Name:	lucky67 -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 11:55:18 AM

something must be done about some of these crazies before someone is killed

Name:	Carlson -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 3:22:55 PM

Yes but deaths do not seem to change anything.  Last year was one of the deadliest years and were more patrol boats added?  Nope.  Now if they had COVID 19 ?

Name:	krtracker -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 4:25:43 PM

The Marine Police are a joke here on the lake.  Try calling when you need them.  recording says no one is in the office to take your call. there is absolutely NO WAY to contact them on sat. or sunday.  very rarely see them in sandy creek area.  yes l know there will be some folks who swear they do a great job, however l see wave runners riding at night, driving crazy towards boats, disregarding or should l say disrespecting other boaters and property owners and endangering other peoples lives. where is all the money for boat registrations?  seems like a half million bucks in boat registrations should provide some kind of enforcement, thats on top of what their budget is now and does not include any fines issued. l can ride all of sany creek, manoy creek, peckerwood and bay pines several times in one afternoon. l mean every  inch of it. so l dont buy into the BS crap about not enough manpower. it has been this way for the 37 years of living here in sandy creek.  l have seen lots of changes on this lake spending 1/2 my life here but not any changes in the marine patrol.  although l have seen a huge change in the amount of complaints coming in and the same old excuse from the marine patrol too.... not enough  money to fund the unit! with all the money brought in from lake martin to the state gov and the millions brought in to local economy, the state would want to keep this lake open for business and not be over run by a bunch of disrepectful, beer drinking, littering, rednecks who dont give a hoot about anyone but themselves. yes it is coming...accidents and people dead from this kind of nonesense and dont even say get your boating license. another joke and not enough room to write about.  law enforcement on this lake is nonexistent so to each his own, protect and arm yourself because you truely are on your own!

Name:	Carlson -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 4:28:23 PM

Amen!

Name:	wix -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 5:21:57 PM

A few years ago the Marine Police were switched from the State Conservation Dept. to State Trooper Dept with great promises for more Marine Police boats and officers....and it happened.....Four or five brand new patrol boats complete with officers just for Lake Martin.......then something happened?????  Currently, I think there are TWO patrol boats and officers functional on the lake.....and these officers have to do duty patrolling highways as State Troopers (first time ever) as well as boat duty.  Ask them and you get the same excuses.....no money, no trained patrolmen, etc., etc., etc...........

Name:	swr -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 5:28:54 PM

                                                               Its ashamed that a few idiots can spoil such agreat thing we have here in Alabama Its a bigger shame that you cannot get law officials to enforce the laws   (unless you are trying to go to church now adays cops will be there in force to stop you)

Name:	lucky67 -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 5:30:58 PM (updated 5/17/2020 5:32:08 PM)

dont forget before virus hit--Ivey was touting record employment--jobs--BUT state was still broke--setting us up for tax increase

Name:	KingCrab -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/17/2020 8:06:54 PM

May I suggest we not arm ourselves to address stupid people on waverunners. 

Name:	Carlson -	Reply
Subject:	And your solution is?
Date:	5/17/2020 8:10:06 PM (updated 5/17/2020 8:10:54 PM)

We are all ears!

Name:	KingCrab -	Reply
Subject:	And your solution is?
Date:	5/17/2020 8:12:16 PM

Fair. Doubt it includes weapons. 

Name:	Carlson -	Reply
Subject:	And your solution is?
Date:	5/17/2020 8:17:43 PM

Man that is lame.  Btw who suggested weapons.  But you know both my wife and I are packing in our cars, have carry licenses just in case.  Not in the boat, yet, but it's a new world of that.

but please tell us old folks how to defend ourselves?  Thanks.

Name:	KingCrab -	Reply
Subject:	And your solution is?
Date:	5/17/2020 9:20:21 PM

Ok boomer 

Name:	wix -	Reply
Subject:	And your solution is?
Date:	5/17/2020 9:59:31 PM

SO!! You got AB problem with Boomers?   You must be a plowin’ wake boter?

