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Old     (novaman64)      Join Date: Jun 2014       07-28-2014, 8:03 AM Reply   
So main just venting... Let me start out by saying I have a couple friends that are LEO's, they are great guys. I understand that people give them all kinds of attitude and hate on LEO's in general, unless they call them because they need assistance. That said, I think some people just become cops because they got their head flushed too many times in high school and have something to prove...

So yesterday went out to Discovery Park in Sac with my fiance and a couple of her friends. Did some wake boarding, and around 6, found a small stretch of water that was flat enough to barefoot, suited up and hopped in, get going, go around a bend and there is a Yolo County Sheriff boat with some pulled over (towards the far shoreline) there was a ton of room between them and shore, but they got on the radio yelling to "slow your vessel down", mind you I am behind the boat footing... Is there a law/rule about speed around a sheriff boat? Needless to say she had to drop me, which sucked because it was the only good water I got, or would get all day. After that, it was idiot fest with jet skiers and boat with tubes following way to close behind when I was pulling people wake boarding, yet the cops seemed to not mind that. I gave a couple jet skiers a piece of my mind about following that close when I was pulling someone....

So a couple hours later, here comes the pig patrol, to the Discovery Park launch ramp, my friends on the Yolo County Sheriff boat. I dont even know what they were doing down there, I thought it was all Sac jurisdiction. But he was yelling at people at dusk about their boat nav lights, then while we were waiting to get on the doc, a spot opens up, he floors it, almost hits me, sends wakes out, then jacks my spot... Im assuming he was attempting to "help" out the armed park rangers (2 cars of them) plus Sac (not sure if it was PD or Sheriff) with 1 homeless drunk dude. So thats 4 LEO not including the Yolo county boat guys with the situation under control. After 2 of Yolo county piggies waddled half way up the ramp, the on scene LEO's looked at them like WTF, and sent them back to their boat... Then they sat on their boat taking up dock space watching everyone load out.... So frustrating sometimes... End rant....
Old     (williamburell)      Join Date: Sep 2011       07-28-2014, 8:37 AM Reply   
Quote:
So main just venting... Let me start out by saying I have a couple friends that are LEO's, they are great guys. I understand that people give them all kinds of attitude and hate on LEO's in general, unless they call them because they need assistance. That said, I think some people just become cops because they got their head flushed too many times in high school and have something to prove...

So yesterday went out to Discovery Park in Sac with my fiance and a couple of her friends. Did some wake boarding, and around 6, found a small stretch of water that was flat enough to barefoot, suited up and hopped in, get going, go around a bend and there is a Yolo County Sheriff boat with some pulled over (towards the far shoreline) there was a ton of room between them and shore, but they got on the radio yelling to "slow your vessel down", mind you I am behind the boat footing... Is there a law/rule about speed around a sheriff boat? Needless to say she had to drop me, which sucked because it was the only good water I got, or would get all day. After that, it was idiot fest with jet skiers and boat with tubes following way to close behind when I was pulling people wake boarding, yet the cops seemed to not mind that. I gave a couple jet skiers a piece of my mind about following that close when I was pulling someone....

So a couple hours later, here comes the pig patrol, to the Discovery Park launch ramp, my friends on the Yolo County Sheriff boat. I dont even know what they were doing down there, I thought it was all Sac jurisdiction. But he was yelling at people at dusk about their boat nav lights, then while we were waiting to get on the doc, a spot opens up, he floors it, almost hits me, sends wakes out, then jacks my spot... Im assuming he was attempting to "help" out the armed park rangers (2 cars of them) plus Sac (not sure if it was PD or Sheriff) with 1 homeless drunk dude. So thats 4 LEO not including the Yolo county boat guys with the situation under control. After 2 of Yolo county piggies waddled half way up the ramp, the on scene LEO's looked at them like WTF, and sent them back to their boat... Then they sat on their boat taking up dock space watching everyone load out.... So frustrating sometimes... End rant....
I stopped taking this seriously before I even opened it.

