Steer Clear
Stay in your LANE... As you drive a vehicle down the road, those painted lines mark your path & keep everything organized as you travel to your destination. On the lake it’s a different story. Boaters have the freedom to drive wherever they want. They can zigzag back & forth, drive in circles or just cruise in a straight line without the worry of veering onto
the shoulder. In a wakeboarder’s world, these boaters can wreck havoc on butter conditions & ruin your session.
Finding your path... As your boat plows down the lake & the prop tears up the water, the boat actually leaves a nice lane of bubbles marking the water as you travel back & forth. That will fade over time, but as you reach one end of the lake & turn around, it’s there to guide the boat straight down the path again. Keeping this type of order or pattern to your boat driving spreads the waves toward shore on one side of the boat, where they dissipate, & pushes the waves on the other side across to the windy side of the lake or the other side you aren’t riding that day. When you turn the boat around, follow the bubbles of your previous path to prevent making the lake too rough for riding.
Communicate... If you already know & practice this type of driving pattern, then it’s usually the other boats that create unnecessary waves. One boat cutting across your path can ruin an entire side of the lake for you & your friends. So it’s important to communicate with the other boaters & wakeboarders on your lake to make sure that you are all on the same line, no pun intended.
Safe passing... with multiple boats driving on exactly the same line, there’s a safe way to pass as you approach head to head. There must be some order to the madness of multiple-boat traffic, just like the passing laws on your local roads. When you approach on coming boats on the same line, veer to the right out of the line for a short period to pass at a safe distance so the riders cannot collide if they both cut out to the side of their boats at the same time. Both boats should veer right together so they are moving away opposite each other & and do this according to your country laws. As soon as the boats have passes & the riders are clear of each other veer back into the original line and proceed down the lake. Do the same if you approach a boat stopped in the water to pick up a fallen rider or to switch riders. Always pass at a safe distance not only for the boat, but especially for the riders.
Other drivers... before you join another boats already out on the water driving a line, wait until its rider falls & then idle by & discuss the pattern with the other driver. After a while, all the boats will know exactly what to do & your lake will be nice & organized. There’s no sense in getting mad at a boater who probably doesn’t know this organization or the best way to keep the water calm. So drive over & talk to establish some order. Then hopefully your lake will stay clam even when there’s a traffic jam.