Name:	krtracker -	Reply
Subject:	And your solution is?
Date:	5/18/2020 9:40:44 AM

sorry if you took my post of arming and protect yourself to mean shooting a person.  obviously you havent seen the latest video of a wacko wave runner charging a family while they where boating. if that wasnt a manslaughter attempt l dont know what is. its terrible to hear the little kids screaming in terror!  now back to shooting someone..... I WOULD NEVER SHOOT A HUMAN OVER HARRASMENT WITH A WATER CRAFT BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT YOUR VESSEL WOULD HAVE MANY HOLES IN IT WHEN IT WAS TOWED ASHORE!!! KINGCRAB you obviously are a NEWBE on the lake!  so again as you were asked before what do you suggest for dealing with terrorist on a vessel harrassing and endangering you and your family sir? I WILL LEAGALLY CONTINUE CARRYING PROTECTION IN MY BOAT AND YOU BETTER BET I WILL USE IT IF NEEDED.

Name:	slowtimer -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/18/2020 9:40:53 AM

Good Lord!!!  This post is absolutely ridiculous and I hope you have calmed down a little.  The more I read this forum the more I hear constant complaining of something or another.  In my opinion, we all live or vacation on the greatest recreation lake in the country and are very blessed.   I have been on the lake since 1992 and the lake has definitly gotten more populated with more wave runners, sea doo's, and jet skis, but so has every other lake in the Southeast as the population has increased and the job market/standard of living increased.  This is a VERY GOOD thing.  Also, sea doo's, wave runners, and jet skis have gotten larger, more reliable, and much quieter over the years.  This has increased their popularity.  Yes, there are some bad actors out there that ride them but the vast majority I see riding are safe and obey the rules of the water.  When I see them doing spins, doughnuts, etc they are usually in a slough away from other boat traffic and just having fun.  Let's also be honest here, if they were to hit a boat or do something stupid and get hit then they would be the one physically suffering and not the people on the boat.  Very similar to motorcycles on the road.

The PWC's of the 90's were much worse and much more dangerous on the lake than they are now.  They were such a nuisance back then.  What is really a nuisance now is the wake board boats.  I have never seen such callous or stupidity from captains then ones driving them slowly along shorelines and docks.  These are the people that are actually harming other's property but you will not hear me call for people arming themselves against wakeboard boats!  The best thing that can be done is to video someone doing damage and provide it to the marine police.  Also, if you see someone doing something stupid it might make sense to KINDLY ask them to stop.  FYI, if you come at someone with the attitude in your post I guarentee they will not take kindly to it and they will probably continue doing what annoyed you in the first place (just much worse).

Yes, we do need more marine police to enforce the laws currently on the books and I am all for that.  I have only had one bad encounter with the marine police on the lake.  The boat I was riding on was brand new and I was trying to help the marine police tie up their boat to ours so it didn't damage the new boat while they searched to make sure we had all necessary items.  I was yelled at and treated poorly for trying to help.  Every other encounter has been excellent so I am all for a few more marine police.  FYI, I have been on much busier lakes (Lake of the Ozarks, Lake Lanier, etc) and the ratio of marine police to boaters is about the same as it is on Martin.  I think the reason this is the case is that marine police boats and equipment are much more expensive than cars so the budget does not allow for as many patrols.  

Name:	swr -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/18/2020 9:59:25 AM

Sorry but its kinda hard to enjoy a lake scene anywhere when you are being harrassed by drunk fools . Also if all this increase of water ativity as you say (which is true ) there should be plenty of funding for more water patroll not less. You need to view the post on facebook on friends of stillwaters and tell me this ativity by this seadoo is a tolerable event for a family with small kids in a boat out for the day . Also i have used video and tried to call the water patrol on numerous occansians never get thur to them or when you do they give you the sad story nothing can be done till damage occurs what till iam injured or my property is damaged i have no protection. Well i too will be carring on water if the aurthories wont protect me i will.

Name:	slowtimer -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/18/2020 10:09:54 AM

I just watched the video for the first time now.  This waverunner guy is an absolute idiot and needs to be stopped!  Looking at where they are and what they were doing I assume that the waverunner guy lost his mind at the surfers wake and went out to "get even".  The boat they are own is designed to throw the biggest wake possible and does it very well unfortunatly for every other person/homeowner on the lake.  To your earlier point, the marine police need to hand off "post" enforcement with video evidence to their much higher staffed on road division.  This would help take some of the burden off of the marine police and also allow the people that are videoed breaking the law be properly punished. 

