How often is too often for replacing buoys?

[Orlando76]

We have an unknown older portable course permanently installed on public water. Just my buddy and I ski it, his house is within sight of the course so he can keep an eye on it. On February 28 I replaced all the balls, by June 1 50% of the balls sunk. I replaced those balls, and in 6 days, 3 of those sunk. My original set were Overtons and Polyform, kinda mis matched to see if one would last longer than the other even though they seem to be the same ball. What I'm seeing appears not to be vandalism but rather stress caused on the ball or maybe a caustic action from acidic water? The bottom half of the ball that's exposed to water is developing holes, but not smooth pin holes like somebody poking/popping them, and every hole has same size shape characteristic and consistance making me doubt vandalism more.

 

What we have is typical course suspended in 6' of water on one end, probably 10' the other. the course is sitting about 6' deep, with 3' or so rope coming from the pvc arms, then a 3' or so (stretched) cheap 5/16 bungee cord attached to the ball. the balls seem to sit about the same elevation in the water as the needle hole.

 

Does this ball life seem normal? Could we have too much weight hanging on the balls? Over/under inflated balls? Thanks for the opinions.

[LeonL]

I can only answer part of your question, that being the weight. Based on the fact you have floating course with pvc arms, if it's floating at normal height you don't have too much weight on them. Have you considered that some aquatic critter is chewing on the buoys? Normal ball life? Discounting fading they should last years. Nothing to do with buoy life, but with 6' of water on one end and 6' of rope and bungee, isn't the shallow end sitting on the bottom? You don't need it to be that deep.

[skiep]

Here in Florida (public Lakes) Gators would pop at least three per night! We had to pull any buoys with air every time we skied.

[MrJones]

We had a problem one time here in Louisiana with small gators chewing on buoys. Only happened a few times in a lake with a large gator population. I think after they figure out they don't taste good they stop.

[boarditup]

Try an experiment. Within easy reach of your dock have some buoys out and see if you have a similar issue. If so, fill a sample buoy part way with bleach and see if that helps. Some animals do have a taste for the buoy - some animals seem to avoid those with some bleach in them.

[mwetskier]

just keep doing what you're doing and keep replacing the buoys as often as needed -sincerely, Bob Polyform

[DUSkier]

We have had some issues with Polyform basically going to mush on top after a couple of weeks, there where replaced by the supplier. Guessing like most things in life the recipe can get mucked up occasionally!

[Ed_Obermeier]

Buoys getting sticky with age and/or high sun exposure is a known problem to Polyform. It's a quality control issue. As @DUskier stated, sometimes they don't get something right at the factory. I've complained to Polyform US (the importer/supplier) as have other of their customers, PF-US has complained to the manufacturer, it still happens. In my experience with it, it's a very low percentage of PF buoys that ever have that issue and it's not confined to any one color. But if you happen to be the guy who gets a bad batch it sucks. They're a cheap mass produced rubber ball made in the Far East. Go figure... Despite that Polyform still seems to have the least issues of any brand of ordinary inflatable rubber buoy balls.

 

Had a customer in South Africa a few years ago who had the same problem with something causing small holes in their buoys below the water line. After investigation turned out to be some sort of weird African insect boring holes in the balls. FWIW.

[Cayman2]

Muskrats went after our bouys and pitot hoses ( the olds know what those were) one summer out of twenty. We never knew why.

[Orlando76]

Although we have a huge gator population, like we can't complete a pass without one surfacing in the course, I'm certain it's not a gator. Although I'm sure we have otters in this lake, hadn't seen any and doesn't appear to be them causing the problem. I have never seen a hole on top side of ball, just the wet part. A gar or pickerel is a likely candidate. I just wasn't sure if we had too much weight suspended from the buoys. I think next go around I'll try standard ugly styrofoam sub buoys, at least for the boat lane.

[LeonL]

If you're using buoys for the boat lane, try some of the Polyform cylindrical one instead. They are pricey, but since they are thicker they may withstand the abuse. They have the potential to last 20 years.test drive a couple before you buy a whole set.

[Ed_Johnson]

@Orlando76 ..... What Lake are you on, in what part of Orlando???...We are on Lake Mary Jess in the Conway area and have never had that problem..We have never had a Gator here though. We have used Goode Buoys for 5 years now and never had a problem with those.

[Than_Bogan]

I doubt pickerel. Always have skied on a lake with a healthy pickerel population (two different ones) and never heard of that. I don't know anything about gar, though.

[boarditup]

Got a photo? If it were an animal you would see a bite pattern. If insects, just random holes.

[GAJ0004]

For the yellow boat gate buoys use the solid foam bullet shaped buoys they will last a long time, and can take multiple hits from a prop. I bought the buoys for lake latonka at skiertoskier.com That is the way to go on public water. I use the Overton's buoys for the orange ones.

[thager]

Only tiny holes I have had were made by seagulls standing on the buoy. Looked like they were trying to eat the algae/moss right at the waterline.

[Orlando76]

I tried taking pictures but you really couldn't tell the holes in detail. I think we're just going to switch to foam buoys. Went out this weekend and we lost 2.5 more buoys. But one of them was a fin swipe from a pass I made earlier in the week. Sigh.

 

Ed, were on Lake Harris.