Labor Day Weekend

[Peter simon]

Now that amateur weekend is coming to a close what are some of the dumbest, dangerous things you saw. I will start with mine...

I saw a jet ski jump a wake between a boat and the tube they were pulling.

I saw a truck pulling pulling a small SUV with a trailer attached up the public ramp which is one of the steeper, slippery ramps.

Children sitting in front of the rail on a rented pontoon hanging their legs in the water while underway (This one I intervened and of course they knew better but I threatened to radio the sheriff if they didn't move the kids into the pontoon)

 

[JDRacing]

Didn't witness this one personally, but it was posted on Labor Day. Does it count?

http://instagr.am/p/B156TqHnyUP/

 

[tdonoughue]

I worked all of the long weekend.

That may qualify as the dumbest thing...

 

[F.M.]

I found excuses to not go out and avoid all the idiots.

 

[bolivas]

I worked all of the long weekend.

That may qualify as the dumbest thing...

I too worked all weekend and avoided the "Amateur Weekend"....

Weather was perfect for a weekend on the water, but I did not lose any sleep. It would have been a shit show......

 

[seanmclean]

Actually was an idiot-free weekend, hardly anyone even out today despite the really nice weather. This guy came and parked next to me while we were grabbing lunch, got to go on board and check it out. I'm still drooling.

 

[jEt_jAk]

I worked also but most of the dangerous things I see at the lake involve wave runners lol. Can’t tell you how many close calls because they turn sharply without looking

 

[ZippyBoater]

Wave runners clocked at 65+ MPH. Sorry, that is too fast no matter how smooth the surface is.

 

[2kwik4u]

We went out on Saturday.

Fought off the usual "rental boaters don't know how an anchor works" in the cove. Then fought off the "Why the hell are you so close to me" twice a year boaters for awhile. Made it back to cove and got to deal with the "I'm really not sure what idle is, so that must mean 10mph" people.

Had a rough day between an 8yr old with a bad attitude, a cranky 17mo old, overcast skies with cooler than normal water, and an overly crowded lake/ramp........Put the boat back on the trailer early on Saturday (~4pm, usually out until at least 8pm) and left it there all weekend. Sunday and Monday were BEAUTIFUL sunny days with highs in the low 90's. Perfect lake days. I had my fill of it on Saturday and didn't even bother the rest of the weekend.

Honestly, Saturday's impression of "what boating has become for us" was so bad, that I'm seriously debating on winterizing the stupid thing now, and putting it away until spring. We usually have a full month of boating left, but I'm really just feeling completely over it for this season. Anyone else get that way with something you REALLY REALLY used to enjoy? Just completely full of "screw this, I'm out" sentiment?

 

[bolivas]

We went out on Saturday.

Fought off the usual "rental boaters don't know how an anchor works" in the cove. Then fought off the "Why the hell are you so close to me" twice a year boaters for awhile. Made it back to cove and got to deal with the "I'm really not sure what idle is, so that must mean 10mph" people.

Had a rough day between an 8yr old with a bad attitude, a cranky 17mo old, overcast skies with cooler than normal water, and an overly crowded lake/ramp........Put the boat back on the trailer early on Saturday (~4pm, usually out until at least 8pm) and left it there all weekend. Sunday and Monday were BEAUTIFUL sunny days with highs in the low 90's. Perfect lake days. I had my fill of it on Saturday and didn't even bother the rest of the weekend.

Honestly, Saturday's impression of "what boating has become for us" was so bad, that I'm seriously debating on winterizing the stupid thing now, and putting it away until spring. We usually have a full month of boating left, but I'm really just feeling completely over it for this season. Anyone else get that way with something you REALLY REALLY used to enjoy? Just completely full of "screw this, I'm out" sentiment?

That is why I wasn't bummed out at all that I had to work. I know my experience at the lake over the weekend would have been just like you described if we would have gone out.

I have learned to stay away from the public lakes on holiday weekends. Thankfully, I have a goofy schedule and work 7 days on/ 7 days off so I can go out during the week when most people are working. Now that the kids are back in school, it just means I am transitioning to fishing. Hopefully next year I will be a member of a private lake w/ limited access. Even on a holiday weekend, there are only about 10-15 boats out on the water.

 

[Ratket]

We are now rolling into “ Slower season” here for boaters, I’m super excited lol

 

[galonuscct]

We had several. Including ourselves. We all made a joke out of it because my group of family and friends are regular weekenders and all have places on the water.

Within our group... (1) my wife nearly tore her bicep falling out of the boat reaching for a koozy, (2) one friend tore up his prop in a secondary channel, (3) another friend bottomed out his new Tige and destroyed the stabilizer fins and screw, (4) I lost my wallet, (5) family member shattered a glass patio table, & (6) distant young family member showed up with friends unannounced and rode on my FIL's boat, then begged to stay the night after they got hammered...and we are the experienced boaters. Hahaha

We did have a serious incident while pulling a wakeboarder. I was pulling my brother in law and we had a pontoon approaching head on. I was 50 feet from the bank in 8 feet of water. Pontoon came at us head on and wouldn't avoid us from a safe distance. I warned my BIL and we signaled and shouted at the pontoon. He passed us about 25 feet away. Our bay is a mile wide.

We saw many other water sport near misses and bad habits from rooks too. People following directly behind a boat pulling tubers, a boat pulling tubers crossed in front of a large cruiser really close, etc... It always seems like the tubing community is the most wild and dangerous group.

 

[rrmidden]

Cooler than normal temperatures here, but took friends out on a short cruise Saturday, then just the wife and I spent a few hours floating around on Monday which turned out to be the nicest day of the weekend. We also took today off, so just getting ready for an early dinner then heading home.

