I taped something yesterday that I would like your opinion on.

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

For those of you who don't know the area " haa most of you" this is the Chanel that runs parallel to the skyway causeway, it is very narrow and there are flats on both sides of it, to make matters worse the tide was low and edge of the channel had less that a few inches of water so anyone going out of the channel would be grounded immediately. If you look you will see the wake hitting the land on the channel sides.
To make things worse the pontoon boat that was in the video was doing everything possible to avoid being lifted up by this huge wake and being deposited on the flats .
I had a pontoon and it is not easy to deal with in a situation like the one you will see. He could not stop or he would get thrown on to the flats, he had to keep his speed up to stay ahead of the wake and you can see the boat leaning inward quite often in the video.
Now the boats that were traveling in this channel in the opposite direction of the big boat were also stuck in a bad situation as they too were confined to the channel or they would be pushed out on to the flats.
Now in the very beginning of this video you will see one boat deal with the wake by stopping and then proceeding over the wake , the next boat that finds itself in this situation is being driven by an elderly man and accompanied by an elderly female , probably his wife.
They were obviously terrified by this and I was appalled at the disregard for any other boat traffic in the channel so pardon the language as I told them I was recording this entire situation.
For the record I was not out taping. I just observed the boat riding next to the pontoon in the center of a very narrow channel and thought it would probably end badly so I turned up the channel and turned on my video camera.
Please realize this camera makes things look like they are a lot further away than what they really are , I was probably 100 feet behind the boats . Now for the large boat it was full of customers paying to see dolphins and the reason for the questionable driving was to keep the dolphins following the boat and to play in the big boats wake. Yea I have been seeing this boat for decades just thought they would have more consideration for other boaters.

 

[Dave burke]

I can’t see the video when I click on the link Jeff. Brings me to youtube but there’s nothing there.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

hmmm try it again should work now

 

[Matt Phillips]

That's crazy....he was throwing a BIG wake!

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

They do that plow water to get the dolphins to come out and play but I was really disappointed that they did not care about the other boaters in the channel
I kept expecting them to stop because of the peril they were putting the pontoon boat in but they paid no attention to that, I thought they would slow and move over to their side of the channel when a boat approached but tice boats were totally ignored. Professional commercial boat captains should not disregard other peoples safety like that. They are local
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=7bzcW7ieJY3CzwLo4qLABg&q=dolphin+racer+st+petersburg+fl&oq=dolphin+racer&gs_l=psy-ab.1.3.0l10.1711.5283..8693...0.0..0.102.1269.12j2......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131.wDCPyYQ6-3Q

 

[Julian]

Did you contact the owner, or is the captain the owner?

 

[swatski]

Big wake...? You guys need to all come in the middle of the season and spend a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks.

And then go back and enjoy your newly acquired perspective, lol.
(Ever seen what, say, a 50ft object traveling at 50mph can do in a small channel? LOLOL. Just saying. Uh, I almost forgot - add a drunken captain.)

--

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Actually I did not contact anyone or even make the video public it is unlisted. I don't want to start something , I have a long history with those people and it was very good until they hired some fool who ran everyone off from jumping their wake even the L E O's in the area said they had no use for that one captain either. This was definitely not the one I just referred to,
I was told that guy was terminated but I don't have any info on it based on his demeanor I felt he hit the bottle a bit too much however that was just my observation and not based on anything solid just to be clear on that.
I did see him totally wash out some people fishing by the Tierra Verde draw bridge it was certainly deliberate we would see his big yellow boat approaching the no wake zone plowing water and get out the video cameras knowing he was going to knock people down get water in the trunks of their cars and wash away their fishing equipment, One time I did go tell the victims that I understood a boat operator is legally responsible for any damage the boats wake causes and they may want to file a claim with their car insurance and tell them who did the deed and what bridge in Madeira Beach the boat was docked at.
I can say I Have not seen that happen again, and oddly the boat used a different bridge to go from the sky way causeway to Boga Ciega bay on it's way back to the Madera beach causeway on this particular day.
I used to put on shows for the customers of that boat and a paddle wheel boat That they no longer have that was called the starlight princess.

Years and years that boat would see my van parked by the bridge and head for it, they would bring it under the draw bridge to my side that was not an easy task as there was very little side clearance to get that boat under the bridge even wide open. The captain would stop or slow down in front of me and give me the thumbs up then get on his pa system and tell people to go on the deck and watch the crazy jet skier that was my name to them WONDER WHY!
I would drive by waving in all those big windows to the people inside laying on my back and driving with my feet, then I would jump huge waves behind the wheel ,The captain would hit the throttle once I got in place to make the waves huge.
If you jumped those you had to do it sideways so you landed outside of them because they were rotating very hard and if you landed into one it would flip you over in a second, especially if you were doing it while driving with your feet.
I would do this and other stunts and everyone seemed to have a good time waiting for me to wipe out but that only happened once, landed in the wave and rolled big time.
The boat would get to the skyway causeway close to where this video started and he would go back to the draw bridge and I would drive back with him doing stunts.
Lots of fun for everyone I had a friend that worked for them in the paddle wheel boat so That helped.
The yellow boat would also come by and I would also put on a show for them on the same run but after they hired the nasty captain I stayed away from that boat and have not had any further contact .
I was actually out doing the pictures of the red tide that I posted and only followed that boat due to my real concern for the poor boaters in that channel.
The person I saw driving it was maybe 30 or less, long lite brown hair tall and thinner looking . What kept me following the boat was that it appeared that they were so accustom to doing this they forgot how it was effecting the other boats in that channel.
In that location if a bird landed on the edge of the channel its knees would not be wet.
I would not have been able to go there on my ski .
I have been driving that location in boats for many decades, there was only one place where the pontoon boat could have escaped and that was about where the yellow boat turned around there is a hidden channel on the west side of that channel and you must know it exists or you probably won't find it.
I saw someone use it once many years ago so that was how I originally found it.

