courtesy and good sense. What a concept.

 

[RobbyA]

Re: Am I being rude?

Truer words have rarely been uttered here.

Look around, assess what you're doing and the impact on others. Minimize that impact, not only when you should, but when you can.

Imagine a world with nothing but courtesy and good sense. What a concept.

I just imagine owning a private lake where my boat is the only boat allowed, screw everyone else..... Oh, I can dream.

 

[Hawk Eyes]

Re: Am I being rude?

I would imagine it would depend greatly on where you are doing this. In a wide open area cutting around is fine. On smaller closed in places, it would rude if others where already there fishing or something similar. Where we go to tube, everyone is turning all over. Makes it an adventure sometimes to keep track of everyone else. Notice I said that where already there fishing or something before you got there. If you are tubing and they choose to come in and try to fish or anchor there, that is their problem IMHO.

Could you edit the post above to remove the expletive? Lots of folks here get offended by that particular cuss. Thanks.

I agree, if I'm fishing and someone brings their boat out and starts waking me when there is a whole lake to boat on, that ticks me off. But I don't expect them to stop when I get to the lake to fish.

That is why I fish early and then going tubing later.

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Am I being rude?

If you go into a long straight cove where people are doing wakeboarding runs and skiing runs and start tubing, then yes you are being rude. If you are tubing in the middle of the lake and a wakeboarder comes by, no you are not. Now, if a wakeboard boat is crossing the middle of the lake with ballasts full, that, to me, is just as rude as causing rollers in a good straight cove.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Re: Am I being rude?

When I used to ski a lot if we saw a few tubers in a section of the lake we'd just keep moving until we got away from them. I don't recall one time getting mad about their right to use the lake and trust me when I say I can be a bit of a hot head on the water at times. At the same time if we were skiing on the smooth side of the lake and someone started fishing there I didn't get mad either. I'd just chuckle to myself when we went by them at how dumb they must be to try to fish near the beach.

The same way you don't worry about the wind from your truck on someone walking down the side of the road is the way I always felt about my wake when I had someone in tow. When you're pulling someone they are the most important thing on the lake. I gave way to other skiiers and expected them to do the same for me. I don't think we ever had a problem with right of way there either.

 

[backyardhockey2]

Re: Am I being rude?

To some degree I equate tubers with the guy holding up the left lane on the freeway. Skiers need calm water. Tubers can deal with chop. If your tubing give the skiers out there some room. Better yet, be more than dead weight and give skiing a try. Flame away.

 

[cwhite6]

Re: Am I being rude?

Around here, I see very few skiers. Mostly tubes with kids or adults on them and wakeboarders. Skiing looks fun, but I love riding around in a tube with a good driver in the boat.

 

[convergent]

Re: Am I being rude?

We boat mostly on a lake that is just barely 2 miles long. It is very much a multi-use lake... almost always there are people fishing, sailing, tubing, wakeboarding, skiing, and kneeboarding. There are also three rowing clubs and they have a 5000 meter measured course with buoys all around the lake. And finally, the lake rents canoes, kayaks, sailboats, and paddle boats. And the renters will bring them out into the middle of the lake often. It is nearly impossible to not disrupt the fisherman when doing any watersport, and so I try to do my best, but I've been on both ends of it... because I fish there too. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, there is no wake on the whole lake until 11am, so that gives a lot of time when fishing and rowing can be done with ease.

Depending on how the wind is blowing, we often have to pull kind of close the shoreline to get calm water, and it will move around the lake. Last night over a couple of hours the calm water pretty much shifted all over the lake. We were wakeboarding/skiing and just kept following the calm water. Sometimes it brought us near people fishing, but we tried our best not to get too close. Of course there were several of us towing folks that kept needing to deal with each other too. One thing I've run into also is that if you are trying to pull a skier in the same area people are pulling wakeboarders you can have a problem because you are going faster and will eventually overtake the wakeboarder. I'm not sure if its cool to pass them, but I have done it... I just make sure there is plenty of room. I figure that if I can navigate out of their wake and around them (plenty of room of course) and not have the skier fall when we breach their wake, then they shouldn't have a problem when my wake eventually catches them after I pass. Its really not a lot different than meeting another tower head on and passing them that way.