1) Most of these guys are not trained on etiquette. They are essentially just thrown in boats. Assume they have a training session on what to watch for, boarding policies, etc but they generally don't know what most of us do. Talk to them, write a letter, or call someone. Understand you are just venting but using pig every 2 seconds doesn't exactly inspire confidence in your judgement.

2) Did a cop violate you at some point in your life? Please show us on the doll where the police officer touched you. You sound either ignorant or like one plowed you on the front of his car at some point.

So with that said I've had a sheriff swamp my boat in a no wake zone. We had a nice calm talk and he honestly was apologetic. They are essentially trying to monitor a giant clusterf*** every day and mistakes happen. Not all cops are good and yours might be a jackleg but they do serve a purpose. If there wasn't a water presence people might be more inclined to drive fall down drunk around the lake. 1 life is worth me putting up with an untrained cop.

If you were cool about it you could have explained to them after the fact that at footing speed you were throwing a far smaller wake than if you would have come by them at 10mph and maybe they would have learned something.
Old     (denystaucd)      Join Date: Feb 2003       07-28-2014, 8:49 AM Reply   
Sorry you had a bad day! But Blue lights on in CA equals a no wake zone 5mph.

From the regulations book;
Any vessel approaching, overtaking, being approached, or being overtaken by, a moving law enforcement vessel operating with a siren or an illuminated blue light, or any vessel approaching a stationary law enforcement vessel displaying an illuminated blue light, shall immediately slow to a speed sufficient to maintain steerage only, shall alter its course, within its ability, so as not to inhibit or interfere with the operation of the law enforcement vessel, and shall proceed, unless otherwise directed by the operator of the law enforcement vessel, at the reduced speed until beyond the area of operation of the law enforcement vessel.

Cheers,
DC
Old     (novaman64)      Join Date: Jun 2014       07-28-2014, 9:03 AM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by denystaucd View Post
Sorry you had a bad day! But Blue lights on in CA equals a no wake zone 5mph.

From the regulations book;
Any vessel approaching, overtaking, being approached, or being overtaken by, a moving law enforcement vessel operating with a siren or an illuminated blue light, or any vessel approaching a stationary law enforcement vessel displaying an illuminated blue light, shall immediately slow to a speed sufficient to maintain steerage only, shall alter its course, within its ability, so as not to inhibit or interfere with the operation of the law enforcement vessel, and shall proceed, unless otherwise directed by the operator of the law enforcement vessel, at the reduced speed until beyond the area of operation of the law enforcement vessel.

Cheers,
DC

Doesnt mention distance, and was in a position where we werent going to " inhibit or interfere with the operation of the law enforcement vessel". Is there a set distance? I mean I was on a river, so I can understand that, and glad to know there is a law for it. But on a lake, Im assuming there has to be a distance, or half the boats would be idling around because you can see there blue lights from a long ways off.
Old     (bcrider)      Join Date: Apr 2006       07-28-2014, 9:04 AM Reply   
Apparently we are really lucky up here in the north. We rarely ever see any fuzz on the water and the days they are out there being some of the busy holiday weekends and such I'm nowhere near the lake.
Old     (Cabledog)      Join Date: Dec 2013       07-28-2014, 9:21 AM Reply   
Actually did have an experience with the Police Sunday. In Washington State the local Police or Sherriff give out an inspection sticker annually following a safety inspection. We arrived at the launch about 10:00am at the same time as the local Bonney Lake Police and since the ramp was empty I asked if they could do the inspection. Sticker = no hassles the rest of the summer as long as you’re not being “that guy”. We try to get one every year on our terms before anyone is drinking, etc. The officer was really cool , complimented my boat, we BS’d for a minute, I got my sticker, and launched. I did notice the same officer citing a couple paddle boarders that were at the dock for not paying launch fees and having a whistle when I picked up some friends about a half hour later so go figure. I was cool, they were too. If they remember me I want it to be for that and not “There’s that A-hole from last week, lets go F with him” Now if they would use the parking lot like everyone else instead of parking their cars in the staging area it would be great. But that’s not a hill worth dying on IMO.
Old     (phathom)      Join Date: Jun 2013       07-28-2014, 9:32 AM Reply   
Inspection sticker in Washington state? Is that just for a certain lake or county? Have never heard of that, but then again we ride the Columbia which is borderline between OR and WA. I think majority of LEO here is Multnomah County, but I have seen a few Clark County out, no mention of any stickers though.
Old     (Cabledog)      Join Date: Dec 2013       07-28-2014, 9:48 AM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by phathom View Post
Inspection sticker in Washington state? Is that just for a certain lake or county? Have never heard of that, but then again we ride the Columbia which is borderline between OR and WA. I think majority of LEO here is Multnomah County, but I have seen a few Clark County out, no mention of any stickers though.
Looks like this. I'm at work so I cant take a pic of the 2014 one but this is an old pic I found online. They give you the sticker and a paper record that I keep with my registration.
Attached Images
 
