Boaters pulling tubes...

[Web]

We are pretty lucky. Although our lake is small, about 1,400 acres and 5 miles long we don't have a lot of surfers on our Lake. Matter of fact only 4 Malibus on the whole lake and the rest are pontoons or small I/Os. And the city that owns the lake is trying heavily to discourage personal watercrafts on the lake so they have been raising their latke fees every year and seems to be working.

But that still does not stop all the hillbillies in their pontoon boats or PWC B lining for my boat every time I head down the lake. It gets old fast but not much I can do.  On the weekends glasses to be had before noon and during the week you pretty much have the whole lake to yourself.

[CumminsBu]

2 hours ago, oldjeep said:

LOL, he has a valid point though about people following too close, regardless of what you or they are doing.  We just pack up and move if it happens.  Was amused though at the idea of a tidal wave boater complaining about someone chopping the water up  

Haha I didn't even catch that.

[wakedncsu]

I still think PWC and tubers are worse than surfers.  For us, Surfers still drive in a straight line.  As well as I can make safe assumptions about a surfer.  Can't to that at all with the other two.  During the week when we surf, we don't follow the rule of staying in the counter clockwise.  Granted our lake isn't bust at all in the evenings.  The few boat that are out all know each other.  We try to surf sending the weak side of the wave into the others who might be wakeboarding.  Our lake also has the benefit of not having a single house on it.  So the whole dock issue isn't a problem for us.  When the tubers get too close we either move to a different place on the lake or throw anchor and wait a while.

[ID AX]

On July 17, 2016 at 6:21 PM, Chatty21VLX said:

I hate when i'm trying to find some calm water to wakeboard on, and find a spot only to have it ruined by 3 surf boats. Can't surfing be done in choppy water?

Funny, this is exactly what I used to hear 15 years ago.  Except back then it was the skiers telling us wakeborders the same thing.  So I guess wakeboarders are the new skiers??? 

Can you surf in rough water?  Sure, just like you can wakeboard, ski, foil or tube in rough water.  Just because you can doesn't mean it's fun.  I slalom, wakeboard and wake surf, all are a blast and smooth water just makes it that much better  

I was on the water Thursday night and just as we setup (away from everyone else) here comes an MC pulling a wakeboard.  He runs right down the middle of the narrow canyon we were in.  I wait 5 mins to see if he is just passing through and sure enough here he comes again.  We head further up the canyon and just as we were dropping our first rider in the water here comes another boat towing a lady on a slalom ski.  She obviously was learning and was falling a lot.  Que the power turns.  Once again we head further up the canyon.   We finally found a spot that was somewhat clear and proceeded to have a great time.  Normally it's the jet skis and tubes that we have problems with.  I usually just move and mumble under my breath, unless I have a rider in the water.  Then I will wave them off or give them the WTF look.  On two occasions I've had to get a LEO involved and both times the LEO escorted the offenders off the water.  

 

Edited July 18, 2016 by ID AX

[Suggy]

We typically get up to ski and wakeboard in the morning before tubers are out, and late evening when everyone is alread in.  There's usually a few other skeirs/boarders (small lake), so we try to share the lake as best we can with them.  Once the tubers come out in the middle of the day, we surf.  You don't need perfect water to surf and tubers/jet skis love your wake anyway.  Little pontoon waves, jet ski waves, any small wave, doesn't affect the surf wave at all.  When I'm wakeboarding or especially skiing, I get pissed at any ripple in the water.  On our small lake, I do feel for people on shore/the docks (because of our big wake), but we aren't the only ones on the lake.  Not much we can do about it.

As far as people following too close... I don't care if you hate surfers or boarders because of their big wake, it's never acceptable to follow too close.  Just way too dangerous.  If anyone is too close, we glare/throw the hands up.  If I'm the one riding, I always pay attention to my surroundings and if I think someone is too close I just won't jump/try not to fall until the situation clears up.

[Ndawg12]

I pull tubes and surf, apparently I'm the ultimate a-hole!!

