Driving Guide I plan to print and hand out

I finally got around to making a 1 page front and back driving guide/etiquette page. I can't handle the 75K boats driving circles and doing powerturns anymore. I plan to nicely approach their boats on the lake and just hand this to them, smile and drive away. Hopefully this will at least get them to think about it. Let me know what you think. If you want the original word or pdf file pm me and I can email it to you.

How to Properly Drive and Inboard Ski/Wakeboard Boat
Water Etiquette:
If you were given this please take the time to read and understand the following points. You don’t want to be the person on the lake that all the other inboard boats point their fingers at and says look at that guy/girl in their nice boat, too bad they don’t have a clue how to drive it!!!

Power Turns: DO NOT do them-
A power turn occurs when your rider falls and you slam the throttle down and turn around at high speed to pick up the rider. (The only time a power turn is acceptable is if your rider is in danger of being hit by another boat or is injured)
• This is bad for a few reasons:
o It’s not safe; you are now approaching your fallen rider at a high rate of speed and something could happen that would cause you to loose control of the boat and accidently hit your own rider.
o You create big rollers (waves) that are now traveling down the same path that your rider is going to be riding down once they are back up. This creates rough water conditions that the rider will have to ride through.
o You also wreck the water for any additional boats that may be riding in the same area as you are.
• The proper way to turn around is to completely let off the throttle while keeping the boat traveling straight. Once the boat has slowed down to almost a stop, turn the wheel sharply and start back towards the fallen rider as slowly as possible creating no waves. This will help keep the water smooth.

Drive in Straight Lines:
• Do not drive in circles! Driving in a circle may seem like a smart thing to do because you think you are giving your rider calmer water but this only happens for the first part of the circle. Eventually you’ll begin to hit all of the rollers that you created when you where going the other way. These rollers will also collide with your current rollers in the middle turning the water into a huge mess.
• The proper way to drive is to go in a straight line, to help you do this pick a point somewhere in the direction you are heading and drive towards that. Once you reach the point that you need to turn around start to slightly turn to your right then turn to your left and come back around and go down the same path you just came from. The end of your turns will look like a barbell. When you go back down your same path all of the waves will continue to be pushed towards shore so your rider won’t have to go through them. Do the same thing once you get to the other end when you need to turn around. See picture on the following page.

Pay Attention-Use your mirror to watch the rider, do not turn around in your seat and look behind you. Your job is to make sure you are not going to hit anyone or anything in your path. Your spotter should alert you if the rider falls.


(Proper driving pattern)


Share the Water- If you come into a bay and someone is already riding try to find another location to ride. If there aren’t any other areas to ride wait unit the other boat finishes pulling their rider, then approach them and ask to take turns. This will help to keep the water calm and more enjoyable for everyone.

Surfing- Surfing has begun to grow in popularity. It is a lot of fun but doesn’t usually require the calm water that skiing or wakeboarding does. If possible please surf in the main portion of the lake instead of bays. Surfing requires deep water. When the water is too shallow the wave will not form properly. At minimum you need a depth of 15 feet for the wave to properly develop.

Tubing- If you are pulling a tube and there are skiers or wakeboarding already riding please go to an area where your waves won’t disturb the water conditions such as the main part of the lake. Tubing is more fun in rough water anyway. Skiers and wakeboarders will appreciate the courtesy.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Nobody starts off being a great driver. It takes practice and someone telling you the proper techniques. My driving was also bad when I started and I can’t thank the people enough who taught me. Most people learn by watching other boats on the lake and unfortunately most of them do not drive properly.

There are also some good articles on the internet that you can read which go into further detail on this topic.
http://wakeworld.com/articles/2003/thatboat.asp
http://www.wakeworld.com/articles/2003/perfectpull.asp
http://www.thebookdvd.com/ A great wakeboarding instructional series. On the getting started DVD chapter 3 goes over boat safety and driv

in the diagram, why would you not turn towards shore, at least on the left side where there is room? this wouldn't throw rollers to the other side

be sure to add.. always turn toward the shore

I just grabbed the image of the book dvd because it was the only decent image of a boat turning around I could find. I'm not that artsy where i could make the image myself.

I wish you well in this pursuit and hope this guide finds it's way in the hands of people that could benefit the most, but that would require you to post this at places like the Wal-Mart water sports aisle.

