Worst display of skiing/boating etiquette EVER

[markn]

Have to vent as this has bugged me since it took place.

I obtained a permit for a course on our lake. Since the course was put in 12 years ago at entirely my expense, I have maintained it; replacing buoys, broken cables (damn wake board boats) anchor lines...you name it...again by myself.

My wife and I were out early one morning and right before my last pass, the boat died. Numerous attempts to start the boat failed. As no other boats were in sight at the time, the only option was to swim 250 yards to shore and run barefoot and wearing a life jacket 2.5 miles home and get our pontoon boat to tow it in.

The winds were blowing our boat away from shore and into the middle of the lake. As I made it to shore, I glanced back and saw my wife was ok and began my run.

In the mean time, and this is what just infuriates me, a skier approaches the course. This skier has used our course for 12 years; never contributing so much as a buoy for repairs or offering to help in any way. (have even given him buoys and zip ties for repairs). My wife flags him down (by this time I am into my run and cannot see the lake) and tells him I am running home to get the pontoon. He has the b@lls to tell my wife he is in a hurry and he is going to ski first BEFORE he helps. He proceeds to ski for about 15 minutes and then, rather than towing our boat, makes my wife SWIM to his boat, leaving our boat to continue drifting and then takes her to our house.

My wife jumps in the car and I am 1/2 block from our house where she picks me up. We get the pontoon, recover the ski boat and get both back to the boathouse.

Can you believe this? I have NEVER seen a more blatant lack of courtesy, kindness or just plan politeness in my life. And this Pri@#k STILL uses the course, waiting at the FAR end of the lake until we are LONG gone. Too bad it is a public lake and I cannot tell him he cannot use it.

Thank you for allowing me to vent...thanks to the ballofspray forum, I feel better, but still pissed!

#entancegatesmatter MWN

 

[allycat]

don t blame you for venting thats just crap they should help whether they use your course or not

 

[UWSkier]

Are the buoys on subfloats? I'd put the turn balls on subfloats with caribiners and take them in when I'm done skiing. Screw that guy.

[Deke]

@markn Just. Wow.

 

I've got some good ones but that is pretty over the top!

[j2nh]

Post his name. He owns this. Inexcusable. Sad that we share the planet with people like this.

[MISkier]

And, all this swimming (including the totally unnecessary swim from boat to boat) was in a Florida lake?

[lakeaustinskier]

I agree with @uwskier. Pull the turnbuoys and gates. It takes about 10 minutes to install them or pull them. I previously skied on a public course and I understand your pain. I once experienced a guy who had decided that he had reserved the course (no such thing). During the middle of my set he suddenly parked in the middle of the boat path. Luckily my driver was able to avoid him at the last minute.

[DW]

@markn : Unfortunately, yes I can believe it sad to say. I bet you only need to pull #3 & 4 to accomplish the objective.

 

Here is how that should have gone: He says "hi there, what seems to be the problem?", you reply to which he says, "hop in and finish your set behind my boat", "do you mind if I get one in before I tow your boat back to your house & let me take a look to see if I can fix it for you before we tow it". Not a reason in the world I can see how it should have gone different than that.

[Than_Bogan]

Be glad this seems so unusual to you. I grew up in a very wealthy town in NJ and knew many self-absorbed aholes capable of such a thing.

[Hallpass]

I can think of about a million ways to F with this A Hole, and if the facts are as you presented, I would not think you are the smaller man. But, that's just me.

 

[Hallpass]

Hindsight is 20/20, should it happen again, and I hope it will not, tie your downed boat to a boat guide, right in the middle of the course, so it stays put and random jerks have no choice but to help. I guess none of us ever expect the worst in people.

 

 

[oldjeep]

Wow, that is crazy. Around here people will stop by without being flagged if they see your engine hatch up. We were towed several times in our first boat (POC). The last time a guy who lived on the lake we were using stopped eating dinner when he saw me swimming - pulling a rope from the bow eye while my wife was rowing with a ski. He jumped in his boat and pulled it all the way back to the launch our truck was at. Didn't know the guy at all. Since then we make sure to pay that forward and have towed a couple dead boats back in.