Old     (Cabledog)      Join Date: Dec 2013       07-28-2014, 9:54 AM Reply   
You have to ask for it while being inspected. It says state parks but local, county, and parks LEO's have them. It’s about 2"x 2". I put it on the driver side corner of my windshield. Don't necessarily like more stickers on the boat but this is worth it.
Old     (phathom)      Join Date: Jun 2013       07-28-2014, 10:25 AM Reply   
Image came up blank. I'm guessing since you have to ask for one, it's not a legal requirement, but helps them identify that you've already been checked out for the season and helps them move along quicker?
Old     (Cabledog)      Join Date: Dec 2013       07-28-2014, 10:37 AM Reply   
Thats strange, I can see it in the thread. No it is not required. Like you said it lets them see that you have been checked out.
Old     (moon)      Join Date: Oct 2008       07-28-2014, 11:25 AM Reply   
That's funny, I've never seen one of those stickers let alone been inspected in Washington. We ride on the Columbia and snake river around tri cities.
Old     (Cabledog)      Join Date: Dec 2013       07-28-2014, 12:11 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by moon View Post
That's funny, I've never seen one of those stickers let alone been inspected in Washington. We ride on the Columbia and snake river around tri cities.
Funny you should say that. We spend at least every other weekend in eastern WA (Moses, Banks, Priest, Columbia, etc) during the summer and you’re right I can’t remember the last time I have seen a marine unit when we're east. Over on the coast side it’s a regular thing to see them at the ramp and out on the water. That’s why we quit going to Sea Fair a few years back.
Old     (bftskir)      Join Date: Jan 2004       07-28-2014, 12:42 PM Reply   
That's sometimes a patrol tactic. Get somebody pulled over with the blue lights then go after every boat that goes by faster than idle. If you see the police ...stop...go the other way....don't go where the popo goes
Old     (novaman64)      Join Date: Jun 2014       07-28-2014, 2:13 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by bftskir View Post
That's sometimes a patrol tactic. Get somebody pulled over with the blue lights then go after every boat that goes by faster than idle. If you see the police ...stop...go the other way....don't go where the popo goes
Thanks Andy! haha, got up long line, not the pretties but got it... Found a good deal on a boom too!
Old     (baitkiller)      Join Date: Jan 2010       07-28-2014, 3:17 PM Reply   
Last summer I was late getting out, wife and kids lollygagging, trailer trouble, etc. Finally get the boat wet and clear (I thought) the no-wake zone and throttle up. FWC lights me up and starts the whole " I have you on video speeding in a manatee zone!". I tell him if I left early it was under a boat length and anyway manatees cant read and are faster that everybody gives them credit for anyway.
This did not please the young officer and so now he's counting life jackets, checking extinguishers and flares etc. I'm good with that.

So I open a beer and just watch him...He sees me do this and freaks out! I thought the dude was gonna stroke! Now its 20 questions on drinking, My wife starts laughing at him. The guy looks at me, says he is "going to review his video evidence and issue the appropriate fine" Me- Uh... er. can you repeat that please? He splits and i never got anything in the mail.
Sometimes people have bad days.. I know that I do.
Old     (fence_sence)      Join Date: Jul 2008       07-30-2014, 10:07 AM Reply   
I've had issues with police of all sorts lately. I haven't received any tickets but instead, I was pissed because they weren't handing tickets out.