Yesterday I had a dozen of my wife's coworkers in the boat, including her boss.  We have a big 7' diameter tube so they can ride up to 4 at a time.  I beat the crap out of most of them (especially her boss  ) for 2 straight hours and it was more fun than I've ever had surfing, the whole boat was laughing or on edge to see what would happen next.  There were a few boats in the area but we kept our distance and my eyes stayed forward.  It can be done safely and respectfully.

[Suggy]

Just now, Ndawg12 said:

I pull tubes and surf, apparently I'm the ultimate a-hole!!

Yesterday I had a dozen of my wife's coworkers in the boat, including her boss.  We have a big 7' diameter tube so they can ride up to 4 at a time.  I beat the crap out of most of them (especially her boss  ) for 2 straight hours and it was more fun than I've ever had surfing, the whole boat was laughing or on edge to see what would happen next.  There were a few boats in the area but we kept our distance and my eyes stayed forward.  It can be done safely and respectfully.

Anything (well... almost) can be done safely and respectfully.  Nothing is worse when we are the only boat out, plus one tuber who decides to come over to MY water.  You have the entire rest of the lake, just leave me this one stretch... why you have to ruin my water!? 

[wakedncsu]

3 minutes ago, Suggy said:

Anything (well... almost) can be done safely and respectfully.  Nothing is worse when we are the only boat out, plus one tuber who decides to come over to MY water.  You have the entire rest of the lake, just leave me this one stretch... why you have to ruin my water!? 

This is always my luck.  We will find the one spot on the lake with a decent wind break, be the only boat out there, and a tuber will come in and ruin the ONLY glass on the lake.  

[shawndoggy]

I've only ever had an inboard, and I've never not pulled tubes from time to time.  Saturday I noticed a runabout pulling a tube around doing some pretty erratic maneuvers (360s, figure 8s, etc).  But the tubers were staying on no problem, and they were little kids.  Are the runabout wakes really flat?  If I was towing my pretty strong teens and their friends behind my boat in the same way there's no way the kids could hang on.  Seriously, I can get a good whip going right from the holeshot where I can get rid of almost anyone if I wanted to.

[minnmarker]

35 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

I've only ever had an inboard, and I've never not pulled tubes from time to time.  Saturday I noticed a runabout pulling a tube around doing some pretty erratic maneuvers (360s, figure 8s, etc).  But the tubers were staying on no problem, and they were little kids.  Are the runabout wakes really flat?  If I was towing my pretty strong teens and their friends behind my boat in the same way there's no way the kids could hang on.  Seriously, I can get a good whip going right from the holeshot where I can get rid of almost anyone if I wanted to.

Pulling tubers on the edge is a skill like any other boat driving.  Good use of throttle, trim, and steering and you can give them a good ride even with an I/O - but we always tried to not mess up the morning or evening glass.  Kids out of tubes now.  We were out doing slalom sets until 10:30 yesterday when the tubers showed up. I guess I'll take 10:30 on a summer weekend as a good compromise.

[ID AX]

49 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

I've only ever had an inboard, and I've never not pulled tubes from time to time.  Saturday I noticed a runabout pulling a tube around doing some pretty erratic maneuvers (360s, figure 8s, etc).  But the tubers were staying on no problem, and they were little kids.  

I would say they were lucky.  This happened last month at one of our local lakes. 

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article86348957.html

and this in Tennessee

http://wishtv.com/2016/07/11/country-singer-craig-morgans-son-missing-after-lake-accident/

 

[henrik]

I try to stick to a rule adopted from a friend of mine. No tubing until after 2pm. Or until everyone in he boat has raken their turn wakeboarding, kneeboarding, surfed etc. With that said, both days this weekend all kneeboarding and tubing...

[ibelonginprison]

Surfing can wreck the water, but it's part of it. we had a surfer come past us while I was riding this weekend... I just shrugged, hit the surf wake like it was my wakeboard wake and tried to get a really big ollie out of it. Halfway up, I realized I'm not skilled enough for that and let go. lol 

 

OK, back toobers. Two things make them dangerous:

1. The sporadic method in which they dart back and forth. The unpredictability makes it hard to pick a safe line and stick with it. So you're trying to figure out what the toOber is doing, and other boats are trying to figure out what you're doing, and so forth. It's a terrible cycle.

