No Power Turners!!!

I was wondering what to vow to do with my New Years resolution this year.
One tiny little item kept popping up in my head.
This summer I'm going to find a nice way to have a clam talk with the guy and his four buddies about power turning in "my" nice calm morning glass. I'm not going to raise my voice and I'm not going to start with HEY, WHY THE HELL DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING, TO COME F@(k UP MY WATER"

Good luck with the "clam talk". I've approached people about this before. As long as you're cool about it... most will be receptive. Many people don't realize what a power-turn is, or that it's socially unacceptable when others are on the water... Approach it under that assumption, explain what it is and what it does, and how much longer BOTH of you will be able to ride if neither of you is powerturning. And hopefully they're receptive.

I have strong dislike for those who powerturn, but try to give them the benefit of the doubt...

But more often than not, the powerturners are my buddies, and are pulling ME in MY BOAT. They get behind the wheel and want to test the boat. I seem to have a problem with this... more often than I have problems with other boaters.

At least your powerturners aren't tubers that can't drive a straight line. I YELL at them. I dislike (OK, hate) bad tuber-drivers worse than powerturners.

Good luck.

(Message edited by phenom_1819 on January 28, 2009)

I have had very good luck talking to folks that are not driving well on my line. I try and catch them changing riders. Putt up smiling and say hello and introduce myself. I tell them I am happy to share the line, but I have some suggestions to help keep the water nice for all of us. I don't always get a friendly response (usually I do) but I almost always convert a powerturner. Good luck!

(Message edited by texastbird on January 29, 2009)

i have found that the average boater enjoys power-turning. it's the sensation of wrecklessness without the magnitude of danger that is associated with doing it in an automobile. i have two good friends who are mature and educated and i have spent hours in the boat (their boat and our boat) with them showing by example how much better it is not to powerturn. then when they take the wheel, whether i am in the boat or not, they continue to powerturn. it is something far deeper than being unknowledgeable about the effects of powerturning. it's just something that people like to do and it is difficult to get them to change their behavior. throw in the "nobody's going to tell me how to drive" syndrome and it is nearly impossible to change someone's driving habits.

I've done my part for the education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzvOsvrhR4M

Almost 7000 views in one season and I dont think I've posted it anywhere...so maybe kids and people that get yelled at have found it by searching. Its not the best flick, but I think its the only one of its kind and should get the point accross.

I'll admit I didnt know what a PT was when I started the sport 2 summers ago. Now it drives me insane.

its actually more dangerous for a rider to be picked up by poewerturn when its crowded. If the rider is in line with the boat and the boat trurns around in line, they may not be able to see the rider but they can see your boat so if its inline with the rider than by missing your boat they miss the rider. Powerturning leaves that line and leaves a person sitting in the water with boats passing right next to them. Even in an emergency stay inline. Most inboards can just about in line powerturn anyways to swing the back end around really quick. It really is safer for everyone on the water not to powerturn.

^what about if the rider's injured? I think thats more what I was thinkin, but may have worded it wrong....if you're refering to the pro's/con's list. my bad.

I hate powerturners as much as the next guy, and have done what i can to educate fellow boaters about the effects of turning like a jackass. Where I ride it isn't uncommon to share a line with a few other boats, and if everyone is responsible this can be done with great success. My question is ..."What about double-ups?" Last season a boat which I had never seen before actually approached our boat and asked my driver (brother) to stop doing double-ups and likened them to power turns. Now, i usually hit a DU at a every opportunity, i.e. when our line is over and we need to turn. So, does a DU, when driven properly, have the same adverse affects on water conditions? I don't believe that it does, however, I am sure that some do. It seems to me that DU rollers usually go the way of the wake and disappear into the shoreline, thus not harming the conditions anymore than a straight line wake...Does anyone have any insight to this topic? I'm not about to cut down on DU's while my knees are still decent, but at the same time, should DU's be avoided when sharing a line with another boat??

pdx, good vid but i wish it was g rated so I could share it.

I didnt think of that....whoops. Maybe if you guys have some footage of PT's in action as the example clips are kind of weak at the begining, I'll edit it and switch up the tunes.