AMEN! I just got through venting about my driver yesterday that could not figure this out.

I like the first half. You should have stopped with driving technique. Telling people that you as a wakeboarder are more deserving of smooth water than tubers and surfers, and other wakeboarders should ask to take turns riding "your" line, is laughable and ruins the credibility of the first part.

I am doing the same thing SBT3! I will probably steal some ideas/verbage from yours if that's cool. The one thing I will suggest is making it "softer" verbally. Read it as if you were a 50 year old man who had been boating all his life, just dropped tons of coin on a new family boat...didnt know any better, and a young 24 yr old just rolled up and handed you this paper. The verbage will dictate whether or not he reads and applies the concepts or writes you off as a cocky self entitlement know it all punk. IMHO you need to word the flyer to incorporate a tone more along the lines of "these are new concepts you may not have heard of, try them out and see if they help". Kind of like the old "you catch more bees with honey than poison". I have personally found when teaching anyone anything (ESPECIALLY if they are older than me) you need to be really respectful, positive and tread lightly to get the results you are looking for.

agree with Trace. I disagree that tubing is more fun on rough water and surfing doesn't need calm water - these are arguements made by selfish wakeboarders to further their own agendas. Arrows on the driving path would be nice so people know which direction the boat should go at the ends of the run.

Good luck with this. I've been seriously considering making up a flier myself and sticking it on all vehicles with trailers at the Marine Stadium launch ramp.

I can take constructive criticism.

I agree I may leave out the surfer and tuber part. I know everybody is just out to enjoy the lake and have fun. I'm all for that. But I think the sharing the water thing is important. If I roll into an area someone else is already riding, I always approach them and ask to take turns. No sense in turning the lake into a mess.

I was writing this (surfing) more specific to my lake also. The two main bays to wakeboard/ski in are relatively shallow, 15 feet at the most and in most areas 6-10 feet deep. I think many of the people I will be handing this to are obviously new to the sports so it may help them progress.

M-dizzle, that's about as soft as I can make it verbally I think. You should have read my first couple of drafts they were really harsh. I'm in my mid 30's and usually have my wife and daughter with me or other friends with kids so I don't think I'll come off as a young punk. I agree about being catching more bees. That's why I want the letter. When I'm on the lake and someone is doing stupid stuff I can just hand them this rather than being pissed they are ruining the water and try to discuss it calmly which never really works.

You all know that when you're on the water you complain about the others messing up good water.

can I please have a copy when done...

At the end of the power turn section, I would add something about how after you slowly make your turn and are headed back the way you came in a straight line, you can pick up speed a little more. Most of the time when I'm explaining to people the proper way to turn around, they think they have to keep their speed to almost zero all the way back to the rider, to which they ususally respond "Screw that, that takes way too much time" response. Since you're headed back along your line anyway, I have always thought it's ok to go a little faster. I'm not talking about flooring it, of course, but taking 5 minutes to get back to your rider unreasonable.

You need a power turn photo or diagram. I'm convinced most people have no idea they are creating hazards and rollers. A picture is worth the proverbial thousand words.

Anyone who has the graphics capabilities to make better diagrams of proper driving patter and a power turn please make it happen and post them or email them to me. If they better I'll add them in.

I'm not sure how you would have a picture of a power turn that would effectively show what it does.

I did something similar a while back and posted it on www.tigeowners.com.

This shows "How to drive and share a line/lane".

http://www.tigeowners.com/images/misc/howtodrivealine1.gif

http://www.tigeowners.com/images/misc/howtodrivealine2.gif

I love it

i halfway agree with the tubing part. yesterday we were out and were working this same line for about 2 hours. there was like one other boat in sight and they were tubing out in the open water. well while im pulling my rider, this boat comes through and starts making passes all up and down our line when they had the whole lake. So they ruined our area. but then they lost one of their tubers and left him in open ski water for about thirty minutes. For the most part people on our lake are idiots.

I would add something about ramp etiquette as well when the ramp is busy don't tie it up

Let us know how it goes when you hand these out and how they are received.

Personally, I'm skeptical but who knows?

best bet would be to give them to the people at the launches...

i know out here you gotta pay to play so why not make them available to the cashiers and when they get a permit to park their rig they also get a how to drive packet!!!!!

BRILLIANT