Safe Wakes for Small Lakes group

Saw this story on fox 9 this morning. Now this is a group that I could get behind.

https://www.safewakes.org/

Not me.

Add rip rap.

My question would be do they want completely no wake on the lakes or is it the annoying wake boats only? I could live without them driving in a circle always in the way, causing huge waves, playing loud music 99% of the time. They’re worse then jet skis

slipbob_nick it specifically says on their site they are against wake surfing on small lakes.

riverbasher wrote:

slipbob_nick it specifically says on their site they are against wake surfing on small lakes.

Feel free to quantify small lakes.

Couldn’t be a more broad brush statement…”threat posed by large wakes”
Lol.
What threat…. Shoreline erosion? Dock rash? Loud music??????? It is 2 months of the year….

Safe Wakes for Small Lakes is a non-profit, grassroots organization focused on protecting Minnesota’s smaller lakes from the threat posed by large wakes created by wakesurf boats. Our goal is not to ban the boats or the sport in Minnesota, but to limit wake surfing to lakes that are large enough and wide enough to safely accommodate the large wakes.

I hear ya. I saw the website stating against primarily wake surfing. More of a rhetorical question on my end would be does that eventually turn to no wake on small lakes.

Completely agree on the complexity of who decides what is a small lake and how. Guess there’s always got to be something. Human nature. People move to a lake and complain how busy the lake is or move to the country and complain there’s no stores or restaurants and try turning. The mall country town into the city they left to get away from the busyness.

As someone who enjoys wake surfing, I can see both sides. I think the woman was being overly dramatic. Knocked off of your dock and bruised? Gimme a break. IMHO, a 250 acre lake is too small to surf, but 1000 acres is plenty.

Courtesy and common sense can go along ways. We don’t need more laws. Frankly, surfing is better over deeper water, anyways. And the surfable wave is only generated on one side of the boat–we try to keep that side toward the middle of the lake, not towards shore.

I dont think we should have the right to say hey yeah I can run my 300 hp on my bass boat at 60mph to that spot and fish but you cant make wake on a wake boat.

If minnesota wants to protect small lakes then put a motor size limit on them. 25hp or 20 like they have on a few lakes up north and mitchel in eden prairie

Bearcat89 wrote:

If minnesota wants to protect small lakes then put a motor size limit on them. 25hp or 20 like they have on a few lakes up north and mitchel in eden prairie

Motor size really doesn’t do much as a 250hp bassboat trimmed up leaves basically no wake at all. I don’t have an issue with Wake surfers, but I do have an issue with Wake Surfers doing loop after loop after loop in the same bay…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
If minnesota wants to protect small lakes then put a motor size limit on them. 25hp or 20 like they have on a few lakes up north and mitchel in eden prairie

Motor size really doesn’t do much as a 250hp bassboat trimmed up leaves basically no wake at all. I don’t have an issue with Wake surfers, but I do have an issue with Wake Surfers doing loop after loop after loop in the same bay…

It is annoying yes. But it’s as much of a right for them as it is for us to fish peoples docks. And we all know that annoys the hell out of home owners.
I’m torn because I understand it. But I also wake board and like that thing on hot summer days. If it’s for small lakes only then shut the motor size down and boom your problem is solved and there is no prejudice vs waker or fisherman

I think the difference here vs other means of using the lake is that the large wakes create obvious damage to shorelines.

This is a touchy subject for me because I have a cabin in a secluded bay that gets hammered with Wakesurfers, we’ve had high water all spring and I’ve lost about 3′ of shoreline due to Wakesurfers huge wakes crashing in and taking soil away…What really gets me is that they are terrible wakesurfers and spend the vast majority of time picking up fallen riders which just leads to even bigger start up wakes getting the huge boats moving again…If they had some skill it might be fun to watch

Again, I would be fine with them if they used the entire lake, but they seem to just stay in the same bay doing circles.

Bearcat89 wrote:

If it’s for small lakes only then shut the motor size down and boom your problem is solved and there is no prejudice vs waker or fisherman

BINGO, seems like a very ration solution with no or limited prejudice.

sticker wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
If it’s for small lakes only then shut the motor size down and boom your problem is solved and there is no prejudice vs waker or fisherman

BINGO, seems like a very ration solution with no or limited prejudice.

Unless you live on the lake and just spent a bunch of coin on a new boat with a 50 horse motor?

The problem with ANY new regulations/laws to restrict boats or certain boat behaviors is that there are not enough LEOs to enforce any of them and if there’s not a CO already on the water it would probably take HOURS for them to respond to a complaint, if they came at all. It’s just not realistic to me.

Also some of y’all are confusing wake boarding with wake surfing. There’s a difference in terms of the wave created. That organization in the link specifically says they’re not against wake boarding, only wake surfing.

Fishermen aren’t out there to fill their boat with water to make the biggest waves possible. I can make bigger waves with my 60 horse merc on a 17ft yarcraft than some of these big bass boats can. And it’s not that big… Those big wake boats have one goal of making as big of a wave as possible. I said right away when that became popular that something is going to happen eventually since they’re going to be destroying shorelines. Let’s not bring into account the loud crappy music that they play loud enough that I can hear it from 3/4 of a mile away. Or the fact that those boats suck in hundreds of gallons of water to make these wakes. Well, what about invasive species? I have to throw my minnows away all the time. Shouldn’t they have to clean and dry the inside of their hull like I’m required to do to my livewell? It’s a touchy subject since these people usually (not always, but in my experiences, they are completely disrespectful) don’t give you room when fishing and drive by with their 3-foot wake blaring music.

tangler wrote:

Also some of y’all are confusing wake boarding with wake surfing. There’s a difference in terms of the wave created. That organization in the link specifically says they’re not against wake boarding, only wake surfing.