Well, if you're turning around, a DU doesn't count, nor does powerturns. If the space exists to turn around easily, you use it, that's not a powerturn. It's a powerturn when you turn at full speed to go pick up the rider after a fall. This is all merely my opinion though, so I could be completely off base with that statement.

yeah, I think it would be best to approach as if they are unaware. I've had a boat for 4 years now, but have been on boats most of my life and I had no clue until this past year what a power turn was. All of the boats I've been on until recently, if someone fell behind the boat, the driver would gun it to get around thinking it was the quickest way to get the fallen skier/boarder. So that's what I knew. Not only does it created a nasty monster wake for other boaters, its not any quicker getting to the floater. But I was never aware of that until I rode with some experienced boaters....

someone should make an 8"x11" flyer that we can email around & print out.

"power turning is illegal" could be a great headline, and show graphic and instructions on the correct way to pick up thier rider.

I know I would print out 100's, and put them under whindshield wipers of trucks with wakeboard trailers.

talking about it on WW is a good first step, but we need to get the word out to the public.

anyone game to make the flier?

As a [really] rough draft:

http://www.geocities.com/sk8_theguitar/Gallery/powerturning.jpg (partially based on Scott's video)

Feel free to modify this as you wish :-)

this is how i like to pick up my rider i didnt know it was unacceptable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqTRrIpMWb0&feature=related
hahahaha
im so tired of power turners eccspecially out on the delta it get so tiring always having to move to different spots the worst is my best friend who i always ride with is always power turning like crazy ill always ask about it and hell just be like its not ruining any water but always throws chop all the way down the sleugh he always bugs me when i take out my boat that when i go to pick him up its taking to lol

shaun murray power turning what is this????http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfnIdNJ-F0c&feature=related
thought he would know better lol

Re: the double ups; they can screw up the water just as bad as a PT, BUT! this can be avoided. If you do a pre turn (turning approximately 75-90 degrees in the opposite direction of the double up the wakes all cancel out after the double up and you are in the same line as before, leaving everyone happy.

yep thats how we drive them usually, just wondering what the public perception was.

yo Dan C,

I like where your headed...any way toget that in a word .doc file?

anyone have a good pic of a boat power turning?

Powerturning is awesome when you do it like this!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68AOltMu768

HAHAHAHA

When enjoying good water if another boat on the lake pulls off a Double Up, thats awesome and usually gets a cheer.
That is not a "power turn" in my world.

As previously stated a "power turn" is done when retrieving a downed rider at max throttle with max steering engaged, causing a large wave to form on the inside of the arch and sending that wave across the lake for everyone else to deal with. You get a few of these drivers on a nice calm lake and the water goes to hell in no time.
There should be a penalty for such actions!!
But, I'm going to try and reform them this year.
Ha ha ha ha, If I get a black eye, I'll post a pic.

Dan C, you've got the right idea for sure!! It's all about "informing" versus "telling". It would be really nice to have a flyer you could just slap on a car, post on a gas dock or even hand to your fellow boaters.

I'm with you Brett, it's hard to watch your nice glassy AM lake turn to crap in 15 minutes from all the yahoos just ripping turns everywhere. Fight the good fight!!

They need to post 2 big signs at each end of Vics and Railroad.

1. No powerturns
2. One Way --->

That would be awesome.

I always try to stop by people doing power turns, and "inform" them of the reasons why they should stop. It is actually a good way to make friends.

I made friends with this guy (see pic below) last year by stopping him and talking to him about power turns. He totally understood, and then took me for a high speed ride in his boat.

Kyle, you make a great point.

By talking to the people you are sharing the line with, you at least make an acquaintence if not a friend. And believe me, when that fourth boat comes onto your line and starts power turning, it is a very powerful statement to say "Not only would I appreciate it if you wouldn't powerturn, but so would my friends Steve and Patrick over there in the X2 and the Supra. We're happy to share the line with you, but let's keep the water nice for all of us."

It is also nice when you know the other boats on the line - makes everyone more comfortable. It also changes your perspective about the other guy and their perception of you. They used to be the tool screwing up your water - now they are your "friend" you share the line with.

Re. Spect. Ride. Whadda ya say?! LOL!

I hear you Migs. What about those guys that take the cut half way down vics to get on the other side? They are pulling a rider in most cases, but it sure has messed me up many times coming out of now where. Those people that make that U-turn there are power turners IMO. I can't stand them folks.

---

quote:

I like where your headed...any way toget that in a word .doc file?

---

Sure... Unwittingly I did that in the GIMP thinking it would be better to make a flyer in image format... well, no sooner than I close out of it and try to open up the file that I realize even in the GIMP's native format it flattened it! I'll have to figure that out sometime, but... yeah, I'll type up a .doc file in the meantime :-)

Wow...