I try to go out of my way to be courteous and it probably bothers me more than the other driver when I make a wrong call and end up throwing too much wake in someone's path or something.

 

[25thmustang]

Re: Am I being rude?

I do what I can to avoid skiiers, wakeboarders and tubers. I have seen a lot of them doing this right in the middle of the channel and boat traffic.

Last night on the river I cut my boat down a few hundred yards shy of the no wake zone. There was a skiier taking off from the no wake area and I did what I could to let them get up and go without dealing with my wake. I hope they appreciated it, but don't expect anything special in return.

 

[642mx]

Re: Am I being rude?

To some degree I equate tubers with the guy holding up the left lane on the freeway. Skiers need calm water. Tubers can deal with chop. If your tubing give the skiers out there some room. Better yet, be more than dead weight and give skiing a try. Flame away.

No flaming from me! I couldn't agree more. Tubers annoy the crap out of me. Its like they wait until they see a bunch of nice boats rafted up.... and then immediately start cutting donuts and making waves so that all the nice boats start banging into each other.

 

[steddy]

Re: Am I being rude?

now don't someone start lecturing about why he has to do a bat-turn to zoom back and protect his fallen-off babies from being chopped up by other boaters. It's all about exercising judgment in the circumstances, and being courteous when you can.

This happened to me this past weekend. We were coming around a blind curve on a lake I know pretty well. It was some local folks; I recognized them & their boat. They must have known that where they wiped out was a bad place; because they did exactly what's described above. I'm glad they did, too. With the glare in the water, I didn't immediately notice the boarder down. We didn't get close (for a fact, they weren't even where I was planning to go), but it was still really uncomfortable.

 

[calvinman]

Re: Am I being rude?

It is usually windy during the afternoons in Manitoba, so not much skiing or wakeboarding going on, so it is normal for everyone to tube all afternoon, then after supper when the wind dies everyone goes out and wake boards. it is a small lake but we all do what we can to stay out of each others way.

Someone mentioned chopping the throttle as soon as the spotter yells "boarder down". I could not agree with this more, as one evening I was pulling my daughters boyfriend on the wakeboard, he fell forward and I did not chop the throttle right away and his arm went through the grip of the rope. There was a sickening thud felt all the way up into the boat. We turned aroung to retrieve him and at first it looked like he had seperated his forearm muscle(yuch) lucky we had ice in our cooler and after packing his arm we rushed him off to the nearest hospitol where we were told his arm was not damaged, just bruised.

Calvi

 

[bowler]

Re: Am I being rude?

It is usually windy during the afternoons in Manitoba, so not much skiing or wakeboarding going on, so it is normal for everyone to tube all afternoon, then after supper when the wind dies everyone goes out and wake boards. it is a small lake but we all do what we can to stay out of each others way.

Someone mentioned chopping the throttle as soon as the spotter yells "boarder down". I could not agree with this more, as one evening I was pulling my daughters boyfriend on the wakeboard, he fell forward and I did not chop the throttle right away and his arm went through the grip of the rope. There was a sickening thud felt all the way up into the boat. We turned aroung to retrieve him and at first it looked like he had seperated his forearm muscle(yuch) lucky we had ice in our cooler and after packing his arm we rushed him off to the nearest hospitol where we were told his arm was not damaged, just bruised.

Calvi

Scary stuff

 

[2ndtry]

Re: Am I being rude?

Our lake has a large main channel (34 miles long, about 2 miles wide) and dozens of coves and "creeks". The main lake is almost always too choppy to ski, the coves are much flatter. The unwritten rule is, tube in the main lake and let the skiers/boarders have the flat water.

When the tubers come into the coves, it can cause some bruised feelings. I tube, ski and wakeboard quite a bit, so no flaming here, except that apparently no rules apply to the jet fleas .