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WI “Hazardous Wake” law


longlake

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My lake is somewhat under siege right now by the pontooners who like to tie up their boats together and sit on the lake.  They are claiming the wakesurfers are creating “Hazardous Wakes” when passed by surf boats which is not allowed per State Statue 30.68. 

 

State Statue 30.68

Creating hazardous wake or wash.

(a) No person shall operate a motorboat so as to approach or pass another boat in such a manner as to create a hazardous wake or wash.

(b) An operator of a motorboat is liable for any damage caused to the person or property of another by the wake or wash from such motorboat unless the negligence of such other person was the primary cause of the damage.

 

Currently this special interest group has the ear of the town board and the town board is “investigating what can be done”.  The town board is also contacting the DNR to determine what constitutes a “Hazardous Wake”.  Has anyone else in WI ran into this on their lake and what actions can we take to protect our rights as water sports enthusiast? 

 

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@longlakeWhat lake are you on? Or what county is Long Lake in?

I know I saw a reference to a potential ban of wake enhancing devices being used within 700' of shore in Sawyer County (Hayward).

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19 minutes ago, footndale said:

Stay away from the anchored pontoons?

I think there should also be some expectation that the pontoons are anchoring in a spot that allows others to also use the lake. 

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59 minutes ago, longlake said:

My lake is somewhat under siege right now by the pontooners who like to tie up their boats together and sit on the lake.  They are claiming the wakesurfers are creating “Hazardous Wakes” when passed by surf boats which is not allowed per State Statue 30.68. 

 

State Statue 30.68

Creating hazardous wake or wash.

(a) No person shall operate a motorboat so as to approach or pass another boat in such a manner as to create a hazardous wake or wash.

(b) An operator of a motorboat is liable for any damage caused to the person or property of another by the wake or wash from such motorboat unless the negligence of such other person was the primary cause of the damage.

 

Currently this special interest group has the ear of the town board and the town board is “investigating what can be done”.  The town board is also contacting the DNR to determine what constitutes a “Hazardous Wake”.  Has anyone else in WI ran into this on their lake and what actions can we take to protect our rights as water sports enthusiast? 

 

I think you just quoted the law, so no new laws need to be written by the tooners.   Politicians would love to make another law to feel like they 'did something', but it seems obvious they could just appeal to enforce the ones they already have.    It might sound sort of old fashioned, but I would stay away from them while surfing.  

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I hear everyone loud and clear to stay away from the tooners as we make every attempt to do. 

I spoke to our water patrol officer about this and he told me another lakes township in WI is working on passing (or has just passed) an ordinance which will not allow surfing.  If our township tries to pursue something like that what actions are suggested is what I was asking I guess.  Thanks for the feedback to contact the WSIA, that is helpful feedback.

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That's a skinny lake, might be hard. It's about numbers and the no wakers usually out number the big wakers.  This might be counter productive, but try to hang with them for some beers.

The Wolf River keeps going through some of this. Everyone wants to blame Gordy's wakeboard camp, when he hasn't even been on the water yet.  We get the big 30'+ boats that throw much bigger wakes and lot of them don't seem to care that at 15mph they do damage to tied up boats.

In another thread on here, someone videoed the wakes from a surf boat and those of big cruisers. I believe the difference was surf wakes die down sooner.  Could use this for information purposes too.

Might try to get some help from WWSF and USA Waterski too.

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It's been years since I was on Long Lake.  When we were there everyone drove around in a circle tubing and skiing.  My dad was a nervous wreck the whole time we were out on the boat with my uncle and cousins just waiting for someone to get run over.  That lake is one giant cluster on the weekends when we were there.  

The lake is what 2.5 miles long? And maybe .75 miles wide?  I'm not sure where the tuners are able to tie up and not being rocked by waves.  Is there any decent water on that lake ever?

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Yup, can get quite busy on the weekends.  It’s all relative though I guess, don’t want to bash any other local lakes but I know some others that are way worse. 

When you get a number of boats all converging at the end of the lake and turning around it creates a lot of wave energy that carries a long way and the surfers are the easy targets to blame.

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My thought was as I build towards my future, get a cabin on a lake up north out of the city so i dont have to deal with the busy lake BS and ppl complaining. Are these cabin lakes not safe from big wake haters now a days? I know there are probably lakes like this, and others that have no issues... Just hope I am able to find a good one in the future..

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29 minutes ago, AJwakedevil said:

My thought was as I build towards my future, get a cabin on a lake up north out of the city so i dont have to deal with the busy lake BS and ppl complaining. Are these cabin lakes not safe from big wake haters now a days? I know there are probably lakes like this, and others that have no issues... Just hope I am able to find a good one in the future..

Sawyer County in Wisconsin is a tourist destination with Hayward and a lot of cabin lakes.  As I mentioned above they are considering pushing wakeboats out to 700 feet from shore.  Like Minnesota, most of those northern Wisconsin lakes are not large.

