Someone stole my course

[pkenney]

Hello, I live in Massachusetts where some friends and myself set up a slalom course in a local lake about eight years ago. When we skied yesterday, everything was fine. The course was as it has been since we set it up for the season, which was about three weeks ago. Upon arriving to the lake today, we found that someone had taken the course. All our buoys are gone. It appears that they cut our silicon tubing which anchored our buoys. I believe that someone living on the lake may have taken our property (the buoys). My friend believes that someone stole the buoys to use for themselves. We are back at square one. Should we set the course up again? The anchors seem to still be in place. I'm looking for feedback. I'm questioning if I should just purchase a portable course and set that up before each ski date. I'd appreciate your opinions. Thank you.

I need to correct myself here, someone stole the club's course. If not for all the hard work of people like Mark, it would not be possible. Thanks, pkenney

Edited June 20, 2009 by pkenney

[MalibuNation]

Hello, I live in Massachusetts where some friends and myself set up a slalom course in a local lake about eight years ago. When we skied yesterday, everything was fine. The course was as it has been since we set it up for the season, which was about three weeks ago. Upon arriving to the lake on today, we found that someone had taken the course. All our buoys are gone. It appears that they cut our silicon tubing which anchored our buoys. I believe that someone living on the lake may have taken our property (the buoys). My friend believes that someone stole the buoys to use for themselves. We are back at square one. Should we set the course up again? The anchors seem to still be in place. I'm looking for feedback. I'm questioning if I should just purchase a portable course and set that up before each ski date. I'd appreciate your opinions. Thank you.

Sorry to hear that ... I hate thieves.

I just spent over 300 bucks yesterday for an alarm for my boat and stereo.

Is is possible that it wasn't stolen per say, but destroyed by ... lets say fisherman?

[Coach Mike]

We have a course over by us too and the jet skiers ride through and knock buoys loose at times. Did they take all of them? If they're all gone, likely stolen or someone doesn't want you there any more so it would probably happen again

It is a shame that something like this can happen to spoil a time that is so enjoyable.

Good luck

[tvano]

dollar to a donut says that it was not stolen (not technically) but an irate land baron making a statement.

people are so...

well, you know.

[malibudreaming]

Hello, I live in Massachusetts where some friends and myself set up a slalom course in a local lake about eight years ago. When we skied yesterday, everything was fine. The course was as it has been since we set it up for the season, which was about three weeks ago. Upon arriving to the lake on today, we found that someone had taken the course. All our buoys are gone. It appears that they cut our silicon tubing which anchored our buoys. I believe that someone living on the lake may have taken our property (the buoys). My friend believes that someone stole the buoys to use for themselves. We are back at square one. Should we set the course up again? The anchors seem to still be in place. I'm looking for feedback. I'm questioning if I should just purchase a portable course and set that up before each ski date. I'd appreciate your opinions. Thank you.

Sorry to hear that ... I hate thieves.

I just spent over 300 bucks yesterday for an alarm for my boat and stereo.

Is is possible that it wasn't stolen per say, but destroyed by ... lets say fisherman?

[malibudreaming]

Yep Im betting someone does not want you skiing at the particular spot.

[gripnrip]

That is so messed up. Set up surveillance cameras and catch the thief. I know if you put a portable course up on public waters in this state you need a permit. If you are really into skiing you will want to buy a new portable course. I would set up and take down when done.

[pkenney]

Yep Im betting someone does not want you skiing at the particular spot.

We have been skiing there for 8 years. We have also offered and pulled kids on the lake. I reordered boat guids today for $80; I will try 1 more time. I know some of the people that live on the lake. I am going to try to set up surveillance camera. I guess it means 3-4 more hours to reset the coarse up. I just wish that if people had a problem, they would talk to us first.

[obski]

Yep Im betting someone does not want you skiing at the particular spot.

[UWSkier]

We had a similar problem on a local course down here in WI a few years ago. Once the local authorities got involved, the buoy chopper quit his antics. Just some pissed off redneck fisherman is my bet. That's what it was out here anyways.

[Boatman]

If you quit...........THEY WIN!!!!!!

[ed obermeier]

Hello, I live in Massachusetts where some friends and myself set up a slalom course in a local lake about eight years ago. When we skied yesterday, everything was fine. The course was as it has been since we set it up for the season, which was about three weeks ago. Upon arriving to the lake on today, we found that someone had taken the course. All our buoys are gone. It appears that they cut our silicon tubing which anchored our buoys. I believe that someone living on the lake may have taken our property (the buoys). My friend believes that someone stole the buoys to use for themselves. We are back at square one. Should we set the course up again? The anchors seem to still be in place. I'm looking for feedback. I'm questioning if I should just purchase a portable course and set that up before each ski date. I'd appreciate your opinions. Thank you.

If you've lived there and been skiing there for 8 years and the course has been there that long, IMO by all means put it back ASAP. Don't let one jerk and one incident run you off. The suggestion for putting up a camera to capture someone screwing with YOUR property (on public water it's public domain, I know, still doesn't give anyone any legal right to vandalize it) is a very good one IMO. They make reasonably priced game spotting motion activated cameras that would work for that, and if you could get a photo or someones boat numbers their a** is in deep doo-doo. If the course has been there that long, even if you don't have a formal permit for it, past practice and your history of being good neighbors should carry a lot of weight with whatever authorities I would think.

I'm unclear as to if this is a floating-style course or an individually anchored course? Either way it could still all be there on the bottom, they probably just stole or knifed the buoys to sink it perhaps? Tried dragging for it?

