Another Tragedy PWC To Close As Usual

This really hits home, sicne yesterday we spent half our afternoon yelling at PWCers that were doing this exact move, and in a private backwater lake that they shouldn't even be in! That and the idiot swimmers that swam into the middle of a slalom course, when we told them to beat it because they were about to get turned into hamburger meat, the reply "they have a stearing wheel, they can avoid us!" WTF All this time we can see a slalom boat making the turn about to make a pass through the course! Idiots!

Anyway I heard this guy did die from this incident. To bad they call it a wakeboarding accident and not a PWC accident.

http://www.theomahachannel.com/iowabureau/2440112/detail.html

The guy dies and all and PWC'er is charged with is reckless endangerment? That is ridiculous. He should go to prison for a long time.

I get way too fired up over these frivilous deaths and accidents.... This board has heard about way too many PWC caused or related deaths/accidents this last summer! At least 4? that I can recall! When are these active terrorists of the water going to realize that they are not impressing anybody with their lack of experience, knowledge, brains, penis size and rules of the waterways? I think that something needs to happen (soon) to either ban them altogether or provide some sort of pwc playground pond(s) where they can go off eachother instead of our fellow wakeboarders....... I wish all of them the same fate they have provided for the wakeboarders they have killed....... Good riddance to all throttle jockeys........!

WTF is wrong with some people. Not all of them are like this. We had some following us this weekend while we drove to our spot, when they realized that we were getting into the water, they backed off and went to the other side of the lake. Too bad they are not as responsible as the guys who backed off.

(Message edited by leslisa on September 08, 2003)

If the injured rider dies, I'm sure the jet skier will face either manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide charges. As I don't know the penalties for those charges in Nebraska I cannot say whether the guy is looking at prison time or not, however, in Oregon a manslaughter conviction carries, I believe, 8 years mandatory.

I say we have a mandatory boater saftey course all water vechicle owners, out here in Ca I hear things on the radio for water saftey alot recently. I think spending 1 day to have everyone safer is 1 day well spent.

I do a lot of wakeboarding on the Colorado River in Parker Az and I have to say that the PWC riders are not the only problem but they are the least experienced ones out there and do the dumbest things. We have constant problems with them following right behind the wakeboarder (word of advice: have hand and arm signals to your wakeboarder to let him know that there is a hazard that he may not be aware of and that he needs to stay right behind the boat and not do anything that may cause him to fall - we use both arms straight up [like a touchdown] which means "stay between the wakes").

On two occasions last year we had extremely close calls with PWC drivers (the first almost hit the wakeboarder and the second almost hit the BOAT!) and in both cases we were mad enough to quickly get the wakeboarder in the boat and chase down the PWC riders. We caught both of them - one was just an uncaring idiot that made me so mad that I nearly jumped out of the boat and strangled him and the second was so drunk that we pulled him into the boat and drove his PWC back to his dock for him.

In this unfortunate instance, I have no idea how long the rider was in the water before being struck by the PWC and I DONT want to blame the driver b/c it probably happened too quick but drivers are responsible for the rider at all times. I constantly see boats pulling wakeboarders with the driver watching his buddy ride and only glancing ahead of him. That is not what he is supposed to be doing! The drivers responsibilities not only include ensuring a good wake, strait track, constant speed but they also include watching the water in front of him for hazards, other people in the water (swimmers etc), and knowing where all other boats & PWC's are. This is critical when it comes to the most serious responsibility of the driver which is POTECTING YOUR RIDER when he/she falls. Dozens of times last year I had to firewall the throttle to get the boat between my downed rider and an oncomming boat or PWC.

One more note: I know its not cool and everything - but wear a helmet. The Pro-Tec Shapiro model is what I wear and it is very light, has removable ear pieces, prevents the blinding pain when I smack my head against the water, and might just save my life some day. They are sold new on EBay all of the time for about $30.
In this case, it sounds like the PWC landed on the rider which probably broke his neck too. However, think about what parts of your body are exposed when floating in the water waiting for the boat to circle around.

Be safe everybody.

Jim

i know its wrong to stereotype but oh well. IN GENERAL, i hate pwc. how much fun can you really have driving 50mph and doing donuts? not much? so they have to follow boats and jump the wake. they drive me crazy bc i wakeboard on a small river and they take up more space than 40' yachts.
somebody said "inexperienced"... thats correct, every idiotic move i've seen (recently an accident in hatteras where a guy ran into his wife) are all inexperienced retards. i know guys that own them and drive them correctly. stricter monitoring is necessary. stricter monitoring of all boaters, the tubers that just swerve back and forth or ride right on your butt not realizing your wakeboarder CAN/WILL fall. and while were at it, get bad drivers off the road, then i'll be happy.

