WW's Need your help?

Our local lake is 42 acres and they allow 40 boats on the lake. It gets crazy on the weekends. All of the rangers are cool except for one of them.

Last year I bought a new Murray board and had my wife tow me. We were the only boat on the lake during a weekday and he gave my wife a ticket for towing without a flagger. That was fine with me until he really comped a big attitude against us. I told him that we were the only boat on the lake and I was anxious to ride my new board. He gave my wife the ticket. Cool thing was that he wrote the wrong time (8:00 p.m. instead of 8:00 a.m.)for our court appearance so the ticket was thrown away.(pissed him off).

yesterday morning, I went out with my family at 7:00 a.m. and there was a triathalon going on there. I waited until everyone finished their swim before taking my set. As the last person came out of the lake I started riding. There was the ranger driving his boat with me the whole time tearing up the lake. I thought WTF? Then I saw who the ranger was.

Today I took my boat to the lake and my friends daughter took his boat out. My friend watched his daughter from the dock for a while to make sure she didn't jack his boat up. As he was watching us ride, the ranger came out on the dock, ran back to his truck and turned his lights on when we passed. We didn't see him turning his lights on us. We passed again and he ran to his truck and did the same thing. My buddy, who was on the dock watching us asked the ranger who he was trying to stop and he pointed to my boat. My buddy said "what is he doing wrong?" the ranger said, "driving without a spotter." My friend said, he has his girls with him, there are three people in the boat watching him ride. My buddy then knew that this was the guy that got pissed at me last year. My friend said, "do you really think that my friend(me) would come out here again without a spotter?" Ranger got pissed.

In the mean time, a couple was putting their boat in the lake with their two kids. The ranger said in a nice tone, "How are you doing?" As soon as their boat was about 5 feet from the dock, the ranger pulls them in and gives them a ticket for not having life jackets on the kids. The family loaded their boat and went home. (Sucks)

As a rider and courteous boater I try hard to be safe. I help boaters in need (today I did). I don't trash the water with power turns or joy riding. I abide by the rules when It comes to keeping the water nice.

We called his boss and told him what my friend witnessed from this ranger first hand and he said he will dismiss this families ticket but he could not do anything more to this ranger.

This is our only local lake and this one guy is making it miserable for us. Lake ethics is really important to me.

End of rant.

Question: Should I summon the WW's out there to help me with this? Everyone call his boss and state that we are out here to support good boating ethics, etc.?

What kind of support could I get?

Let me know.

keep doing what you're doing by obeying the laws. there's nothing he can do to you. that's more painful to him than anything else.

keep pissin the ranger off while abiding by the rules. eventually he will go off of his rocker and do something stupid that you can get him fired for. i got one like that cause he said that this area around this one houseboat on the river was a no wake zone when the sign is clearly homemade by whoever owns the boat. he gave me a ticket 5 times and i kept tellin him that the boat owner cant create his own no wake zone.

i got him for harassing my friend in the boat cause she was drunk. she wasnt driving, she is over 21, and was not doing anything wrong. what he didnt know was the other boat with us had a video camera runnin the whole time. this was at the ramp. then he power turned at the ramp while i was loading. we have a law here in louisiana that says 300 feet from a ramp in all directions is a no wake zone. took the video to his boss. was fired that day.

im with umali, keep doing what you're doing.. you may even take it a step further and see if Co has an online boater safety program that will get you a nice laminated card when you pass their multiple question test.. idaho has one and my wife and i both took it and just flash the card everytime their is a "standard marine inspection" at our ramp and they usually just let us go ahead of everyone.. it is also a nice piece of get out of ticket free card to have if you have to go to court showing you are diligent about your watersports and boating safety..

Keep calling his boss and/or filing protests, and get other boaters to do the same. If enough people complain, they will likely discipline him. Other than that, just do what the guys above suggested.

40 boats on a 42 acre lake! That's crazy. I ride a reservoir that's 7000 acres. 42 boats on that lake makes it busy to me.

40 row boats would be a lot on a 42 acre lake/pond. Something is not adding up here.

(Message edited by bmartin on June 09, 2008)

Check this out, I know it doesn't add up I live here. http://parks.state.co.us/NR/rdonlyres/5364201A-8C78-45E3-A848-86538D2B900C/0/HighlineAreaBro.pdf

Wow, didn't take me long to figure out that you were talking about Highline. I totally understand what you mean.

I'm on my second MasterCraft now, and every time I go out there I get hassled. Never had any probs when I had a Maxum though. The other week I got a bogus warning. I was the only boat on the water at the time. I had stopped towing my girl before sundown, but when she was done, she stayed in the water for a while to get her board off and stuff. Since there was a rider in the water and the rope was out, I still had my flag up. He waited for us to pull out and then confronted me, saying that I should have had her in before the time of sundown. He let me off with a warning, but said I won't be so lucky next time.

As soon as it gets a little warmer, I'll be going the Kenny Res. in Rangely. Bigger, less crowded, and it's not a state park.

Until then, I'll see ya around Dan.

Post the phone number to call and the Ranger's name so we can all call his boss tomorrow at work!!! Trust me I hate authority that's on power trips, so I'll give them a call.

Calling and harassing this Ranger is just going to make him hate wakeboarders even more. I'm with everyone above. Make him mad by obeying the rules.

Hey Ryan have you been to Debeque yet? Tad and I went last November, glass all day and we were the only boat out there. Its pretty small but had a good day. I will be going to Kenny too. How is the depth at the inlet?

Ask him out for a set...

Joe is absolutely right. When someone is out to get you and hates you for no reason.. the thing that makes them FURIOUS is not giving them a reason to ticket you or even dislike you. If you see him at the ramp be as nice as you can be, wave at him as you go by, follow all the rules to a t, and the boaters certification course isn't a bad idea. I took it when I was younger and its really easy, mostly common sense questions.
Fighting with him and trying daily to get him fired will only fuel the fire and make him go after you worse.

you could buy a new boat, so he won't reconize you !! . J/K.

Funny thing this worked for me with a simalar situation. I was first cited for putting in my portable slalom course. Didn't get a new boat to throw him off though, but was never hassled again!

(Message edited by rodltg2 on June 10, 2008)

Dan, I've been to DeBeque a few times before. Actually, next to the white buoy is where I landed my first raley! How is Tad, by the way, I haven't seen him for a long time. PM me your contact info if you want, lets go ride some time. Later