Name:	krtracker -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 10:13:47 AM

SLOWTIMER......respectfully speaking you dont know what your talking about and obviously havent been on the lake boating.  #1 waverunners were not as dangerous in the 90s. they did not have 250 HP wave runners running 70mph.  #2  l have yet to see wave runners in a slough WITHOUT HOUSES in  it doing theirspinouts and playing chicken with each other.  #3.  yes your right its a great lake and has gotten populated with more boaters, people, sail boats and paddle boards. so you have made my case about not enough law enforcement. #4 you sir, have NEVER had your life or families life endangered by a maniac. so lets see... just shoot a video of incident after we are hospitalized and call marine patrol.....RIGHT!!!! its like getting assaulted and robbed in a parking lot. #5 wave runners weigh approximately 600 to 700 pounds sir. being hit at 30mph in a boat by a wave runner WILL kill a person. as you stated it would be them hurt and not you in the boat.  where did you get that from? are you willing to try that with your family?  YOU ARE WHAT IS CONSIDERED A NEWBEE ON THIS LAKE AND NOT A LOCALE.  NO DISRESPECT SIR, I DONT NEED TO CALM DOWN BUT IF YOUR GOING TO POST ON THIS FORUM, PLEASE KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT INSTEAD OF TELLING PEOPLE TO CALM DOWN!

Name:	slowtimer -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 10:30:12 AM

Yep, I'm a Newbee...  I've only owned a lake house here since 1992 and have been boating for 40 years.  I also owned 1990's sea doo's and currently have a couple of newer ones.  The 1990's sea doo's with 70 hp are much more dangerous than my 310hp Kawasaki jet ski now.  I know it doesn't sound like it makes sense if you just look at the hp but once you ride them and dig deeper it really is true.  There are many things in life that you could be hurt or killed doing and boating is one of them.  You cannot enforce all stupidity away.

Name:	slowtimer -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 10:42:18 AM

FYI, per US Coast guard standards, all sea doo's, waverunners, and jet ski's are all electronically goverened to 68 mph no matter the hp.  

Name:	krtracker -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 10:47:04 AM

slowtimer sounds like you into boating and thats great you own multi crafts. so l consider you knowledgeable about boating. l too own 90s yamy raider, a ski boat, pontoon, paddle board ect.  now we both know proper respect and boating ethics, RIGHT? you would NEVER do what this guy did for sure!  so please join the NORMAL ADULT BOATERS and take a stand on our lake. you see sir the lake started changing about the time you moved here...late 80s/90s.  it is slowly being kidnapped by these type of PEOPLE, NOT VESSELS.  l too dislike wake boats, they destroy physical property, wave runners endanger lives.  they are taking over and the marine patrol is NOT  stopping it. this is a behavior with people that can only be stopped by enforcing boating laws which we have plenty of. think about all the money spent getting boating license statewide. l am sorry but the excuse for NO patrol is BS.  l knew when you posted you had not seen video. so i ask you what do you do? video dosent help and phone has a recording. NOW WHAT?

Name:	krtracker -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 10:48:35 AM

NOT IF YOU CHANGE THE COMPUTER SOFTWARE IN THEM SIR!!

Name:	swr -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 11:01:48 AM

time on the lake has nothing to do with knowledge or right and wrong ive been here since 1983 so do i TRUMP you

Name:	slowtimer -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 11:16:14 AM

You are correct.  Riva does have a SCOM for doing that but just like any other aftermarket modification it will void the warranty.  Plus a very low percentage of people modify their toys (similar to cars, planes, boats, etc).  What I don't want to happen is that one idiot destroys the fun of many others.  There can definitely be more enforcement and I have not problem with that.  What really needs to happen is for much better "after incident" enforcement with video evidence.  I am wondering if this can be given to the on road division of the Highway Patrol as they have more detective staff.  Hopefully this information would get out to the LM community and people would understand that they could be arrested "after the fact".  This would cut down on people breaking the law if they knew they could be filmed and punished after the fact.  This would also free up the marine police from being detectives and let them do the on water enforcement.