You would not believe how much harder it was to do in a WYSIWYG text editor than the GIMP!

Anyways, here it is.

Dan,
Weird my laptop won't let me open that link.
I get a pop up that says "You are not able to open that link, prohibited."
What the heck, I've never had that happen and I go through some pretty skanky sites.
What is that?? Ha Ha I can only imagine

Does anyone have the ability to make a flag that says" NO POWER TURNS"? I'd buy one.or 5 for the crew.

We have more trouble with tubers driving crazy figure 8's all through our line on the lake i go to.

Brent,
I dunno whats up... are you at work or somewhere that they block a lot of sites? That's a geocities.com address.

My dad is a power turner. i just told him about the thread and he said "im a power turner and im proud of it, i want to get back to my boarder and make sure he is okay"

i read it back to him and he told me to also write "i think its cool to throw up a huge wake a screw everybody else"
one of his favorite things to do to me, is after i fall he power turns back around to pick me up, and the he does donuts around me plowing tons of water and tried to f up the water as much as possible to make it harder for me to get the board off. which ends up messing up half the lake

o boy, here it comes, and for the record. i yell at him for it all the time and tell him he is going to get shot one day. lmao. sorry guys. not my fault, i try and get him to stop but he wont

David, your post is killing me!



True power turning is a lost art and impossible to due with a modern wakeboard boat. You need a pro star 190 or better yet one of those old Centurions to really do it right.

Basically the technique started when your skier gave you the slash. When he pulled out and threw the handle you would completely pull off the throttle, yank the wheel hard to either the left or right (depending on which side your skier pulled out to) and then hammer the throttle. (At some point during that operation you would flash on who was in your boat because uninitiated passengers, women and children tend to get thrown from the boat during this maneuver). Yelling "hold on" was useless to the uninitiated.

When done perfectly (like at Marine world) the hull would break loose and the boat would do a complete 360 and come to an abrupt stop and the skier would ride up and on to your swim step. Just about anything short of perfection usually turned into a near death experience.

I tried this with our old 01 sunsetter VLX while pulling my wife on a ski run down victoria and while I managed to break the hull loose it basically 180'd and ending up heading right at her. I don't need to tell anyone reading this who knows her what happened next, let's just say you could hear her X rated screaming all the way out to Dbay!

I don't know at this point why anyone would power turn a loaded wakeboard boat on the Delta anyway, I'm afraid to even drive a double up there these days!

It appears there are plenty of times when the kids have more sense then the fathers!

LMFAO RICH!! my dad is laughing his a*& off

Hi David,
Have your Dad read this, it should help, its about your safety on a busy day.

Mr.Christman, good morning. I love where you live, one of the best surfing spots on the planet (Mavericks) is only a hop and a skip from your home. I would be there constantly watching.

Regarding picking up David when wakeboarding....

Even if only on the busiest day, if you would try this it is actually a very safe practice, the safest practice.

Your on a busy stretch of water, David falls. Other boats behind you, you hit the throttle and turn hard usually to the right. The boat behind you sees you pulling out of your line. He feels comfortable staying in your line because you have left it. (we are assuming he is an idiot)
Now David is in the water with a potential accident about to happen.

Now................
Same scenario, except this time when David falls you shut the boat down and crank the wheel to the right. Your own wall of water will hit the back of your stern as you start a very slow 180 deg turn and still in your own line about 150' or less from David. Start cruising back to get him. Now the boat behind you must turn away from you and your downed rider. You have just protected him with your boat. Once you get this maneuver dialed in, its actually very fast, as fast as the big circle. It also saves you a lot of gas when your rider is falling often.
Thanks for reading this.

If you ever decide to come down to Naci, shoot me a note.

(Message edited by bfnaci on February 01, 2009)

i read it to him and he started busting up. first off, where is naci? and im trying to tell him that all the time. but he still power turns, when he falls i do exactly what you said, the only time i power turn to pick someone up is after they fall and someone still continues at them with a fair amount of speed. then ill power turn around and block the rider from the boat, but that only happens maybe once every other time we go to the lake. we havnt ridden for a while and i keep telling him he needs to stop doing it, it pisses alot of people off, so hopefully next time we go, it will be different

Nacimiento Lake, down near Paso Robles. Bad lake to power turn in, conditions get wiped out pretty quick there as it is.

Sounds like you'll need to fall less until you get him trained.

lmao, i dont fall that often. but when i do he does, or even if i drop off when im done with my set