The Greatest Danger a Paddler Faces

[TnRiver46]

They made a law banning wake surfing within 200 feet of the bank, but of course nothing changed. They still do it all day 

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

They made a law banning wake surfing within 200 feet of the bank, but of course nothing changed. They still do it all day 

I've seen wake boats cut inside the no-wake buoys on Tonka at speed.

[padlin]

This all seems vaguely familiar. The wife and I are lifelong hikers, when mountain bikes first came on the scene we despised them, they left deep ruts on the curves and widened the trials considerably, even had bikers come through and purposely clear the close in undergrowth. Then the dirt bikes, the 3 wheelers, 4x4 trucks, and lastly quads. Some of the trails we used to hike are now unhikeable, they are now 15’ wide boulder filled roads. We now stick to State Parks, Game Refuges, and the like.

 

And I complained about mountain bikes.

[Swamp Girl]

15 minutes ago, padlin said:

This all seems vaguely familiar. The wife and I are lifelong hikers, when mountain bikes first came on the scene we despised them, they left deep ruts on the curves and widened the trials considerably, even had bikers come through and purposely clear the close in undergrowth. Then the dirt bikes, the 3 wheelers, 4x4 trucks, and lastly quads. Some of the trails we used to hike are now unhikeable, they are now 15’ wide boulder filled roads. We now stick to State Parks, Game Refuges, and the like.

 

And I complained about mountain bikes.

 

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

[MN Fisher]

15 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum

 

One of my favorites by her....

[Swamp Girl]

45 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum

 

One of my favorites by her....

 

Mine too! I also love "River" and "The Last Time I saw Richard."

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Mine too! I also love "River" and "The Last Time I saw Richard."

I'd have to add 'Free Man in Paris' to the list.

[Swamp Girl]

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

I'd have to add 'Free Man in Paris' to the list.

 

Heck, yeah! I pity the famous. 

[gim]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

They made a law banning wake surfing within 200 feet of the bank, but of course nothing changed. They still do it all day 

 

Always something to consider.  You need manpower and equipment to enforce laws too.

 

I have a feeling a specific rule on wake boats like that would rarely get enforced here too just because there are very few officers to do it.

 

What they could do is simply prohibit them completely on smaller lakes that are under a specific size.  The State of Wisconsin is currently working on legislated state law for this and other states are watching the results.  Wisconsin is a pretty big lake state so they will be the prototype for others to follow.  The rule I saw was that they are considering banning it on any lakes smaller than 1500 acres in size, and they can only be used in at least 20 feet of water or deeper at least 500 feet from shore (these ones would be much harder to regulate).

 

The public overwhelmingly supports this too; but the wake boat demographic has deep pockets.  Some lake associations have attempted to ban them in northern WI but the sheriff stated that he refuses to enforce it because its not enshrined into law.

[herder]

Boat wakes are up there, the picture is in the Manasquan river by the Point Pleasant canal.

Those are some of the smaller  boats, so between the tidal current  and wakes it can get quite interesting.  We call it combat fishing.

Fishing in the salt, tides and wind can make it a long grueling day.

I’ve been doing more freshwater fishing in reservoirs and lakes with 10 hp limit or electric only.

Being retired I can now choose to fish mostly week days which cuts down on the water traffic.

 

[rboat]

I just take out my cellphone and have the water safety number on speed dial. Take down the boats license numbers and description and report them. They probably won't do anything, but it makes me feel better.

[Crow Horse]

The vast majority of hazards are avoidable. A few aren't. The majority of the avoidable ones  can be attributed  to one of the two most common elements in the Universe, hydrogen (this isn't it) and stupidity (we have a winner).

 

Under the umbrella of stupidity we find the following schools of thought...

 

The laws don't apply to me. They're really just suggestions.

The laws of physics don't apply to me.

Hey, watch this!

This will work. I saw it in a cartoon once.

Get me another beer.

 

You get the idea. Some things we've seen defies all logical thought and puts people unnecessarily in harms way.

 

To counter the above, maintain situational awareness by keeping your head on a swivel. Prepare for the worst case scenario in any situation. Avoid potential high risk situations....