Wake-surfing accident turns family members against one another
By Erin Alberty
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Launched: 10/29/2008 12:21:28 AM MDT
A woman who lost her thumb in a wake-surfing accident is suing her sister and brother-in-law, saying they did not provide adequate equipment when they took her onto Pineview Reservoir in their boat.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in 3rd District Court, the woman claimed her brother-in-law taught her to wake surf July 5 but provided a wakeboarding rope to connect to his boat. A wake-surfing rope is shorter and thicker, with a different handle than a wakeboarding rope, the suit claims. Using the wrong rope is "improper and dangerous," and can cause the wake surfer to become entangled in the rope during a fall, the suit claims.
Such was the outcome of the woman's first wake-surfing lesson. When she surfaced, she "felt her glove and realized that her thumb was accidentally amputated by the rope when she fell," the suit states.
She is suing her sister and brother-in-law, the owners of the boat, claiming they "had a duty to provide proper equipment and instruction . . . in the safe and prudent method of wake surfing."
*********************************************
Following don't wake surf behind an outboard, the second most important rule is use the correct handle and length of rope; see:
http://www.howtowakesurf.com/Rope_Handle.jsp
Hybrid Mode