2. The boat drivers concentrate on slinging tOobers and not driving. I have had to come off throttle and stop numerous times, once or twice with a rider, just to let an inattentive tube driver snake his way across the water until he turned around and noticed there were other people on the water besides him, or simply let said toOb driver pass narrowly by, in which case I usually let him know that he is number one. 

 

And if ANY boat follows in my wake while I have a rider, or comes close to one of my riders while cutting across, (much less doing circles around me) then they see a very negative side of me. If you're just doing something irritating, I shake my head. If it's mildly dangerous, such as passing too close in front of me or ignoring the right of way, you may get the one finger salute. (When in doubt, I always come off throttle or get out of the way long before it becomes an issue) 

But I'm super protective of anyone that's in the water behind my boat, they're helpless, and they have to trust the driver to keep them safe - and if you straight up endanger one of my riders like that? I will come 100% unhinged.
And it's not pretty. 

So, waving him off and yelling a little? That's mild. You're not an a'hole. You're a good boat captain.

[Sixball]

I just came back in from spotting for the neighbors boys Skiing!!!!!!!!   Ok they were tubing  but I refuse to let anyone know I did that. And I only spotted. 

[SoDakSooner]

I don't have a problem with tubers. We usually just quit and watch the hijinx.  We are typically out early enough to board that we are done by the time they show up.  We were at a different lake (Grand Lake in OK) this weekend and it was tubers from 8am till dark.  Tried to get a quick surf set in right at dark, and even then it was futile(didn't have any weight in the boat either, so that didn't help).  Even in the coves, that lake is insane.  Lake houses all over and every one has a dock and a tube. (Also a ton of Malibu's)

I occasionally pull tubes, but even with no ballast the line off the pylon gets caught in the wake.  Plus my boat turns like a pig, with even a few people in it, so it isn't much fun as I can't sling them like i could with my i/o years ago (lots of cavitation too if I go too sharply).  I was pulling a bunch from my son's baseball team this weekend, and the other boat in our group, a 24' Rinker deck boat,  came over after a few runs. They all abandoned me for the i/o.  Can't say i was disappointed.  We just went out and cruised and looked at lake houses after that.

 

 

 

[Ndawg12]

47 minutes ago, SoDakSooner said:

I don't have a problem with tubers. We usually just quit and watch the hijinx.  We are typically out early enough to board that we are done by the time they show up.  We were at a different lake (Grand Lake in OK) this weekend and it was tubers from 8am till dark.  Tried to get a quick surf set in right at dark, and even then it was futile(didn't have any weight in the boat either, so that didn't help).  Even in the coves, that lake is insane.  Lake houses all over and every one has a dock and a tube. (Also a ton of Malibu's)

I occasionally pull tubes, but even with no ballast the line off the pylon gets caught in the wake.  Plus my boat turns like a pig, with even a few people in it, so it isn't much fun as I can't sling them like i could with my i/o years ago (lots of cavitation too if I go too sharply).  I was pulling a bunch from my son's baseball team this weekend, and the other boat in our group, a 24' Rinker deck boat,  came over after a few runs. They all abandoned me for the i/o.  Can't say i was disappointed.  We just went out and cruised and looked at lake houses after that.

 

 

 

Professional tubers use these:

 

or speed up, flattens the wake and creates more line tension.

[SoDakSooner]

 

39 minutes ago, Ndawg12 said:

Professional tubers use these:

 

or speed up, flattens the wake and creates more line tension.

I actually bought one similar to that just for this weekend.  I just didn't have time to dial it in before the kids abandoned me... 

Dont like to tube much over 25 mph, although it does better at speed.

Trust me, I don't want to be a professional tube puller.  I'll just stick with my lame excuses that the boat doesn't do it well...lol.  Getting to be more of a rarity anymore.  Son is starting to take to the boards...finally at 14... so we have a few rare times when we take other kids out.

 

[windy1]

My son got to ride an M235 last weekend on Grand Lake. He didn't surf but got one look at the surf wake with just stock ballast and his comment was, that wake is going to be a problem even on grand. He said if our wakesetter was within 100 yards of a full M235 surf wake we would be in big trouble. I think in a short amount of time surf wakes will be a bigger concern than tubes.

