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Last Tuesday in the Squaw Creek Arm I was surfing (my wife was driving) and the Sheriff pulls her over. First thing he said was that we were not doing anything illegal. So no ticket. He did, however, go on about the risks of CO poisoning and how I was endangering myself by being so close to the boat. I asked if he knew of any surfing related incidents and he knew of none. He did bring up teak surfing (which I know is a real bad idea) and how surfing - even though I was standing up and 10-15' behind the boat - was just as lethal...
So, if you are surfing at Lake Shasta and get stopped, don't panic, but get ready to learn about the dangers of CO gas.
John L.
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how were you 10-15 feet behind the boat. When we surf we are 1-6 feet behind the boat
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Yeah - I re-read that statement and it's not right. The rope I use is about 15' long but when I surf the nose of my board quite often comes very close to the swim step. 1 to 6 feet is a better number...
John
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I got stopped on my local lake and the weekend lake cops who normally sit in a patrol car were loosing it over what we were doing. Here is the quotes after they stopped us:
COP: What the hxxx are you doing? Do you know by law you must be 150 ft from the boat? What were you holding on to?
Me: Nothing officer, we were surfing.
Cop: Well then what was tied to your board?
Me: Nothing officer, we were surfing the wake.
Cop: How long have you owned a boat, have you ever heard of something called the PROPELLER?
ME: Its an inboard officer
COp: I don't care what it is, it still has a prop sticking out there.
At this point i realized it was a no win deal for us and we packed it in for another day. Our lake uses regular street patrol officers on busy weekends, who actually do a good job chasing the PWC's around all day, but they have no clue what to do about wakesurfing. Funny thing was we saw the officers later in the back channel doing 360's on their patrol sea doos. (360's are illegal on this lake) I guess no one can resist the temptation, even the law.
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I've been stopped once on San Vicente. The ranger basically said the same thing "you're too close to the boat so it must be dangerous". I was very calm and nice (this ranger is actually very nice and wasn't being rude). I mentioned that the prop is several feet in front of the swimstep and that I'm surfing several feet behind the boat. Then I asked her if she was saying that it was illegal. She paused and then said "I'll get back to you". We stopped surfing that day but they haven't said anything about it since.
I do understand how it can be appear to be very dangerous when they aren't used to seeing anyone that close to the boat.
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We too got stopped here in NC/VA and they had no clue what we were doing. They did the regular check but realized we knew more about the Coast Guard Regs for being towed behind a boat. They wanted to bust us for something and finally declared a warning ticket for not being restrained while sitting on the back of a the V-Drive/sun platform. So the laws have changed in this part of the world. No more sitting on the back unless there is something to restrain you from flying off the back of the boat. Go figure.
(Message edited by liquidfergie on July 23, 2003)
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I love the dialogue that Troy posts and I can imagine the scene. We get the same looks from everyone when we surf and you can read their lips when we power by, "Why, they ain't usin' no rope." And forget trying to "explain" it to someone while standing on land. They just don't get the concept (surfing).
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I had the KY fish cop drive right by me while I was wakesurfing on my local lake about a month ago. I thought for sure he would stop us but he didn't give us a second glance and kept going.
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Cops DOn't bug the locals
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