Wakesurf Waves - Small Lake - Recommendations

[MalibuV7]

Does anyone have a letter they have sent out to their community for wakesurf driving recommendations? We live on a smaller lake (200 acres) and have some residents that are starting to complain about the surf wakes/distances from docks, etc. 

Mostly we have some wakesurf boats that need some guidance on better driving before we get a number of residents trying to take further action. I have the WSIA report with distances over 200'.

Just seeing if anyone has done some proactive outreach to prevent further action. Our neighborhood board is good with surfing but have to keep the other neighbors somewhat calm. Trying to get ahead of the issues with complaints by giving info to the drivers for reasonable distances and usage. 

[minnmarker]

Invest in rip rap companies and cross your fingers.  Also have a word with the perps about distance.  It might help.  It has on my lake.

[carguy79ta]

Riprap will solve the erosion, but educating the perps is the best step. If they realize that you want the same thing they do, that should go a long way.

[drewski300]

Reaching out to neighbors to educate them on how they should be ok with your wave will go over like talking to your liberal neighbor and tell them why Trump is doing well. They won't listen to you and honestly you might get into a larger argument.  I'd suggest reaching out to the other wake boats and trying to educate them on why driving too close to the shoreline or other boats and blaring your music will only make people hate us more. Be respectful and hopefully that's enough!

[Jeff247]

Educate how to be respectful around others on the lake. Its more that just shoreline issues.  On a small lake, do you think someone who wants to get a good slalom run in wants to see someone surfing, creating huge waves?  If you see someone slaloming, just wait until they are done before creating huge waves, wrecking their time on the lake.  No one likes trying to drive a DD ski boat, swim, or ski thru those huge waves. And if you see boats tied up at docks (visitors or etc), try and stay away. Be mindful of what people are doing on the lake before creating huge waves, especially smaller lakes or areas. Yes, you might have to wait.

If you choose not to care, then you will be banned in the future. It really is that simple.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Jeff247

[smileysteve]

The things that most people (experienced and inexperienced boaters) don't often know:

1. Not Power Turn (idle back to the faller rider)
2. Drive back through their own wake (it's a repetitive pass, but the 2 neutral out)
   Alternatively, drop and take a breather instead of turning
3. Avoid "no man's land" speed (8-15mph) when not pulling somebody.

I struggle with teaching an old dog new tricks, and even though there are videos, I always do these things, even have trouble getting my crew to do them every time.
(these 3 apply very much so to Wakeboarding and Slalom skiing as well)

In addition, over communicate, stand on boat with a rider approaching the end of the lake, signal to your rider and all the boats around you early that you are turning around.

But also, if there are multiple surfers in the same large cove, drive the same line (at a safe distance); you're all going the same speed; the water behind will be smoothed, and if somebody falls not at the end, you just adjust.

[UWSkier]

Communicate to EVERYONE on the lake.  If the anti-surfers see you guys actively trying to self-police, it'll be good PR.  Do you have a lake association that publishes a newsletter?  Maybe an article in there "from wakesurfers, for wakesurfers" with tips on how not to be a jerk

[BigCreek]

Yeah, you have your rules, but I just bought my first boat, a $185k MasterCraft, and I think that gives me the right to blare music with terrible (maybe racist) language, and run my wakes into your docks. I also think that my best marina "no-wake" speed is 8.5mph and if you don't like that and my awful music rocking your marina, you should go buy your own lakefront property like my daddy did for me!

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by BigCreek

[MNNewb]

At what point is a lake too small to reasonably accommodate surfing?  I'm all for education and more responsible driving but 200 or less acres sounds pretty small if you have to share it with other users.

[Michigan boarder]

What is the lake like, a circle?  Long and narrow?

[Wolflake]

200 acres is plenty large enough. Obviously larger is more ideal. It seems like anymore someone is always offended. Kill em with smiles and kindness is what I always preach. 

[Wolflake]

Haha better brush up on laws some states are 50’ and most people can’t tell distance anyways.  Also, your opinion is just that, maybe don’t keep your chairs there 🙃

[Steve B.]

Our lake is 230 acres. Hitting those swells at slalom speed is not fun at all. 

[Wolflake]

Exactly my point always someone offended. There is not a lot of case law regarding obeying the laws and staying the legally required distance away from the shoreline, now you’re just blatantly lying. If you pay taxes on your dock im sorry that’s your loss. You sir are a fearmonger. fwiw The keeping your chairs there was merely a joke kinda like your joke about the boat going to the moon😂. You might need to move to a no wake lake, it’ll suit you better.

[Wolflake]

Incorrect once again, you sure make a lot of assumptions in this conversation. As previously stated you are a fearmonger. 

[Wolflake]

And for some reason you bring name calling into this? I can tell you are winning in life 🙃

[Wolflake]

You sure seem like a sad person. You have incorrect misleading information and you randomly speak two languages in a post. Perhaps you’re feeling inadequate? 

[UWSkier]

What the heck happened in this thread?  It's almost like a giant surf roller crashed through here and wiped a bunch of stuff away... 