That doesn't make me not want an M235.

 

[Raimie]

18 minutes ago, windy1 said:

My son got to ride an M235 last weekend on Grand Lake. He didn't surf but got one look at the surf wake with just stock ballast and his comment was, that wake is going to be a problem even on grand. He said if our wakesetter was within 100 yards of a full M235 surf wake we would be in big trouble. I think in a short amount of time surf wakes will be a bigger concern than tubes.

That doesn't make me not want an M235.

 

Ya'll should come out on big water with me sometime. We get 60'+ cruiser wakes daily to deal with. No way is the M235 even comparable to the waves the big cruisers put out. As long as you know how to approach the waves, it's no big deal.

[Cmb396]

Just now, Raimie said:

Ya'll should come out on big water with me sometime. We get 60'+ cruiser wakes daily to deal with. No way is the M235 even comparable to the waves the big cruisers put out. As long as you know how to approach the waves, it's no big deal.

That's what make me kinda chuckle, what's the diff in a surf wake and even a 30'+ cruiser chugging along at 10-15mph churning out a 5' wake? I have seen cruisers simply wreck docks! 

[teamerickson]

3 hours ago, SoDakSooner said:

I don't have a problem with tubers. We usually just quit and watch the hijinx.  We are typically out early enough to board that we are done by the time they show up.  We were at a different lake (Grand Lake in OK) this weekend and it was tubers from 8am till dark.  Tried to get a quick surf set in right at dark, and even then it was futile(didn't have any weight in the boat either, so that didn't help).  Even in the coves, that lake is insane.  Lake houses all over and every one has a dock and a tube. (Also a ton of Malibu's)

I occasionally pull tubes, but even with no ballast the line off the pylon gets caught in the wake.  Plus my boat turns like a pig, with even a few people in it, so it isn't much fun as I can't sling them like i could with my i/o years ago (lots of cavitation too if I go too sharply).  I was pulling a bunch from my son's baseball team this weekend, and the other boat in our group, a 24' Rinker deck boat,  came over after a few runs. They all abandoned me for the i/o.  Can't say i was disappointed.  We just went out and cruised and looked at lake houses after that.

 

 

 

Tube from the tower.

[Slurpee]

On my last boat I had the WS420 and used the PA function several times. It's loud enough coming from pro80s and a 410 to cut through PWC noise and be heard. A polite,"you're too close you could hit my kid/friend/wife please stand off 100' at least and not follow directly" worked surprisingly well. I tried the, "Hey Idiot!" Approach a few times and it didn't work well. Just escalated things. 

I miss that 420 on this boat for that reason. 

[windy1]

1 hour ago, Raimie said:

Ya'll should come out on big water with me sometime. We get 60'+ cruiser wakes daily to deal with. No way is the M235 even comparable to the waves the big cruisers put out. As long as you know how to approach the waves, it's no big deal.

I do not disagree except that many of us surfers are not in the big water and many if not most Okie boaters don't know how to approach a wave way bigger than they are used to. 2 years ago I saw 0 surfers. last weekend I saw 5-10 and next year I will see 30+. they probably wont make new rules for the cruiser wakes they were born with but rules are coming for optional added weight just to make it more fun.

[SoDakSooner]

1 hour ago, teamerickson said:

Tube from the tower.

I did when the kids were little, but all I have read is towers are not designed to take the stress of tubing.  WILL not do it any more now that they are bigger.

2 hours ago, Cmb396 said:

That's what make me kinda chuckle, what's the diff in a surf wake and even a 30'+ cruiser chugging along at 10-15mph churning out a 5' wake? I have seen cruisers simply wreck docks! 

I had the pleasure of dealing with that this weekend as well.  That was fun...not, but I kept it all dry so I guess I did something right.

[teamerickson]

3 minutes ago, SoDakSooner said:

I did when the kids were little, but all I have read is towers are not designed to take the stress of tubing.  WILL not do it any more now that they are bigger.

IDK? Axis manual says to use it. Don't know about the Malibu manual?