The Perfect Pass

Posted July 7th, 2023 at 3:14 pmNo Comments Yet

When you’ve been working on Lake Norman for 24 years like I have, you’ve pretty much seen it all. My goal here is to raise awareness about safety and etiquette on the lake. If we all aimed for the perfect pass, we could all be happier.

The worst is when we’re working, and a boat comes by the dock we’re on with their boat plowing. This puts off a terrible wake. Then, they’ll go back and forth as if it doesn’t make it significantly harder to work in those conditions.

Next, I want to touch on the big cruiser boats that don’t idle or go fast. Instead, they plow through the lake putting off this huge wake. This is inconvenient and unsafe for everyone around them.

Now onto inter tubers which are some of the most dangerous people on this lake. They put their riders and everyone else around them in serious danger. You can see them doing crazy turns crossing other boaters wakes and driving recklessly on the lake. You will see these people doing turbulent figure eights in a cove will cause significantly more waves than if a wake boat went down the same cove making the perfect pass. This does the most damage to the docks and shorelines. This also creates destroyed, rough water throughout their whole path. The difference between these people and wake boaters is the innertubes don’t wait for anyone to pass before continuing on their turbulent paths.

I’ve found that the surfers and wakeboarder are usually a blessing to the lake! Traveling at steady speeds while the drivers try to create a steady, smooth, straight pass. The surfers and wakeboarding captains’ goal is to do what it takes to create the perfect pass. Straight, steady, and not crossing other boaters or paths. The wake boat community is constantly being out in danger from all the careless boaters doing 30mph while following a boat doing about 11mph with a rider right behind. The boat behind going 30mph has NO BRAKES which would cause terrible damage to the rider if they hit them when they fell. I’d also like to touch on the jet skis that cross directly behind boats over and over in an attempt to jump their wake. They don’t have any care in the world about the danger they put the rider they’re following in.

In closing, I believe due to my profession and lifestyle, I would say with no doubt the wake boat community is the most respectful and least dangerous. They also do the least amount of damage to the shoreline and docks on the lake.

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