I never really got into wakeboarding prior to when surfing became the focus that it is now.  I know there were always disagreements between footers/skiers and wakeboarders when wakeboarding became more prevalent.  But were there always this many potential law changes and public meetings to address the issue of wakeboarding?  Or is this a new thing with the increase in popularity of surfing?  

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1 hour ago, AJwakedevil said:

My thought was as I build towards my future, get a cabin on a lake up north out of the city so i dont have to deal with the busy lake BS and ppl complaining. Are these cabin lakes not safe from big wake haters now a days? I know there are probably lakes like this, and others that have no issues... Just hope I am able to find a good one in the future..

Once you own a dock and some lakeshore you may become a big wake hater ;) - at least when it is impacting your property

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30 minutes ago, onwi said:

 

Sawyer County in Wisconsin is a tourist destination with Hayward and a lot of cabin lakes.  As I mentioned above they are considering pushing wakeboats out to 700 feet from shore.  Like Minnesota, most of those northern Wisconsin lakes are not large.

I never really got into wakeboarding prior to when surfing became the focus that it is now.  I know there were always disagreements between footers/skiers and wakeboarders when wakeboarding became more prevalent.  But were there always this many potential law changes and public meetings to address the issue of wakeboarding?  Or is this a new thing with the increase in popularity of surfing?  

It is a much bigger thing with surfing.  Wakeboarding created smaller wakes, and a lot less of them.  Surfing can be done by just about anyone and as is evidenced on this board everyone is always looking for the next bigger boat and bigger tidal wave.  People with lake property on small lakes (like my parents) have never had to deal with the type of dock, boat and shoreline damage that can be caused by the new sized wakes.

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I all is about perception.  An argument can be made that larger boats cause just as much damage because their waves are big.  The difference is that the larger boat was bought for a different purpose, like a deep hull and enough free board to handle rough water when getting from point a to point b, or larger so that more people can fit on the boat, or whatever classic reason they have for purchasing that boat.  The large wake it makes is secondary to that - and not the intent when buying the boat.  So a property owner or tied up flotilla looks at that and has sympathy, it's not like they are TRYING to make a big wave.  A surf boat is built to make a large wake, that is the primary function, and the wake from that 23' boat seems ridiculous (to non surfers).  Especially when that surf boat makes a slow power turn each time the riders loses the pocket.  So because it is intentional and continuous, people take offense at it.

I think attending the meeting is a good idea and trying to strike a balance.  Figure out when is the best time to tie off, and when is the best time to surf.  Odds are nobody is tied off until noon on the weekends, so you'd have all morning to surf.

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I too live on a small lake in Ohio and the surf boats are destroying boats and property as well. Its owned buy the State so no laws against it for now. Its not the responsible boat owners its the guys who have to Surf 5ft off the no wake buoy's that are causing the problem. They have the entire center of the lake and yet still have to hug the shore line. I took a wave over the bow last week so large I thought we were going down, and yes of,course he was about 2ft of a buoy and I had no where to go, it was right outside a huge no wake zone between two bridges where all the boat traffic enters the main lake. Explain to me why he could not use the center of the lake. Its getting out of control at our lake. Makes absolutely no sense.  

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17 minutes ago, 96Response said:

I too live on a small lake in Ohio and the surf boats are destroying boats and property as well. Its owned buy the State so no laws against it for now. Its not the responsible boat owners its the guys who have to Surf 5ft off the no wake buoy's that are causing the problem. They have the entire center of the lake and yet still have to hug the shore line. I took a wave over the bow last week so large I thought we were going down, and yes of,course he was about 2ft of a buoy and I had no where to go, it was right outside a huge no wake zone between two bridges where all the boat traffic enters the main lake. Explain to me why he could not use the center of the lake. Its getting out of control at our lake. Makes absolutely no sense.  

I think this is the crux of the matter.  We see it on our lake in northern WI too.  Surfing in the middle of the lake during wally hours (basically from 10 am to sundown on weekends) doesn't really bother anyone.  Wakes dissipate enough by the time they reach shore or moored boats to greatly reduce destructive effects.  Surfing close to shore, however, always causes a kerfuffle.  Same with early morning slalom or barefooting BTW.

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2 minutes ago, UWSkier said:

giphy.gif

Bill says that's slalom and barefoot time.  :)

Boy, you t'd that right up for me.  But the force is strong with me and I can resist my inappropriate responses (tho they are flying thru my head and are really, really good).

I tend to agree with you on the footing, it's more fun.

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3 hours ago, Woodski said:

You could switch activities when the flotilla is on the water, slalom and barefoot wakes are pretty minimal.

The problem is the flotilla is out mid-day on the weekends and this is the same time tubers come out in droves.  The lake is quite choppy from the tubers so no one wants to ski, barefoot, or anything else really.  Rather than try to find a way to ban tubing we found we can still surf reasonably well in the chop and get out and enjoy another water sport other than tubing.

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