Dorksurfing will ruin it for us all

Ok, the fact is wakesurfing is going to get us all banned from the lakes. The man never cared to check boats being over weight until this embarrasing side show came along. I have to agree with the man on this one. These boats are causing beach erosion, causing a hazard to small boats on the waterways and causing many to embarrass themselves driving a boat on its side while the rider risks his life 4 feet from the hull. Many lakes are already checking boats for weight and many have banned them. Tell all your friends to get back in the air on wakeboards and use those $100,000 boats for WAKEBOARDING.

Hahaha

^^ troll^^ must be from California..

As much as you may not like surfing, I think you are SOL about it going any where. It is only growing more and more by the year.

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Said the waterskier about wakeboarding circa 1997.

I don't think wake surfing is going anywhere. As an increasing percentage of Americans are overweight or obese, over 69%, I doubt a physical demanding sport such as wakeboarding will increase in popularity. How many people have you seen chugging beer on a wakeboard versus a surfer....

Additionally the cost of boats is only forcing the sport toward the consumers whose age and size (overweight and obesity increases with age) are better suited for surfing.


reference: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

All our boy "SuperSteve" does is troll wakesurfing. Nothing new here.

Awesome........I guess the sacked out 23ft wake boats don't do any damage or piss people off?

Most surfing I see takes place in the main body of the lakes I frequent.....boarders are in the coves and closer to the shore.

Pot meet kettle.

If not an io how is a "rider risks his life 4 feet from the hull. "???

This guy...

dude go troll somewhere else.
http://youtu.be/woySeSNBL3o

I don't think surfing is gonna get wakeboarding banned anymore than wakeboarding will itself. As someone else pointed out wakeboarders typically do run closer to shore lines in an effort to avoid winds and rollers therefore irritating shore owners and fisherman more so. Plus they throw some pretty big energy packed wakes.

But I still wish they would ban that god awful so called sport of wake surfing also! . Wake surfers on my lake do not go out to the middle and they do not go to the opposite windy side of the lake and they seem to be starting earlier and earlier in the morning!!! They really do f'up the lake! Blah.

Although the issue could've been presented with a bit more finesse, I absolutely agree (and have voiced my opinion in previous posts, garnering little support) that the current crop of wake and surf boats which produce truly monstrous wakes will lead to ballast and wake enhancement devices being banned in lakes and rivers across the US. Google it. The bans have already begun. The simple fact is that for the vast majority of other boaters and shoreline owners a twenty something foot boat that puts out a wake equivalent to a fifty something foot boat is a nuisance, and in America nuisances get regulated. It's kind of surprising that so few of the knowledgeable boaters and accomplished riders on this forum agree with this notion. It's like the steroid era in baseball. Everyone is enjoying all the amazing things that are happening while failing to appreciate that such things are not sustainable or good for the long-term health of the sport.

Originally Posted by phillywakeboarder

Although the issue could've been presented with a bit more finesse, I absolutely agree (and have voiced my opinion in previous posts, garnering little support) that the current crop of wake and surf boats which produce truly monstrous wakes will lead to ballast and wake enhancement devices being banned in lakes and rivers across the US. Google it. The bans have already begun. The simple fact is that for the vast majority of other boaters and shoreline owners a twenty something foot boat that puts out a wake equivalent to a fifty something foot boat is a nuisance, and in America nuisances get regulated. It's kind of surprising that so few of the knowledgeable boaters and accomplished riders on this forum agree with this notion. It's like the steroid era in baseball. Everyone is enjoying all the amazing things that are happening while failing to appreciate that such things are not sustainable or good for the long-term health of the sport.

