Wakeboard Ban - Need Help

The Board of Directors at our local lake (Pine Mountain Lake, CA) are moving towards banning wakeboarding and wakeboard boats on our lake. We have petitioned the new rules and are meeting with all involved parties this weekend. I am looking for some data or advise from anyone who has delt with this. I did some research on the internet and found that this is becoming an issue across the US and thought some of you might have some experience fighting this kind of movement. Their arguments are wake size effects on other boaters and erosion. Can anyone point me to some literature on these subjects so I can power myself with some good facts?

Leave it to California to screw something up. Just kidding . No - that really sucks though. This might be obvious but search threw the archives on here as I know I've seen this brought up a few times. Some kind of petition representing the number in the wakeboarding community would probably help. Im sure someone here with experience with this will chime in soon...

damn...good luck with that...it's a shame that ppl can't just let things be...this subject kills me...i wouldnt even know where to begin...

"Leave it to California to screw things up."

No kidding. I love living here, but almost everyone in office, whether on the state or local level, are complete liberal morons. Banning wakeboard boats because they cause erosion? Are you kidding me? Better start working on a ban on rain, wind and all weather in general as well.

that really sucks. try to get some local inboard dealers involved at the meeting. have them persent their sales of inboard boats for the past couple of years and then have them ask the Board of Directors who's going to be paying them for their lost profits on inboard sales. that might give you a little more pull.

are they actually banning wakeboarding or just wake boats/ ballast devices, etc.?

You also need to make the argument that wakeboard boat doesn't have nearly the size wake that a 25 foot cabin cruiser does. How is one to exclude a wake boat but not a large deep V fishing boat that throws an even larger wake?

Dave Briscoe went through it down here and has a lot of info. You can get hold of him at www.thewakeboardcoach.com

Thanks for the moral support and ideas.
Billy, I emailed Dave and am hoping he can be of some help. Thanks for the referal.
If anyone knows of anything else that can help, the more resources the better.

Laurie: Tell us all more about Pine Mountain Lake. This is the Pine Mountain Lake in California correct. I have heard rumors that the lake is small and you have to set a time to be on and off the lake ect ect.

If this is the one you're talking about, Pine Mountain Lake in California (www.pinemountainlake.com), then it is an extremely small lake.

Or atleast it seems extremely small compared to Tennessee lakes...

LAKE - PRIVATE
202 surface acres, man-made lake
6 miles of shoreline
Holds 7400 acre feet of water
Average depth - 18 feet, deepest point - 100 feet
Earth with clay core dam - 120 ft. high & 385 ft. long
Spillway elevation - 2550 feet
Peak spillway flow - 28,000 cubic feet per second
Lake is popular for water skiing, boating, sailing, swimming and fishing for trout, bass, catfish and bluegill

Yep, very small, alot like Donner Lake near Truckee. Mostly used by small fisherman and tubers from what I know. The nearest boat dealer is going to be in Sonora, 90 minutes away and I don't think they're selling too many wakeboarding boats outta there. IT's just not a big wakeboarding destination. I could see them easily taking the lake down to a 5 mile/hr. restriction and not ban anyone group. I'm afraid the fisherman and the local cabin owners are the majority voices in that area...
I feel for ya!

Yes, this is a very small lake. They have restrictions already. You cannot weigh your boat down at all. They also have ski/wakeboard times and only allow 4 ski/wakeboard boats in the ski lane at one time. The restrictions are meant to benefit everyone and to those of us that ski/wakeboard adding further restrictions is crazy and sets the balance off.
This is not a big Wakeboard lake, but rather a family lake. This is one of the reasons we are trying so desprately to protect wakeboarding on the lake. It is a very safe place to ride and a great place for the family to have fun times together on the water. It's nice to watch kids learn wakeboarding and skiing on this lake because it is so safe. While many people are put off by the restrictions already, there is a group of us that ride there and enjoy it and are effected by their increased restrictions. The thought of them banning wakeboarding all together is not only depressing but unjust and we need all the support we can get to keep this from happening.
It's interesting about the comments of fisherman. You would think that the fishermen and sailboaters would be the ones that would be pushing for a ban. It's not. In fact, the sailboat club has joined the wakeboard club in protesting their new rules. It's a small group that call themselves "slow boaters" that are pushing for the removal of wakeboard boats. I didn't know what that term was, but have learned that it's the people out there with the pontoon boats that enjoy a quiet, flat lake for their dinner cruises. There's also a group of waterfront home owners that are pushing for the ban. I don't understand why anyone would buy a waterfront home and then complain about the water and wakes. Isn't that something that you accept when you buy a lakefront home?
Anyway, to those of you wondering about the lake it's a beautiful, small, family oriented lake just outside of Yosemite and above Lake Don Pedro. The great thing is that use of the lake has been divided up to allow for equity amongst all the different water sports - that is until now.

The most important thing is to show up. I mean have as many people that support wakeboarding go to the council meetings or whatever board meetings there are.

Try to learn the power structure and find persons on the council sympathetic or who are at least are neutral to wakeboarders and work with them and to support your position. My experience suggests it is not too helpful to work directly with the individuals that are dead set against you which would be the leaders of your slow boat club.

Try to figure out why they are considering the ban. Is it because of erosion? Noise polution? Something else? Try to address those concerns or arguments. The erosion issue can be dealt with data which suggests that most is due to wind/rain.

"There's also a group of waterfront home owners that are pushing for the ban. I don't understand why anyone would buy a waterfront home and then complain about the water and wakes. Isn't that something that you accept when you buy a lakefront home?"

In short - no you do automatically accept that when buying a lakefront home. I live on a lake and have lots of neighbors and MOST people do not appreciate hearing blaring music and seeing constant constant rollers. You need to be sensitive to their perspective and saying "you should just accept it because you live on a lake" may not be the most effective strategy.