 

Some folks are just a-holes

[BrennanKMN]

Wow.

 

Just a few weeks ago my buddy and I stopped mid set to pull a boat back to the launch and then went back to skiing.

 

I just don't understand some people...

[disland]

The guy will get his due sooner or later

[markn]

Wow, reading all your remarks has restored my faith in skiers. Wish I had you ballers on my lake....first class skiers/folks Thanks again for letting me vent and sorry to read many of you have also experienced some bad encounters as well.

 

[Bulldog]

Karma always gets people like that...Have faith in the universe and always pay good deeds forward.

[hemlock]

Wow, yes a douche bag for not helping.

 

Oh, and I gotta ask... what ended up being wrong with your boat, and you don't have paddles in your boat?

[sunvalleylaw]

Skier or not, leaving any boater in distress out on the water is to me a violation of all sorts of unwritten codes and morals. No way we would have left you, your wife, or your boat out drifting. Unbelievable.

[Chef23]

I can’t believe that. I went out at 10 pm to rescue someone I didn’t even know once. My wife and I were out to dinner when I got a call from my friend asking if we were home. We had our meals boxed up and shot home to go get them.

 

I understand limited ski time as much as anyone but that is unacceptable.

[markn]

Hemlock, yes we do have all the safety gear in the boat, but the lake is 2400 acres with the course on the east side and our house on the west side. LONG paddle home! This was the one and only time in 30 years of boating a nautique has ever broken down. As I recall, it was a sensor failure. The sensor thought the boat was "in gear" and hence would not start.

Thanks again to all for the kind words. And you all are welcome on my course ANYTIME.

MWN #entrancegatesmatter

[Gar]

Way to far to use a $2000 ski for a paddle! Jerk beyond comprehension.

[6balls]

Geez I stop, drop everything, and do anything to help a stranded boater...

[skihacker]

Ditto, i feel like that's a commandment or something.

[rayn]

What goes around comes around. I have been towed and have given tows to people I know and don't know. I do stop at our keyhole tunnel, now I can't go through at all, used to be I could not go through by myself. They always picked up another tow on the other side.

 

No excuse for not helping another boater out.

[rayn]

My other thought was - doesn't take much to make the course unskiable for this guy. Two turn buoys off would do it.

[ESPNSkier]

My Dad was a career Coast Guard officer and we grew up with an unbreakable rule that you always tow in someone in need and hope that you get towed less often than you tow other people! I had a similar experience a few months ago. I often use a small 13' outboard to retrieve lost buoys from the grass and do course maintenance. I was out working on the course mid-afternoon on a weekend and the motor broke down. I pulled the cowling off and was working on it when a large surf boat came by towing a wake boarder. I thought they were going to stop and offer me assistance but instead they cruised by less than 100' away and I had to jump in the bow of my boat to avoid being swamped by the huge wake....then they turned around and cruised by a few more times before I was able to get the boat started.

[MillerTime38]

Well, I probably would have done the same as far as skiing first, However I would have offered to give her a pull skiing and then towed the boat in

[MuskokaKy]

Hope karma comes around and bites that guy in the ass. Sorry you had to o through that;

Even More so for your wife; seem to be less and less “ gentlemen” these days. Who leaves a boater stranded little lone a lady...

Hope the rest of your summer / season is nothing but perfect!

[bananaron]

@markn Send me a photo of the guy and I will take care of it.WOW......some people!!

[Gar]

I have towed people in distress long distance in treacherous conditions it’s the legal and moral thing to do.

[Jmoski]

I can't believe someone would be that much of an a-hole! Thats just unreal.

 

Two years ago I missed out on skiing glass at sunset, why - because a guy with a small kid on a jetski ran aground on a sandbar and killed it, stranding them in the middle of the lake as dusk approached. Hence, I towed him back 2 miles to the dock with his son the boat.