Name:	slowtimer -	Reply
Subject:	WAVERUNNERS
Date:	5/18/2020 11:18:43 AM

I would for sure be considered more of a Newbee than you old timer  

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	1959
Date:	5/18/2020 11:25:32 AM

Thats 61 years.  I win!!!!!  But it is a windy day so I will avoid a pissing contest.

What  stupid comments. Time on the lake has no bearing on one being courteous and obeying the laws and norms of society.

Name:	slowtimer -	Reply
Subject:	1959
Date:	5/18/2020 11:39:17 AM

You win for now...  I'll go get my 90 year old neighbor and teach him about the internet and then he can post to beat everyone .  Look, I am trying to lighten the mood because it has gotten a little out of hand here and the lake is a very fun place.  

The idiot on the waverunner needs to face consequences but we cannot allow ourselves to get so mad that it makes us irrational.  Also, per my earlier post, most people will stop acting like an idiot if you kindly point out that what they are doing is not correct.  This guy was probably drunk and mad so it would not work in this situation but in most it will.  This also has the side benefit of teaching someone the correct way to operate a vessel and could possibly save a life later if they think about what to do and not.  If they are screamed and cussed at then the natural human reaction is to fight back.  This gets people into more trouble.  Long paragraph to basically say "be kind".  

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	1959
Date:	5/18/2020 11:52:05 AM

Agree comepletely.  But just to play devils advocate the videos often seem to show one thing but the reality is somethiing else.  What were the behaviors of all parties prior to the video?  How long did this go on?  Who else witnessed it?  Not sure when the video was taken but Moonbranch is not a low traffic area.  Maybe they were comepletly innocent, We don't know and probably never will.  The PWC idiot is just that, an inconsiderate asshole, but not a criminal.  Maybe thie wake was threatening his property.  You see there are just to many unknowns.  You can't just take the video at face value and condemn all PWC's and thier drivers.  I am skeptical because she describes him as coming within two feet of thier boat but the video shows a lot more than two feet.  NOT defending the guy, just pointing out how perspectives can be skewered.

Blame the human, not the machine.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	More Crowded/less manners
Date:	5/18/2020 3:38:59 PM

With the continual development of property around the lake, the lake is more crowded.  Some people come to the lake with the idea that they can do whatever they want to and no one should complain or tell them they shouldn't.  Additionally, a lot of young people have grown up with no rules and haven't been taught any manners.  At the heart of every activity should be a concern for safety and to remember your manners.  When I was learning to drive, 100 years or so ago, I was taught that you never have the right of way - only the right to give it.  Boats don't have brakes, and sometimes taking quick evasive action is dangerous.  

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	More Crowded/less manners
Date:	5/19/2020 1:16:00 PM

Wow.....finally read this thread.  And I thought Off Topics could get heated.  Any idea if St. Vincent DePaul will have masses this weekend?

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	1959
Date:	5/19/2020 1:16:58 PM

Dang....you've been on the lake longer than I've been alive.....that is not a compliment.  

Name:	realfast64 -	Reply
Subject:	wave runners
Date:	5/22/2020 7:51:51 AM

  Rest asured there is more to the video than i just saw!  I am betting the sedo operator was upset by something the ski boat did.  The wake boat had to have done something,one can see the ski/board in the video that is designed to be used at slow speed with a wake. 

  Under Alabama boating law that boat is in violation at any speed above idle. It is designed to throw a large wake and is probly equiped with bladder tanks to enable the boat to throw larger waves.

  I my old neiborhood we had a incident where a elderly lady was thrown from a floating dock by foolish neighbor in a wake boat who saw nothing wrong with what he did.  I might add the incident spilled over to the next homeowner assoc. meeting. Again the boat operator/owner saw nothing wrong with his actions!

  Many here are making statements about the marine patrol doing nothing.Maybe just maybe the seedo operator was/is fed up with wake boats tearing up his shoreline.

  Many think cell video prove their innocents. I see and hear a lot of DRAMA on this video. I also see boat operator error in this video . I am betting there is more to this video than we see like what led up to this incident.  

  The thing about wake boat is when they stop the wake doesn't then lies the escalting problems!!