Recently, we had a group of jet skiers following our boat, and circling us. As soon as it was safe, I downed my rider, picked her up, and went to have some words with the jet skiers. They didn't seem to want to talk to me, so I drove my boat in big circles around them. Finally, they came over to me to ask me WTF. My reply was how fun was that? They told me that basically, I scared the hell out of them, and I was swamping their wave runners. Then I explained that that is how we feel when we are trying to ride. They understood, and I have had no problems since.

Jim,

I like your idea about the touchdown signal to the rider to not do anything. I agree that the driver is responsible for the rider, but there are some things that are beyond the driver's control, such as stupid (I mean really stupid) PWC drivers. Now matter how fast the driver would have turned around, there is no way he could get between the PWC and the rider if the PWC was that close.

David,

I agree that there is likely nothing that the driver could have done to protect the rider b/c he probably couldnt get around in time (I said that). I was just trying to make the point to others that safety is paramount and the key is awareness and being proactive vs. reactive.

I have been in the position several times where I was pulling somebody and while they were up a PWC or boat pulled up right behind him or came from the side. Hell, we had two PWC's almost collide mid air behind the wakeboarder once.

Thats where we give the signal for the rider to sit tight and wait - even that does not help sometimes (as mentioned in the case above).

Given that the article mentioned that the PWC operator jumped the wake and landed on or near the person in the water leads one to believe that the event happend too quickly for the driver to do anything. The whole thing is very sad.

I'm with Sontag, you dont operate a water vessel without having a water vessel driver's license!

I like the touchdown signal too, and will make sure all on our boat know the signal from here on out.

I agree how much fun can a sit down PWC be anyway? It would be like riding a quad on a dry lake bed. Yeah that's fun!!! Not!

The only half fun they probably ever have is jumping our wakes, and if you ever notice they get all of 6 inches of air "maybe" by doing it, wow that is HUGE DUDE!!! So bottom line is they are drawn to our boat's wakes like a fly on s**t. Damm flys!!!

I don't know the answer, but designated areas for them is not a bad idea, I have seen lakes that have areas like that. Ban them from smaller lakes, and enforce the hell out of them otherwise.

yep - one of the good things about lake castaic in california is that it has a separate cordoned-off for pwcs. i never realized how nice this was until i rode on bodies of water where they can buzz all around you.

I can't imagine that a boating license will end up preventing this type of tragic death. Just like on the street, people will continue to drive drunk and pull dangerous stunts. That's not to say I'm against requiring a boating license because I do think that something has to be done.

Jim, I feel you on the Colorado River experiences. It happened the last time i was there but luckily the two boats the little bastard cut between was mine and the Rangers, ohh man, did that guy get bitched out(& ticketed). I was laughing my @$$ off. I firmly believe a boating license is necessary, sure there will still be the crazys that disregard the rules, but you will certainly eliminate the 10 year old who is at the lake for the first time ever and is ripping around at 70mph. The other thing about Parker is the huge offshore boats that cruise the river at 90mph(literally) and just cut through everyone. Luckily they tend to pick off more jetskis than wakeboarders(no disespect to any of the poor saps that have been killed by the things). Jim sick profile pic, way to kick some ass.

Thanks Stephen - it is good to finally be home. THAT PLACE SUCKED!!!!!1

The big power boats scare the heck out of me on that river. I am always afraid of getting run over by one of those guys at 90 mph. We never go to the river during the big vacation weekends as there is often a fatality or two in that stretch.

I have to say that there is one side benefit of spending a lot of time on that river though - it makes you one hell of a driver! (Consider that a moocher plug to all those needing a third - haha)

Another thing about those offshore boats - do you ever hear them racing down the river at night after the bars have closed? No wonder there are white crosses all over the sides of the river marking impacts.

Jonathan - glad you like the touchdown signal - hope it helps.

Here is the rest of this tragic story:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=36&u_sid=847244

Bill J, you dont think education would help???? BTW, The Water Vessel licenses would not just be handed out to anyone. You would have to demonstrate your boating knowledge before recieving a license. This accident may have been prevented if the PWC rider knew he was breaking the law by jumping another boat's wake so close to a rider.

(Message edited by supersport on September 08, 2003)

Joe, I think mandatory education is a great start. But I'm sure that there will still be plenty of unlicensed operators out there since people will let others jump on their PWC and go.

Maybe we need to require a license to operate a boat and make the owner liable (criminally liable even?) if they allow an unlicensed operator. So combine education with a drivers license and stiffer penalties - that would be a good start.

at least they are passing a law where you cant jump the wake if they are towing someone. this might have already been a law, but the way they said it it sounded like it wasnt previously.