[MNNewb]

12 hours ago, UWSkier said:

What the heck happened in this thread?  It's almost like a giant surf roller crashed through here and wiped a bunch of stuff away... 

I'm really lost too, cant' figure out what direction this thing is going.  I was innocently asking a question on lake size and when small is maybe too small when your sharing.  I really am just curious. 

Through this board I found out Drewski300 and I are on the same chain of lakes.  Both of us are closest to lakes that are rather narrow and can drive to one that's much better suited for surfing.  On a monday-wednesday sometimes I can be the only boat and then surf dead center of the narrow/smaller lake.  On a Fri-Sun I need to share the space.  It's pretty quick before in order to not smash another boat with my surf wave then I'm getting uncomfortably close to shore.

[UWSkier]

23 minutes ago, MNNewb said:

I'm really lost too, cant' figure out what direction this thing is going.  I was innocently asking a question on lake size and when small is maybe too small when your sharing.  I really am just curious. 

Through this board I found out Drewski300 and I are on the same chain of lakes.  Both of us are closest to lakes that are rather narrow and can drive to one that's much better suited for surfing.  On a monday-wednesday sometimes I can be the only boat and then surf dead center of the narrow/smaller lake.  On a Fri-Sun I need to share the space.  It's pretty quick before in order to not smash another boat with my surf wave then I'm getting uncomfortably close to shore.

Think there was an argument and one half of it decided to remove his/her posts...

FWIW I agree that 200 acres is pretty small for surfing if there are 4 or 5 boats out there at a time.  If you're the only boat and staying in the middle, it's probably big enough.

[drewski300]

2 hours ago, MNNewb said:

I'm really lost too, cant' figure out what direction this thing is going.  I was innocently asking a question on lake size and when small is maybe too small when your sharing.  I really am just curious. 

Through this board I found out Drewski300 and I are on the same chain of lakes.  Both of us are closest to lakes that are rather narrow and can drive to one that's much better suited for surfing.  On a monday-wednesday sometimes I can be the only boat and then surf dead center of the narrow/smaller lake.  On a Fri-Sun I need to share the space.  It's pretty quick before in order to not smash another boat with my surf wave then I'm getting uncomfortably close to shore.

The lake we are directly on is roughly 270 acres and is roughly 1800' wide is very long and narrow. Surfing in the middle of the lake is perfectly fine but with resort cabins directly on it, you can only imagine the tubers and jet skiers. So now, I really focus on only surfing our lake if it's only beginners or when the lake temp gets low. We have a sand bar in the middle of the lake which narrows it down to roughly 600' total with 300-400' from the sand bar buoy to the shoreline and the sandbar being 100-200' long. I've seen more than one wake boat in full surf mode while people are standing at their boat. Crazy and dangerous...

I read an article in the MN Star Tribune about wake boats and legislation and the comments were eye opening. I know most social media is full of hate but people really HATE wake boats. Basically if you don't own one, you hate them. One response said that it threw them off the dock and another said it almost flipped their pontoon. So that hate is there and changing someone's mind will not be easy!

We have 2 neighbors discuss taking our waves to another lake. Because of that, I have monitored our waves on the wake boat compared to other boats and our pontoon. Of course they are significantly larger so know that even when you aren't surfing, your wave can impact surrounding boats. So now, when taking young kids tubing, I will take the pontoon out instead of the wake boat. It may sound crazy but we are trying to keep the peace because we are up surfing every weekend.

 

[UWSkier]

The readership of the MN Star and Sickle have always hated everything fun though so I'd take their comments with a grain of salt.  Some of the comments on articles and letters to the editor that have made it into that rag about snowmobiling over the years is enough to make any powersports enthusiast cringe.  But it does sound like you're conscious of perception at least, which is half the battle.

[asnowman]

We a small lake nearby that i visit people on (113 acres), there are often 5-8 wake boats and a dozen pontoons operating on that lake on a nice evening. Too many for me to even think about. 

The lake our house is on is huge, but we are on a small cove at one end.  Three years ago we were the only boat that surfed near our house, behind our VTX.  Two years ago, another family bought a G23, and they surfed in the cove too.  This year we have 4 jet boats that try to surf in our cove, and 2 new wake boats.  The new people try to surf right out front of our place, where the lake is only 12 feet deep, most people have their moorings set at 200 feet from shore, but if you exit the cove, the main lake is a basin, 7 miles by 5 miles, and mostly 100-200 feet deep.  We learned a long time ago to surf in the deep open water, but the new surfing crowd has not figured it out yet.  Their surf waves are not like ours though, i won't run our surf boat in front of our house for fear of sinking my neighbors or my own boats (the response LXI does not like surf waves when tied to the dock).

We have managed to educate the owners of the G23, and they are helping educate the other new people to go in the deep water, open part of the lake, where regular storm waves put our surf waves to shame, and there is lots of room for the waves to dissipate naturally.

I think the best case is educate the offenders if possible.

[Eagleboy99]

6 minutes ago, asnowman said:

I think the best case is educate the offenders if possible.

Gaston Glock would disagree with you. 

[asnowman]

Just now, Eagleboy99 said:

Gaston Glock would disagree with you. 

This is why i add "if possible"