4th of July. Normally, I would never go out on the 4th but, I got invited to go for a morning set at a lake 30min from my door step. "Ya, I'll go for a ride." We go out and get our sets in. We let the kids tube back and as we are approaching one of the major camping areas, some jackhole pulling a wakeboarder circles around and starts following us no more than 50 yards away. That's just stupid. We've got two little kids on tube. We knew we were getting close to the mayhem area but we weren't quite there yet. We get him waived off and get the kids back in the boat and shake our heads and move on. We just want to get the F off this lake. We skirt the mayhem but, a different jackhole comes blasting out of it and pulls right behing us, not more that 20 yards back. He's doing probably 10mph more than we are and he's playing in our wake like he's on a jet ski. There's probably 5-6 other people in the boat with him. I punch it and the guy gets sucked into the trough and nearly rolls his boat. All this time, a patrol boat is no more that 75 yards off our port stern. He never breaks off his line. WTF! We get back to the ramp and I drop our driver off to go get the truck and I idle back out and wait. Meanwhile, the patrol boat ties up to the dock, while one of the officers goes and gets their truck. Grrrr. I can see our driver talking to the officer and the dock. We get the boat loaded and pull up to the parking lot and I ask my buddy what he was talking about with the officer. He says," I said it's getting crazy out there." The officer said, "Why do think we're pulling out?"

Now, I understand shift changes and that's fine but, with two incidents that were completely dangerous, well within his view and he does nothing and then like the jerks we all hate, ties up to the dock right in front of the ramp. Seriously, WTF? This is not the first time I've seen this type of thing. In fact, I see it all the time. Where are their priorities? I though they were there to stop dangerous boaters from doing dangerous things. Am I way off base in that thinking? I go out of my way to follow the law and I see people break those laws constantly with zero repercussions. My respect for them is dwindling fast.

I could go off on a mega rant about land based police but, that would be off topic and would take forever.
Old     (blackstang)      Join Date: Dec 2013       07-30-2014, 11:01 AM Reply   
We actually got stopped a couple weeks ago by Spokane County Sheriff because a friend was driving my boat towing my wife wakeboarding and had gotten way to close to another boat. The other boat had just stuck a boarder in and didn't have a flag up. I was holding our sleeping baby and didn't notice how close he had gotten until I saw the flashing lights. The officer was extremely nice and only gave us a warning. He then saw that all passengers had the appropriate gear including life vests on the children under 12 and gave us free ice cream vouchers to Dairy Queen. I have to say the ones one our lake are pretty nice all things considered.
Old     (2LakeWake)      Join Date: Jul 2011       08-05-2014, 10:45 AM Reply   
Here's my $0.02.

I usually try to be understanding that the "Wildlife Officers"(water cops) are totally overwhelmed on a holiday weekend. When I see them sitting, I try to make them my friend. I want them to recognize my boat for the right reasons. Call it brown nosing or whatever you want, but I never get stopped for any reason past the "first of the year" let's make sure he has all his gear. I usually offer them a water or soda if they are near my dock.