Another point. We've skied on a couple of different lakes here for the past 12 - 15 years . One of my good ski buds is also a tournament crappie fisherman and knows a lot of the local fishermen which helps. Anyway, one local park lake we ski on (Wednesdays and Sundays only) we actualy have fishermen who come out to fish that lake on Wed eves while we're skiing because they KNOW that the fishing is better when we're skiing. Reason - we're stirring the water which stirs up the bait, makes the fish more active. That and they're drawn to the structure of the course in the water. They fish the edges and don't bother us, we try to give them as much space as possible. Not uncommon as we're doing turn-arounds to have someone hold up a large bass, crappie etc to show us (thumbs up all around!). Don't let anyone tell you you're ruining the fishing, the exact opposite is true and that can be proven. They may not like getting rocked around but the effect on their fishing is more likely positive than negative.

Ed

[bretski75]

Did you say you had a permit? I have heard stories or the police / dnr taking out unpermitted courses. My money is on the fisherman though.

[jgouveia3]

we've had all our buoys slashed by people who are ticked off (we suspected the local crew team, but there was no way to prove it). So the course wasn't stolen, we found it on the bottom...

[99response]

The nice thing is its easy to get back at the crew team....especially if you have a VLX

[pkenney]

Hello, I live in Massachusetts where some friends and myself set up a slalom course in a local lake about eight years ago. When we skied yesterday, everything was fine. The course was as it has been since we set it up for the season, which was about three weeks ago. Upon arriving to the lake on today, we found that someone had taken the course. All our buoys are gone. It appears that they cut our silicon tubing which anchored our buoys. I believe that someone living on the lake may have taken our property (the buoys). My friend believes that someone stole the buoys to use for themselves. We are back at square one. Should we set the course up again? The anchors seem to still be in place. I'm looking for feedback. I'm questioning if I should just purchase a portable course and set that up before each ski date. I'd appreciate your opinions. Thank you.

If you've lived there and been skiing there for 8 years and the course has been there that long, IMO by all means put it back ASAP. Don't let one jerk and one incident run you off. The suggestion for putting up a camera to capture someone screwing with YOUR property (on public water it's public domain, I know, still doesn't give anyone any legal right to vandalize it) is a very good one IMO. They make reasonably priced game spotting motion activated cameras that would work for that, and if you could get a photo or someones boat numbers their a** is in deep doo-doo. If the course has been there that long, even if you don't have a formal permit for it, past practice and your history of being good neighbors should carry a lot of weight with whatever authorities I would think.

I'm unclear as to if this is a floating-style course or an individually anchored course? Either way it could still all be there on the bottom, they probably just stole or knifed the buoys to sink it perhaps? Tried dragging for it?

Another point. We've skied on a couple of different lakes here for the past 12 - 15 years . One of my good ski buds is also a tournament crappie fisherman and knows a lot of the local fishermen which helps. Anyway, one local park lake we ski on (Wednesdays and Sundays only) we actualy have fishermen who come out to fish that lake on Wed eves while we're skiing because they KNOW that the fishing is better when we're skiing. Reason - we're stirring the water which stirs up the bait, makes the fish more active. That and they're drawn to the structure of the course in the water. They fish the edges and don't bother us, we try to give them as much space as possible. Not uncommon as we're doing turn-arounds to have someone hold up a large bass, crappie etc to show us (thumbs up all around!). Don't let anyone tell you you're ruining the fishing, the exact opposite is true and that can be proven. They may not like getting rocked around but the effect on their fishing is more likely positive than negative.

Ed

Ed we found all the anchors tonight reinstalled pregates, gates,and boat guides tonight. We also spoke to a lot of people on the lake. They are all going to keep a closer look out for use.It was a good night to see almost a course again.

[DWhynot]

There must be a bouy thief in New England!

I installed our course yesterday morning (southern lakes region of NH - 24th year of this permitted course), and this morning there was a skier buoy missing... No big deal; just replaced it thinking I mis-hooked it, or whetever... This afternoon, two shiney new gate buoys and two shiney new guide buoys GONE! 5 buoys gone in a day and a half! These didn't just fall off! I'll be replacing them with the crappy spare buoys, but I won't stop replacing them. I'm guessing it's some dumba$$ kids who took them...

We've never had problems with the fishermen, or anyone who lives on the lake (except maybe a few bad drivers playing "Bayliner Slalom" over the years, but they only grind up maybe one or two...)

Oh well...

[Bill_AirJunky]

Bummer. Hope you are able to catch the thief with the camera.

Around here it's not a great idea to leave a course up all the time. There is so much traffic in the summer that it's bound to be ransacked, stoken or cause accidents. The guys who ski the course on my local lake have a sinkable course. So there is only one bouy left on top with an air line. Takes them a couple minutes to get it back on top anytime. Last summer they didn't sink it all the way. I rode by, knowing full well I was in the area, and caught it with my SkySki. Dropped me like a rock & broke up a ton of their PVC. Now they set it up in the main lake, probably right in front of one of their homes. Last Saturday it was on the surface. By the end of the day I noticed multiple bouys were missing, probably snagged by various boats &/or PWCs. Haven't seen it since.

I appreciate that you want to setup a course. But it might be a good idea to either go the portable or sinkable route. Keeps others out of your gear & keeps the lake safe.

[pkenney]

We got our course back together yesterday, we are so happy. The problem was that as soon as we jumped in the water, out comes a bunch of wallies trowing rollers all around us. Well, that was that, so we headed to load up and call it awash. Then over comes a young guy on a jetski and he thanked us for setting the course up (like it was for him)! But at least we have the course set up again.