Power Turns

Well looks like power turns were the norm in the delta this weekend. All those high priced boat drivers haven't learned to drive yet. Power turning just screws up the water for everyone. At times power turning is ok but when your rider is safe from other boats WHY POWER TURN? And for the guy in the 04 black and white mastercraft that made the shortcut at vic'c about 1:30 thank for almost hitting my rider please go back to where you came from or learn to ride the delta BE SAFE. The delta is a great place to ride Let's Keep It That Way

word

Scott, I hear ya. I counted 5 boats power turning in Grant Line Canal on Sunday. argghhhh!!!

don't get me started on this subject.

I was at Don Pedro. This one guy in a big Bayliner did a full figure-eight power turn everytime his rider fell. This was at 7pm while we were waiting for the water to calm so we could ride. We all wanted to KILL him.

What exactly is a power turn?

turning you wheel and making a turn at full speed to pick up you rider. No reason for it. When you rider drops. Drop you speed to SLOW make your turn and go pick up your rider

When you crank the wheel one direction and gas it through your turn to pick up your rider. When your rider drops, you should coast down to an idle, wait for your own wakes to pass you, then slowly idle back to retrieve your rider.

Scott beat me to it.

plus power turns take a lot of gas

A turn with the power on and the boat making a wake. The proper way to drive is;

1. When the rider falls, drop to neutral in the same line as you were traveling.
2. When you hull settles to neutral, spin the wheel hard right, go to idle speed forward, keeping your eyes on the fallen rider and rope.
3. Fast idle back to the rider while the rope handler takes in the rope.
4. Turn around the rider in a hard right hand turn, keeping about 5-10 feet away. Always approach the rider from the driver's side and make eye contact with them on the approach. Ask if they are OK and want to ride again.
5. After the turn, the rope handler tosses the handle back to the fallen rider.
Variation - some will simply let the rope trail around the skier. This is OK but sometimes can cause rope burns or worse if you have to manuver quickly. This quick manuver may be necessitated by other boat traffic or obstructions.
6. Take out slack.
7. Driver makes a eyeball contact with the rider. Driver checks all directions and faces the path of travel. Say "Ready when you are!" in a clear, loud voice so the rider can hear and respond.
8. Rider says "Hit It" loud and clear so the boat driver can hear it.
9. Boat driver acellerates to get the rider up while scanning for mosquitos (PWC) or lice (tubers) and any other potential problem.

This system is quick, efficient, and preserves calm water for everyone. It is also a lot safer than power turning. Most serious injuries in our sport come from power turns gone wrong and the rider is hacked with the prop. It takes a lot to stop a 1-2 ton boat when you are rapidly approaching a rider in the water.

is that an excerpt from the handbook? if not, you should write a handbook.

Thanks - two tours in the USCG as an Investigating Officer taught me a lot about seamanship.

Karl looks good. We should print that and put on every car at each launch ramp people might learn something. If you ever come out to california give me a shout you are welcome on my boat anytime

#6. That sucks when that doesn't happens.

(Message edited by antbug on July 26, 2004)

(Message edited by antbug on July 26, 2004)

On #7, you forgot to say...

The driver waits to start with ample room in front to avoid putting another rider at risk and the driver waits for ample room in back to avoid poaching the water of another rider.

#2 - I prefer to turn the boat to the direction I see the rider fall in my mirror. That way when I turn around, the rider is in my boat path. If I see him fall to the left in my mirror, I trun around to my left. If I were to trun right, I put more offset distance between me and my rider. May not matter in the lake, but, I really prefer to cover the rider in the Delta with the narrow areas.

My beef this weekend is with the "New Red Malibu VLX driver". He passed us at the end of Upper Vic's in the narrow section before you turn around at Ski beach while we were towing a rider. That section is very narrow and I cannot believe he wouldn't slow until we made the turn ! A passenger in the bow threw a plastic cup out at us. What he **** are they thinking ?

I'm glad someone brought this up. This weekend a guy in a 04 moomba was riding on our lake where several different boats usually wakeboard. Most of us who ride there every week know how to drive and are considerate of other riders. This guy got right out in the middle of our intended path and tried to pull up a new rider about 100 times. After each attempt, he made a power turn back to the rider. Finally, he put the board up, got out the tube, and started doing figure 8's all up and down our path. If you are this guy, pay attention to this thread and learn something or just GET OUT OF THE WAY! Sorry, I feel better now. Besides can anyone tell me why tubers need smooth water?

When the rider falls back off to neutral... after the speed dies down a little (few seconds) put it in reverse medium/hard for like 2 seconds then throw it back into neutral. This will get the boat to automatically start to turn around. Then simply start again at idle speed and continue to turn towards the rider.... this way you never have drive back through your rollers.

If you don't like it that way...... When the rider falls back off to neutral then start to idel left for a min... then back right again so that your headed back the other way on your original path before the rider fell..... this makes it so you don't have to go over your rollers as well...

Thanks Scott. I will be in Bakersfield for the INT Nationals in October. Probably will not have time to ride other than the torunament, though.

This winter I am toying with the idea of a pamphlet for a new boat owner covering things like launching and recovery on a trailer, driving, towing people, basic navigation, anchoring, safety, cleaning, maintenance, Perfect Pass, VHF comms, and the little things that make boating and boat ownership interesting. Who knows, if it is distributed with a new boat and boat registration, it may help. It can't hurt.