With that being said, I think most or the water based LEO's have become too focused on ticketing people solely for alcohol. I see it every weekend at our lake. The LEO sit with their binoculars out watching for drivers of boats drinking then they speed off to pull them over to check their sobriety. Rarely do I see them pulling boats/PWC's for coming to close to docks, boats, or riders. I see it every weekend. NC law says 100' or no wake. I consistently watch boaters/pwc's come withing 20/30 feet of my dock and other docks. They seem to narrow minded on the BIG FISH instead of keeping the lake safe from reckless operators in general
Old     (scott)      Join Date: Feb 2010       08-05-2014, 10:42 PM Reply   
I was on the San Juaquin a few years ago and the sheriffs were working the area in full force. I was pulled over four times for a boat inspection even though I had a sticker on the boat from a boat inspection earlier that day. The fifth time I was pulled over was for not slowing down to No Wake while another sheriff pulled over another boat in the San Juaquin. Mind you the boat was pulled over over on the other side of the channel about five hundred yards away. I didn't even see the boat or the sheriff until it was pointed out. The law says if you see a boat pulled over you must slow down to a no wake. I did call the sheriffs department and ask how far away does a sheriff pulling over a boat does one have to slow down. Answer is if it's in your site you must slow down. I ask what if your in the bay(not that I would be in the bay) but you can see for miles there. Sheriff no answer! My thing is the sheriffs where pulling over boats in the delta like a speed trap. One on each side all day long for tune of $140 each ticket.
Old     (mikeski)      Join Date: Aug 2003       08-06-2014, 12:41 AM Reply   
On the delta they kind of go through cycles. A couple summers ago they seemed to hassle me every time out for no good reason. I am one of the older guys, have been boating on these waterways for 40+ years and know them extremely well. Even had one newbie girl tell me my silver on blue CF numbers did not have adequate contrast... She pulled me over because she said I swerved at her. I was actually driving around a known shallow spot that she apparently did not know about. Her vessel was positioned in a manner that would have caused me to hit ground if I did not turn shortly after she passed. When I tried to explain this to her she got all defensive and that's when she brought up the CF number issue.

Unfortunately most of my experience since having a wakeboard boat with big tower speakers has been negative. Before this boat my experiences with them while on the ski boat was almost always positive. Most likely due to most people with wakeboard boats and big tower speakers doing foolish or dangerous things illegally. Seems that I am part of a group that largely acts irresponsibly so I guess we bring it on ourselves.
Old     (imx)      Join Date: Jul 2009       08-06-2014, 2:50 AM Reply   
Couple of years ago I was out with the missus and kids. We were on the water about an hour or so mid summer and starting to get busy. The water police boats cruises through and pulls a boat over at the jetty which is just inside the ski limit markers. Because the area is fairly small, you pass the jetty every 10 minutes or so. After about half an hour the police boat finishes with the guys at the jetty and pulls me up (I had gone past him about three or four times) I asked what the problem was, and one of the officers asked why I felt the need to ski outside the area? Words went back and forth and I was getting fairly pi$$ed off by now.Replied to him that firstly it would be effing stupid when they were about 40 metres away and secondly we weren't. He went to great pains to tell me in no uncertain terms that he saw MY boat towing two kneeboarders outside the area and i would be receiving an infringment notice. I then politely invited the officers to board my vessel and have a look at my kneeboards which were under the bow of the boat and bone dry because we hadn't used them that day. The look on the guys' face was priceless! Didn't have the courtesy to apologise, turned around and left. Wonder what would have happened if our boards were wet?
Old     (bzubke1)      Join Date: Feb 2010       08-06-2014, 6:36 AM Reply   
I've had quite a few run ins with the water police. All safety checks and never received any tickets but I did have to do a sobriety test on shore once which was fun. The lesson I've learned there is if you've actually had one or two beers throughout the day always say that you haven't had any. I imagine every drunk person they come across says they've had one or two so it's somewhat of a red flag. In my little ride on their boat they went through two no wake zones at about 15 mph in the dark after fireworks. Literally sideswiped another boat going just past idle speeds that they thought was another game warden boat. I passed with flying colors and was on my way after about an hour.

One other time we were running a line. I did a couple down and backs and we notice a warden watching us. I fall, the driver gets the handle back to me and what do you know the warden starts flying up to do a safety check. With me behind the boat sitting in the water holding onto the rope! It was a quick life jacket fire extinguisher check but jeez couldn't you wait til were done. Thankfully the water was warm.
Old     (nelson)      Join Date: Jan 2009       08-06-2014, 7:54 AM Reply   
I had one cop in Oregon on LBC that would pull me over at least once every year for my numbers not contrasting. I would let him do his little speech then I would pull out one of the inspection forms that he did earlier in the year and say well you didn't have a problem with them earlier in the year. He would say I wouldn't let that fly and then look at the form laugh and say have a good day. We got to know him over the years he ended up being a pretty good guy. He even said they are on the water looking for BUII's. We moved to Southern Oregon this year and I haven't seen a cop on the water yet.

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