Recently, some scandalous & shocking 8O 8O 8O 8O photos surfaced of me towing someone without an observer. While I certainly would not endorse, recommend or suggest skiing without an observer, I was not doing anything illegal (or unsafe in my opinion). There are several things that I would like to point out: Exhibit A: Florida law does not require an observer http://myfwc.com/rulesandregs/rules_boat.htm#ski Water Ski Regulations • The operator of a vessel towing someone on skis or another aquaplaning device must either have an observer, in addition to the operator, on board who is attendant to the actions of the skier or have and use a wide-angle rear-view mirror. Exhibit B: What was I towing you ask? A 5 tier pyramid? A parasail? A herd of baby elephants? No, my husband on a knee board going approximately 16 miles an hour. Yikes! Exhibit C: There were no other boats on the lake Exhibit D: When I worked at Sea World, the only acts that we used spotters for were the ones on release. Now that is probably not safe! Exhibit E: I am the most anal retentive rule follower and safety conscious person you could ever meet. Exhibit F: Those pictures were posted to share the fun we had on vacation with others, not to start some kind of controversy.
In Florida perhaps one should have a spotter with a gun for 'gators? I think safety comes first and I would not pull someone without a good spotter no matter what the rules are!
I think at one time or another, we've all put a small kid in the boat to be the "observer". Putting my five year-old in the boat to "spot" makes me legal on our lake, but often becomes a distraction I don't always need. An experienced driver pulling without the need of a release may not require an observer. Having said that, after watching the weekend warriors driving around the past few days, you could put ten observers in some of these boats and it wouldn't matter. Too bad they don't have automatic kill switches that activite when people reach the stupidity limit! Kevin
Thank you Dyna-Kid, I agree. We stayed off our lake this weekend for that reason. We sat on our deck and watched a guy pulling a tuber with about 4 observers. Every time he did a barbell, he slung the tuber closer and closer to a dock. I was convinced he was eventually going to hit the dock, but thankfully he never did. From my point of view he was just a few feet away from disaster. Nothing says 4th of July like an army of pontoon boats pulling tubers.
I must have an unusual situation. The place I commonly launch my boat is right in the small town where I live, and most of the normal boat traffic is local people, with a few people traveling from farther away. There are waterfalls about two miles down river from the boat ramp, and traveling upriver, it is very dangerous, unless you know where the channel is, and pay attention to the bouys, that are there for a reason. There are very large rocks, firmly attached to the bottom of the river. Long story short, a lot of the local boaters go out of town on the big three summer weekends, and the river is pretty quiet. We even got some barefooting in yesterday, between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. On the Fourth of July I am sure the overcast kept a lot of the boaters away. However, in the parking lot, after we were done, some moron almost backed into my boat, and he did hit the trailer, and scuffed the paint. Glad my trailer fender was a lot heavier gauge of metal than the sheet metal on the lower corner of his pickup box. Mind you, the parking lot was maybe 25% full, if that.
Sorry about your trailer, but you are blessed to have a nice place to ski without too much boat traffic. Before I moved here, we skied on a river. Even when the parking lot was overflowing, we could always find a quiet place on the river to ski. Now I live on a very small lake and it doesn't take very many boats to mess things up. There is a 75 hp limit also, so the weapon of choice seems to be a pontoon boat. I can't complain too much because on weekday evenings and even early on weekends we are usually the only ones out there.
Very interesting topic indeed, here in VA you are required to have an observer only IF the skier is not wearing a USCG approved life jacket. The only times I pull them without a jacket is for a trick run, but we have observers for that.... Scott