One additional item. I prefer to have a known routine when towing people. It makes it easier and everyone knows what to do and when to do it. That is why I turn to the right to pick up a fallen rider. I have them in sight without obstruction from the rope handler getting up to take in the rope. Since I never hit the throttle hard after the turn, the rope handler knows that they can safely stand to bring in the rope. The rider knows that I have seen them by the eye contact and sometimes a wave if I don't know if they have eye contact with me. If another boat is comeing that I feel will be close to my rider, I will yell out "sit down!" to the crew and punch it to "cover" my rider from the boat closing in- keeping to one side so I don't overshoot and run over the rider. Even in this manuver, come off plane early enough so you don't throw a huge wake over the rider and submerge them. Not only is it uncomfortable to the rider to be underwater, but you can loose sight of them and you must have visual contact with them ALL of the time you are approaching.

Great info, Karl.

I say get those pamphlets dialed and send me a box. There's more than enough boneheads around these parts.

I didn't know about the problems with power turning for almost the whole first year we had the boat. Growing up, power turns were the norm and seemed to make sense - get back to the rider ASAP.

An article on Wakeworld was the one that did it, though - the one about being a good driver.

It gets real tough sometimes when my boy's back there. I was towing him on the Parker strip this year and felt like I had to rush back almost every time. Most boat drivers were cool, but you never know when you're gonna stumble into the drunken one.

I was on a lake here in Wisconsin, my rider fell and I did the normal slow wakeboarder type pickup and got pulled over by a cop. He said I needed to learn how to drive properly. I need to get into the habit of whipping around and picking up my rider the second he falls and then I'll be a good rider. He was a lake cop so I didn't argue all I could do was laugh at him, "then you'll be a good driver". I can see if the lake was crazy and boats everywhere, but it wasn't.

DMC will be on the lookout for the black & white M/C on the delta.

BTW, it helps to drive a BU too -- the big rudder turns slow on a dime -- easily 1/2 the turning radius of a CC. I slow, turn on a dime, and stay in-line with my fallen rider -- this guards the fallen rider.


(Message edited by greatdane on July 27, 2004)

ah this is great to see. too bad most of us that post on here already know what we are doing. if only there was a better way to inform those idiots. i hate it when i'm boarding Victoria in the Delta and some slapnut-punka$$ is powerturning and throwing rollers down the whole slough.

i tried to tell this one boat (in a very nice and polite manner) to not powerturn and just drop down to idle before picking up their dropperd skier, but they started to yell at me saying that they needed to get back to the fallen person... i was not so happy (shoulda had my paintball gun).

Clete,

I was out riding Old River and saw you buddy in the Red BU. There wasn't even anybody riding just a melonhead looking guy with a bunch of punk looking friends driving erratic. My loaded Ski Nautique rides very low, he swamped me twice. Since the levee break it's been Wallyworld out there.

Since we are on the subject... When you are starting with your rider please be courteous and let the guy coming up the channel pass by then go after his wake clears. Twice guys tried to get in front of me only to end up putting their riders just off the bow of my boat in a very dangerous place.

There are enough of us reading this stuff if we start posting boat descriptions the word might get back to the driver and make them think about being a little more courteous. It's amazing how many people just don't know any better.

Mike, that was them. I think he went to Ski Beach and didn't find anything he liked because flew back towards you passing us again while we were towing a rider.

We are new to the Delta this year and have really had great time so far. It's not that difficult to do the smart / safe thing out there. WW has been great helping with local tips.

Do what I do....take pictures and publically post them as PTer's and bad drivers. It is very effective!!! Here are a few from Lake Grapevine...notice the pic with the boat about to run over a fallen rider?

love that Idea lets start posting pics of those bad drivers

sorry to be off topic, but i love lake grapevine, i jump the cliffs at rock ledge park. you should come out to lake lewisville some day we could hit the wakes.

Yeah another bummer that seems to be a big problem is when you are try to stay close to shore for the only glass. You have somebody that starts up after you go around them so that they force you back out to the middle of the lake. D**** K*** at mission bay is famous for this trick. In fact he bitched at my wife when we where at the dock about power turning(before we started). Funny thing is I was taught from here long before I ever meet the ass from Mission Bay Aquatics. Everyone else there is good to ya.

(Message edited by obsurfer on July 28, 2004)

what;s the delta?

Karl good job but one thing to add is after #6 or before #8 it should state that the boat driver should make sure if another boat is coming by and pulling a rider and if you pulling out and not being able to plain off without riding side by side with that boat then you should let him pass with his rider before pulling up your rider.It sucks to be to be riding great then all of a sudden a boat pull right up in front of you then by the time they plane you all are riding side by side..not good for either rider..

}IMO thats in the top two of things not to do when sharing water properly..

there is no point of power turns, its hard on your boat and screws up the water... i don't understand these people...and they wonder why the water is rough.

Rich, That is a great idea ! There should be a WW hall of shame.

Like this one....

Floating spike strips for tubers !

I like 'em. Do 'em all the time.

Rich - that is too funny!

WakeWorld Hall of Shame