I too am fed up with PWC's, I think it is extremely dangerous to be following a boat when they are towing someone. Once they fall a PWC is not going to have alot of time to react. I can't even count all the times I have had some idiot go flying in front of me on a PWC or following me while I'm towing someone. We rented a PWC once, and as a 16 year old I like to take risk while I'm wakeboarding and I wanted to push it on the PWC too. But as a wakeboarder I know how much PWC's can piss people off. If I want to do something crazy, I made sure no one else was in a position to get hurt or feel unsafe. I am fine with a PWC messing around on the water, as long as they're risking there saftey, not mine. Everyone should be able to have a good time out on the lake, but everyone should also be allowed to feel safe. I think that Boater's Saftey Courses should no longer be optional, I took a class just to be on the safe side, and while alot of the stuff was corny, it does some good and helps you to be more aware of your fellow boaters, It also made me more aware of problems that can happen on a lake. And lastly how come you never see a PWC ticketed for reckless endangerment? I mean if a motorcycle was cutting back and forth in front of a car, they would probably be arressted.

That is to sad, in the article they state they increased the distance to 50 yards, that is nothing, it should be 100 yards at least. Some of these PWCs can top out at 60 to 70MPH, and are tanks. The only way to turn them is to give them MORE gas which make the reaction time that much quicker.

Man reminds me of an Offspring Song about gang violence, "one guys wasted and the others a waste". Looking at 20 years, I bet the 19 year old never thought that was a possibilty when he headed for the lake that day. Of course the other kid never expected to die either. Sad sad......

There definetly should be an age limit on PWC's. It surprises me seeing all of the young kids (like 10yrs old) speeding all over the river. They, like every 10 yr old - tend to have their heads in the clouds and are not aware of their enviroments and the hazards around them. Further, they dont understand or dont realize the consequeces of some of their actions. We dont let 10 yr olds drive cars - why is it ok to let them drive PWC's which can be just as dangerous.

However, in this case the driver was 19 which if there ever was an age limit - he would likely be over. So I guess I dont have the easy answer for this problem, not that anybody does.

On another note - education (whether it be a class or from a parent) is the key. I have seen grown adults that are complete idiots and I have seen young kids that were awesome drivers. For example, Steven Cowens son Christian is 13 and is an incredibly responsible and mature boat driver - but that is a credit to his father taking the time to teach him I presume.

I would be all for mandatory classes for water safety. I just hope that it would be a somewhat difficult and worthy class unlike the firearm safty classes that are required in California ("is it safe to point a gun at a person?" - that really is a question on the test).

We have quite a few people here on this website. Probably of significant means. I wonder what it would take to organize some of our assets and possibly do something to make a change. Does anybody have any experience in stuff like that?

Its obvious that it is not safe to point a gun at someone (unless your intenetion is to kill that person), but it needs to be said and tested. I would guess there would still be a small percentage of people that would say 'yes' to that question. Its obvious that you dont follow too closely a boat pulling a rider, but that still happens. Sometimes you have to state the obvious to certain people.

Being in the middle of So Cal, I can see where we can increase safety and increase revenue by implementing a safety program.

I will send an email to the Parks and Recs to see what they think about this subject.

Hey Jim, I read that article about you in WB mag. That was you , right?

Joe,

People who need to be taught things that are THAT OBVIOUS probably are too stupid to grasp any other concepts. I also think that there should be a test for implied rights such as the right to vote and have children - not a hard test but a test nontheless (i.e. who is buried in Grants tomb, when was the war in 1812 etc). If you fail that test (and people will) you are then forever designated as too stupid to have kids and participate in the direction our elected officials take us. haha. But that is another topic.

I am glad that you will send an email to the parks and recs dept. I hope they consider it.

Dave (if you read this) what about starting something like the "wakeworld coalition". Nothing too complicated - just something with a name that implies unity and direction. Those of us that choose to, could apply and send $10 or $20 to become a member and discuss serious issues in our own section of the website - just a thought - dont know if it has ever been tried or not.

Also, yes that was me in the article in WBM. The war had pretty much passed my battalion when I wrote the article and I needed a release. It was fun writing it - too bad about the water though. Was really disappointing.

Something does need to be done, because it makes me furious when some guy starts riding behing my rider. Half the time its a boat towing a wakebaorder. They really should know that is not right. People need to get common sense and know what is right to do. I am all for helping out in some way to get something done about peoples privelege to drive a boat or pwc.

I have been out on our lake when the driver was forced to do a power turn and get between our rider and an oncoming boat. Some people do such stupid things and are oblivious to it all.