As a somewhat related note. This is our first full year with a lake house. It’s a small 5 lake chain, our lake is 740 acres, the entire chain is 2,000 or so. We were used to spending time on a 6,000 plus acre chain. I literally grew up on that chain for 40 years. We always figured we would upgrade to a place on that chain when we could afford to, as places are a lot more expensive on that chain. Going out on the larger chain a couple of times this summer, the smaller (but still plenty big), quieter chain is very nice. So we may never “upgrade” to the busier, more expensive chain.

 

[SoonerDustin]

Went to Lake Eufaula in OK this weekend. It's a big lake and was plenty choppy on Saturday. Sunday at about 6 PM (OU Game started at 6:30) everyone got off that lake and it was like glass till sundown. Had a great time.

 

[captainhook]

I saw a jet ski jump a wake between a boat and the tube they were pulling.

Holy crap I was going to post my "run-in" with some jackass who was jumping my wake (seriously? My wake is tiny) on a Waverunner at about 75-100' back repeatedly as I was approaching the bridge near the ramp. I always throttle way down and safely pass under the bridge in case I lose a steering cable or even worse, some moron is hauling ass parallel to the bridge where you can't see them from the other side (I can't tell you how many times I've seen this). But a guy jumping my wake between me and a tuber? There's no way I'd let that go. I rode a ski for many years and never even got close to another boat, let alone in a dangerous fashion.

 

[AZMark]

We went out on Saturday.

Fought off the usual "rental boaters don't know how an anchor works" in the cove. Then fought off the "Why the hell are you so close to me" twice a year boaters for awhile. Made it back to cove and got to deal with the "I'm really not sure what idle is, so that must mean 10mph" people.

Had a rough day between an 8yr old with a bad attitude, a cranky 17mo old, overcast skies with cooler than normal water, and an overly crowded lake/ramp........Put the boat back on the trailer early on Saturday (~4pm, usually out until at least 8pm) and left it there all weekend. Sunday and Monday were BEAUTIFUL sunny days with highs in the low 90's. Perfect lake days. I had my fill of it on Saturday and didn't even bother the rest of the weekend.

Honestly, Saturday's impression of "what boating has become for us" was so bad, that I'm seriously debating on winterizing the stupid thing now, and putting it away until spring. We usually have a full month of boating left, but I'm really just feeling completely over it for this season. Anyone else get that way with something you REALLY REALLY used to enjoy? Just completely full of "screw this, I'm out" sentiment?

Don’t put the boat away like that! Finish the season on a high note so you’re excited again in the spring before the Memorial Day crowd has a chance to ruin another trip
Usually the lakes where I’m at are significantly quieter immediately after Labor Day weekend.

 

[Ratket]

Mark and I are gonna have a rough winter boating in a Az....

 

[PEARCE]

We had a great time on our usual lake in the big boat. The only idiots that I even came across were in our marina going out on Saturday. Wasn't really bad or dangerous, you could just tell they weren't locals. Watching the ramp from our dock was some great entertainment as usual on holiday weekends.

 

[swatski]

We went out on Saturday.

Fought off the usual "rental boaters don't know how an anchor works" in the cove. Then fought off the "Why the hell are you so close to me" twice a year boaters for awhile. Made it back to cove and got to deal with the "I'm really not sure what idle is, so that must mean 10mph" people.

Had a rough day between an 8yr old with a bad attitude, a cranky 17mo old, overcast skies with cooler than normal water, and an overly crowded lake/ramp........Put the boat back on the trailer early on Saturday (~4pm, usually out until at least 8pm) and left it there all weekend. Sunday and Monday were BEAUTIFUL sunny days with highs in the low 90's. Perfect lake days. I had my fill of it on Saturday and didn't even bother the rest of the weekend.

Honestly, Saturday's impression of "what boating has become for us" was so bad, that I'm seriously debating on winterizing the stupid thing now, and putting it away until spring. We usually have a full month of boating left, but I'm really just feeling completely over it for this season. Anyone else get that way with something you REALLY REALLY used to enjoy? Just completely full of "screw this, I'm out" sentiment?

Funny, I've had those feelings once in a while, too. Sometimes I come to regard my boating activities as an "allegory of life", lol.

Even the best weekends can have tense moments, and I've learned to just be okay with that.
Unlike the rest of my family, I tend to approach boating weekends more as camp-like outings with focus on kids developing water skills but also learning personal responsibility; an approach they do not always enthusiastically endorse, lol.

So we can have some tense moments when frustrations bubble up to the surface! Typically, those end with a family pow-wow, and become teaching moments. For me anyway!

I wish I could say I become more mellow while boating... but it is just not always the case.
I love it more than just about any other organized activity, still, I guess I've seen (and done) enough stupid stuff to give me pause...

--

 

[Ronnie]

I had a unexpectedly busy weekend starting with a concert on Friday night (Nelly, TLC and FloRida), got some welding done on my tow vehicles (the after market exhaust tips were loose and rattling) on Saturday before driving 3 hours to camp at a new place with friends. Sunday I took a look at a private camping spot on a lake on the way home. Long story short, there was a fire on the road 40 miles from lake, the local police closed the road so I had to back track quite a bit to see the private camping spot, all told it took 6 hours of driving to get home. I finally got on the water on Monday, my wife and I took the waverunners out for lunch on the water (and to circulate stabil through the fuel system/winterize the skis) and to my surprise it wasn’t crowded or very busy at all even though it was close to 100 degrees out with very little wind. It was also the first time my wife and I have been alone on the water all season, she handled it all like a pro, good stuff.