I did not catch that. My bad I assumed wake surfing was a old ladys slang for wake boarding

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tangler wrote:</div>
Also some of y’all are confusing wake boarding with wake surfing. There’s a difference in terms of the wave created. That organization in the link specifically says they’re not against wake boarding, only wake surfing.

I did not catch that. My bad I assumed wake surfing was a old ladys slang for wake boarding

Honestly I just learned about it as well. Looks FUN without the rope. 1,000 pounds of ballast and then add on one of those “surf shaper” doo-hickies Yowza.

tangler wrote:

Honestly I just learned about it as well. Looks FUN without the rope. 1,000 pounds of ballast and then add on one of those “surf shaper” doo-hickies Yowza.

It is a lot of fun, and it’s a lot easier on the body. I love to slalom ski, too, but as I get older, my body can’t take too much of it, yet we can surf for a long time. Oh, and 1000 pounds of ballast is nothing.

Again, courtesy goes a long ways. I can see getting frustrated with some of the d-bags out there, but it’s not wakesurfing that is the issue, it’s disrespectful boat drivers.

I’ll crawl back into my hole now.

I agree with rjthehunter. The point of these rigs is to make as big of waves/waves as possible. They damage shorelines. Wouldn’t bother me if they banned them outright. Recreational riff raff will be out there in full force this weekend when the heat index balloons past 100 degrees!

Devil’s advocate for the sake of conversation.

At what point do we throw it back on the shoreline owners for not having proper shoreline that can handle waves? The natural shoreline of a lake is more than equipped to handle waves, its the perfectly sculpted beachscape that’s getting affected.

Yes, we had high water this year, and that’s where they put no wake restrictions in place because of that. When the water went back to normalish levels, that’s where I say it’s on the shoreline owner to make sure they have a proper shoreline to handle what the lake throws at it.

Gordio wrote:

Devil’s advocate for the sake of conversation.

At what point do we throw it back on the shoreline owners for not having proper shoreline that can handle waves? The natural shoreline of a lake is more than equipped to handle waves, its the perfectly sculpted beachscape that’s getting affected.

Yes, we had high water this year, and that’s where they put no wake restrictions in place because of that. When the water went back to normalish levels, that’s where I say it’s on the shoreline owner to make sure they have a proper shoreline to handle what the lake throws at it.

Do you have any lakefront property? Do you have any idea how many hoops you get to jump through to try to add even a patio back from the waters edge? It’s not as simple as you think it should be.

Big boats designed to make large waves isn’t what the lake throws at it. It’s what big spenders are throwing at it with their expensive boats that are good at not getting on plane and plowing through the water.

I would know. My family owns over half a mile of shoreline.

How many people actually jump thru those hoops?

Very few

Gordio wrote:

How many people actually jump thru those hoops?

Very few

Unless you do it yourself, almost all contractors or businesses will require you to jump through those. So most people don’t have a choice…

These guys have as much right to the lakes as we do. Don’t over-generalize that they are all out there to play loud crappy music and wreck shorelines. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean we should just ban them. A lot of lake shore owners don’t like bass fisherman pitching jigs under their docks but the answer isn’t to ban bass fishing.

As fisherman we don’t like the generalizations so let’s not do it to others trying to enjoy the resources. I’m for sensible regs to protect our resources but sounds like some of you just don’t like wake surf boats and have an axe to grind.

Common sense and moderation seem to be in short supply these days. It seems to me that intentionally causing a huge wake that pummels peoples property(i am thinking boats tied to docks in addition to shorelines) just isn’t very respectful or courteous. Same with loud music, excessively noisy rigs, loud generators, bright lights shining on homes from bow fishermen, etc….. a little moderation and logic coupled with some patience and tolerance would serve all of us well.

It’s not a right to be a danger to anyone on the water, and that’s a fact.

Another thread everyone is sympathizing against the dbag bass guy throwing a big wake at a guy almost flooding him, but since this boat is now a wake boat with some big tunes on it and beach bros who catch wicked waves man we all should be ok with it?

If I want to catch muskie I go to certain bodies of water the dnr sets up to have muskie in it, same for walleyes, etc etc. Wake surfing boarding whatever the hecks a guy wants to call it should be designated to certain lakes, it’s not that far fetched.

You do realize that you are responsible for your wake and the damage it causes right now, right? That law is on the books.

86B.311 GENERAL RULES FOR OPERATION.

Subdivision 1.Safe operation. 

A person may not operate or allow the operation of a watercraft or use a device relating to the use of the watercraft:

(1) in a careless or heedless manner in disregard of the rights or safety of others;

(2) in a reckless or grossly negligent manner that causes personal injury to another or damage to the property of another;

Life on water is a whole lot better when you learn to tolerate others.

I enjoy the variety on the water. Everybody is out to have fun.. let em!

Lakeshore owners bought land along water. Waters edges change. Laws are strict with what you can/cannot do. The state wants to make it challenging for Lakeshore owners to do whatever they want with the shore edge. That is not new news.

I’m not one to complain about waves. Learn to tolerate and maybe you’ll enjoy your day.

Wave HI to everyone on the water.

Those who lost a few feet of shoreline… I’ll bet you seen that coming.

Forecast says rain… It’s your choice to leave your clothes hanging outside to dry.

I wonder how much shoreline loss and damage there would be if trees and other native vegitation wasnt removed to make way for homes,cabins,boathouses,docks,sand beaches,firepits,patios.If the shorelines were left alone in the first place we may have never even heard of terrible shoreline destruction at all.