Couldn't agree more. If only people would view things full circle. Yes, wakesurfing is growing, and the demographic is likely larger and will continue to increase more than other segments such as wakeboarding, but with that growth comes issues and problems, and the regulations and prohibitions that come with controlling those issues and problems will effect ALL boats and boaters in the watersport arena. One accident, one lawsuit, one whatever with some uneducated wakesurfer will immediately effect the actual wakeboarding community. And there is more likelihood that an accident will come from a wakesurfing vessel. Rider so close to boat, ropes being thrown in and out of the boat, drivers looking back most of the time while driving with the bow at it's highest possible point, drinking while actually riding as Brian Young said, riding at night more often nowadays, people hanging off the side and back of the boat "sitting" illegally. Everyone is free to do as they wish, I'm not saying to ban wakesurfing, but at some point not standing up and at least calling the certain wakesurfers out for their ignorance and overall lack of waterway common sense will drastically effect ALL, and it won't be fun, which is what in the beginning, is what it was all about. Now look at how many wakeboarders have basically quit and solely wakesurf now.

We inherently surf father away from the shoreline. any depth below 10' kills our surf wave on the river.

Also, our surf rollers are smaller than the barges and the pleasure yaughts that cruise down our river regularly. Hell, they have ocean tankers that are in our river, so we're a small fish!!

But yeah, anything "outside the norm" gets attention and risks regulation. A wake boat only going 10mph cranking music while listing and riding bow high does look odd. And you should see the looks l get when people realize there's no rope. There are some places in the Portland area where there are bans on ANY "wake enhancing devices" but those areas are heavily populated by houseboats (or Lake Oswego that's full of rich grumpy people).

But you could ban tubing and I wouldn't complain!!! ROFL



Maybe we should all go back to Slalom skiing and putting out zero wake.

The funny part about this is that every geographic region is different. Every lake, river, and water way is different. If we put a ban on surf boats because it's erroding shore lines than does that mean that we should ban large barges and yachts on places like the Delta where people also live on the water? I mean they throw just as big wakes right? Where's the line? It sounds more like a personal issue with you guys regarding the people that wakesurf. You bring beer into the picture to make a point that people are reckless yet people die every year from drunk drivers so should we ban driving in general just because a few people decided to act irresponsibly? I've said this so many times it's a beaten drum, this industry needs EDUCATION, not BANS. Good lord people, don't let a few yahoo's ruin it for the rest of us. I don't even enjoy surfing that much, if I can put a wakeboard on you better believe I'm not surfing, but the point still remains that there are other boats other than wake boats that produce large and oversized waves that crash into shore lines accross the country so I ask you people that are for this..... what's the resolution? Not the problem.

X2^^^

I think every lake should have this near the shoreline. www.wave-garden.com

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I don't want ballast bans (what wakeboarder would?) but I fear, and I believe rightfully so, that the enormous wakes produced by today's modern wakeboats will lead to them. And fast. In my view, the fact that large cabin cruisers, barges, houseboats, etc., make wakes of equivalent size is almost completely irrelevant. For starters, such boats are not common on many of the waters that wakeboarders frequent. And, even where they are, they just aren't used in the same manner. When is the last time anyone's seen a 55 foot cabin cruiser, barge, or houseboat run a mile up the lake, do a doubleup, run a mile back the lake, do a doubleup, over and over and over, for 3 hours? Now, when is the last time anyone's seen a wakeboat do the same? It happens all the time. I've posted links to them before, so I won't do it again, but the simple fact is that ballast bans and talks of proposed ballast bans are popping up across the country, seemingly in step with each manufacturer's release of it's latest and greatest "gamechanger." I know many of you don't agree with me (and I hope you're right!) but I just don't think that the general boating population or owners of waterfront property are going to stand idly by while 5500 pound boats loaded with 5000 pounds of ballast send walls of water at them.

Imagine a world where rivers don't find the easiest path from mountains to sea by way of natural erosion.

Then imagine if we didn't uproot trees and their root systems (which hold together things like dirt and shoreline) to make way for highways, housing and farmland.

we should ban big storm swell in the ocean because that erodes our beaches.

Whilst we are at it all surfers in the ocean should wear life jackets because the ocean can drown people and duck diving under a wave near rocks in the middle of the ocean is dangerous enough.

wave-garden would suck, who wants to actually paddle into a wave...