 

He was super appreciative, and I certainly hope someone would do the same for me.

[Steven_Haines]

I know it would be more of a pain and expense but turn your course into a submersible course. When you’re done, sink it. Less repairs, less mental anguish. When the other guy gets out there and you finish your set, imagine the look on his face when the course vanishes into the abyss. Justice served!

[sunvalleylaw]

This event was bugging me in the back of my head. My Dad was Navy, and I was certain there was at least an unwritten code regarding assisting others out on the water. And yes, there is. "It’s the first rule in the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS 1.1), the International Convention Safety of Life at Sea addresses this (SOLAS chapter 5,33) and United States law requires it (46 U.S.C. Section 2304)." see first article below.

 

This article discusses it, and how to be prepared to render aid if and when the time comes. Rendering Aid.

 

Also, the duty is covered in any basic boating course: Boating Course, rendering assistance.

 

Those of us out on open water may very well come across a situation, or be involved in one. We need to have each others' backs and be prepared out there for ourselves, and fellow boaters. Our sport is not just out on the local soccer pitch or track. Sorry this dude did not get the memo.

[LeonL]

As mentioned twice in this thread, take a couple of buoys off. Kinda unskiable then. At least he would have to start bring his own buoys and put them on.

[BraceMaker]

@LeonL the trouble is that even though this guy was a big old knob you need to be graceful and remember that he's probably got a few other ski buddies on the lake, and if your lake is like our lake it doesn't take too much of a concentration of knobs to get your course objected to and removed.

[markn]

Dang, you guys are the best. We used to have an accu-sink and would laugh as he tried to get a set in before it sank. (that course is long gone) Even if I took off a few buoys, I have watched him go ahead and ski without replacing boat guides, turn buoys and entrance gate buoys.

With your help and a few therapy sessions.....I think I am getting over it! Thanks.

 

MWN #entrancegatesmatter.

[PatM]

Hopefully he is a lurker on this forum and gets the message. On your end, keep the status quo, be the bigger man and it will pay off in the end.

[DW]

If you feel particularly devious, you could always implement a 'changing' course, one where the buoys shift laterally. One day it will be easy, the next he would not make it around #1. You could sit back and watch the frustration grow on those 'bad' ski days.

[mcskier41]

Hope Karma comes to bite that guy in the ass. Couldn't you have at least paddled the 250 yards to shore and saved yourself that swim. That way your boat and wife are safely on shore vs being drifting away???

[foxriverat]

Since this jerk has been skiing your course for 12 years. Have you ever approached this guy and asked him to chip in for supplies? 5 of us maintain 2 courses on public water. There are some others that like to ski it that dont help with maintenance. We approached them in a nice way and they agreed to pitch in. Now every time we order supplies we text them and divide it amongst all of us.

[markn]

Foxriverat, That is a very reasonable question approaching the guy. Yes, several years ago, we did as you did discussed. We gave him the number for Overtons, miami nautique and all the info needed. Whenever approached about skiing the course with missing buoys, his response is ALWAYS the same; "oh yeah, where do I get the buoys? I need to get some." I have given up on expecting contributions toward repairs. I would have thought he could have least helped out with the boat issue. That is what pissed me off, but i gave up long ago on expecting him to help out. At this point, I have vented enough and will let it go. Thanks to all for reading the thread and your support. MWN #entrancegatesmatter

[jetpilotg4]

Replace the skier buoys With buoys that are 5 feet outside of tolerance After you finish skiing, And let him have all the fun he wants

[matthewbrown]

This guy sounds like he is really important to himself, a little less of that these days in general would be greatly appreciated.

[BraceMaker]

@markin a few powerful tools. Venmo Facebook groups.

 

A FB group of all the owners on the lake. Invite all the skiers on your lake to it. Coordinate your boat crews. Let him know about it.

[Joeprunc]

Karma will get him, I promise.