A new way to take down a tower on a Malibu

Saturday was crazy on the delta, high temps and a ton of boats made it seem more like a holiday weekend that just one in July.

We were heading towards empire cut via milton island and creeping up on the bridge by S. Bacon Island Road. There are three passage ways under the bridge, two sketchy at high tide, one you'd have to drop the tower to make it. We see a red Malibu towing a tube with three kids on it coming at us so we scoot over to take the far right slot letting them have the middle, fuguring they would slow down...

Nope, guy takes the far left slot by the house with the cross bars all the way across at full speed and never slows down.. BAM.. there goes the tower, it just explodes, the center bar hits one kid in the back seat but misses the tubers... They pull over and I then had a chance to grab the camera for a few shots.

We cruised back under the bridge to see if they needed help or a tow, the guys stated they were fine, had an icepack on the one kids head.. In fact we later saw them on empire towing the tube, albeit with only part of a tower. Wonder what the hell they'll tell the insurance company.

The Carnage


The crossbars they hit under the bridge


Holding an icepack on the kids head


Now what do we do?

Damn! Lucky nobody got seriously hurt! Can't believe they kept on tubing after that. They should have taken that kid in to get checked! I'm sure he has a concussion if that center bar hit him! But shows how bright they really are, of course they just hit a bridge too!

As a side note aren't you suppose to report the fact they hit the bridge. I understand nothing probably happened to the bridge but what if it did cause some structural damage to the bridge and the next train that passes falls into the drink?

Amazing nobody was seriously hurt. Looks like a better advertisement for the strength of the hull then the tower. Reading the description I was expecting a huge hole where the tower was ripped from the boat. And though I can't see a close up it looks like that boat survived just fine. Pretty amazing they stayed out and kept tubing but I guess at that point the damage is done no reason to ruin everyone's day.

Great pics and wonderful nobody got seriously hurt especially the kids on board.

Robert,

It is a vehicle bridge and the bridge operator came out of his shack to see what woke him up so I figured all was good. The bridge had maybe a small shiny spot from the impact but I really doubt the structural integrity was compromised.

Here is a link to the google satellite map of the bridge.

S. Bacon Island Bridge

Unfortunately there are even some idiots that own a Malibu.

yesterday was crazy on the delta.. I dont think I have ever seen it so packed! .. I had a near death experience on Vics when a jet ski decided to come under my tow rope and turn right into me while I was riding.. we saw a bunch of boats being towed in, that bu, ... Im going to stick to weekdays...

Glad nobody got hurt!

I was on the same boat as Gordon that day. The level of cluelessness of the Malibu's driver and his "crew" is astonishing. That bridge was very low. I can't understand how anyone could think their tower could fit under. The fact that the moron had a boat full of kids just makes me angry. I'm not a lawyer, but if that's not criminal negligence, I don't know what is.

Yeah I saw these guys at Orwood as they were getting out of the water. Pretty crazy. Hope he likes the new Malibu towers.

What blows me away with the whole tubers thing is how STUPID parents can be. I mean WTF are these people thinking. The parents are suposed to be the ones with the better sence of judgement. They are suposed to be protecting their kids Not putting them in Danger. I say this not only from the story and photos above but from several near Misses from boats on my lake with Parents pulling their kids on tubes. how the hell do u tube some one in the delta safley ? Then on a busy day ? Fing stupid

In North Idaho we had a Malibu almost get split in half by a bridge piling. Killed two people and injured another. They were coming back from 4th of July fireworks going under a bridge they have gone under probably 100 times before...going over 30 mph. In Idaho it's a no-wake zone within 100' of a bridge.

That guy is lucky he didn't kill someone!

I saw the boat leaving Orwood on Saturday night. I can't believe how stupid people can be. PAY ATTENTION!!!

I have seen the results of a few accidents like this in my old shop, never seen fiberglass damage, only broken towers.

Unfortunately there are even some idiots that own a Malibu

Where I live its more often than not.... the malibu to d-bag correlation is like 99%. Just lots of vacationers and not much for dealer options.

Thats some crazy ****.

The parents are suposed to be the ones with the better sence of judgement.

No ****! These days people are just getting more and more stupid. This last weekend we had a guy on a jetski with a baby on his front in one of the little carrier things, seriously going like 20 ft behind our rider jumping waves.... we stopped and waved him over.... he came up proud as **** thinking we were going to say how awesome his air was or something..... we just said we called the cops and they are bringing child services over.... Didn't see him the rest of the day.

Originally Posted by sidekicknicholas

Where I live its more often than not.... the malibu to d-bag correlation is like 99%. Just lots of vacationers and not much for dealer options.

Thats some crazy ****.


No ****! These days people are just getting more and more stupid. This last weekend we had a guy on a jetski with a baby on his front in one of the little carrier things, seriously going like 20 ft behind our rider jumping waves.... we stopped and waved him over.... he came up proud as **** thinking we were going to say how awesome his air was or something..... we just said we called the cops and they are bringing child services over.... Didn't see him the rest of the day.

Weird it's the opposite around here.

Must have been the weekend that all the dumb a$$ came out. Are lake was also packed, it was worse then a holiday weekend. we got in several arguments with jet skiers jumping are wakes wile we were wakeboarding, other boats not wanting to get in the rougher water so they follow right behind you, tubers whipping there tubes into are wakes right behind are wakeboarders. Thank goodness for the wetsounds EQ, gets peoples attention real quick when you tell them to get the hell out of here threw the wet sounds. Its kind of scary when I stop and think about some of the stuff I saw this weekend. Makes you wonder how more people are not killed on lakes from people that just don't have a clue

I love boating, but the number of dumba$$es on the water is always a huge concern for me; especially noticeable when pulling up to the docks. Usually less so at the delta than on the lakes, but still happens.

To Grant's point; with small kids now we do more tubing now than ever before (sad to see my beautiful SAN 210 downgraded to tube duty, but that's what happens with small kids). We've never even considered pulling out the tube on the delta, it's strictly for lakes. It's just too dangerous on the delta, i'm amazed at the number of folks out there swinging their kids around reckelessly on the narrow channels.

As for boat brand...there's dummy's driving every brand unfortunately.

dont miss the delta at all. had this place all to myself all weekend!

Man! I'm glad I don't live where you guys do! Sounds WAY too crowded!

We've had those morons on Jetski's jumping our wake while surfing also..... One day we followed some teenage punk back to his lake cabin and had a little conversation with his Dad about his kid jumping my wake while I was pulling someone.

A lot of idiots on the water...that's why we play on the week days after work!