 

[Speedling]

Actually I did not contact anyone or even make the video public it is unlisted. I don't want to start something , I have a long history with those people and it was very good until they hired some fool who ran everyone off from jumping their wake even the L E O's in the area said they had no use for that one captain either. This was definitely not the one I just referred to,
I was told that guy was terminated but I don't have any info on it based on his demeanor I felt he hit the bottle a bit too much however that was just my observation and not based on anything solid just to be clear on that.
I did see him totally wash out some people fishing by the Tierra Verde draw bridge it was certainly deliberate we would see his big yellow boat approaching the no wake zone plowing water and get out the video cameras knowing he was going to knock people down get water in the trunks of their cars and wash away their fishing equipment, One time I did go tell the victims that I understood a boat operator is legally responsible for any damage the boats wake causes and they may want to file a claim with their car insurance and tell them who did the deed and what bridge in Madeira Beach the boat was docked at.
I can say I Have not seen that happen again, and oddly the boat used a different bridge to go from the sky way causeway to Boga Ciega bay on it's way back to the Madera beach causeway on this particular day.
I used to put on shows for the customers of that boat and a paddle wheel boat That they no longer have that was called the starlight princess.

Years and years that boat would see my van parked by the bridge and head for it, they would bring it under the draw bridge to my side that was not an easy task as there was very little side clearance to get that boat under the bridge even wide open. The captain would stop or slow down in front of me and give me the thumbs up then get on his pa system and tell people to go on the deck and watch the crazy jet skier that was my name to them WONDER WHY!
I would drive by waving in all those big windows to the people inside laying on my back and driving with my feet, then I would jump huge waves behind the wheel ,The captain would hit the throttle once I got in place to make the waves huge.
If you jumped those you had to do it sideways so you landed outside of them because they were rotating very hard and if you landed into one it would flip you over in a second, especially if you were doing it while driving with your feet.
I would do this and other stunts and everyone seemed to have a good time waiting for me to wipe out but that only happened once, landed in the wave and rolled big time.
The boat would get to the skyway causeway close to where this video started and he would go back to the draw bridge and I would drive back with him doing stunts.
Lots of fun for everyone I had a friend that worked for them in the paddle wheel boat so That helped.
The yellow boat would also come by and I would also put on a show for them on the same run but after they hired the nasty captain I stayed away from that boat and have not had any further contact .
I was actually out doing the pictures of the red tide that I posted and only followed that boat due to my real concern for the poor boaters in that channel.
The person I saw driving it was maybe 30 or less, long lite brown hair tall and thinner looking . What kept me following the boat was that it appeared that they were so accustom to doing this they forgot how it was effecting the other boats in that channel.
In that location if a bird landed on the edge of the channel its knees would not be wet.
I would not have been able to go there on my ski .
I have been driving that location in boats for many decades, there was only one place where the pontoon boat could have escaped and that was about where the yellow boat turned around there is a hidden channel on the west side of that channel and you must know it exists or you probably won't find it.
I saw someone use it once many years ago so that was how I originally found it.

Is that all part of pinellas county or out of thier reach?
I can always put in agood word. I know they patrol with boats as well.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

It is Pinellas but like I said I didn't want to cause a problem for anyone , just had my concerns about the situation. Was actually wondering what you folks thought, I thought it was pretty egregious. With all the views and only a few comments I guess it was not all that big of a deal.

 

[Grover70]

There may not be any laws against what the dolphin-watching boat was doing...but there are such things as common courtesy on the waves which is little observed. The simple act of shaming people can work, or have the opposite effect of people telling you to, "mind your own business", and "just leave well enough alone." I'm of the public-shaming opinion in that if we can't expect people to learn what old-fogeys like me teach my 9 year old; Treat others how you would like to be treated, say Ma'am or Sir, please and thank you, and know that there are other people who may not be as smart or fast as you, so be kind in your words and treat people equally.
So, in my humble opinion, let people know what they are doing is not considerate and if that doesn't work, go the shaming route. It used to work well in the old days.

 

[zipper]

There are common sense rules that boat "captains" are supposed to follow. Maybe that guy needs a refresher course. I know these are rules not laws but that driver is not following either. https://maritime.college/Boating-Rules-National-Maritime-College.php

 

[adrianp89]

Any laws against getting next to the captain and spraying him with your ski?

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

ONLY IF YOU GET CAUGHT LOL! Naa maybe we need to get signs and ride next to the boat telling people that dolphin lives matter but human lives should also . But no one would care!

 

[Peelz]

Big wake...? You guys need to all come in the middle of the season and spend a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks.

And then go back and enjoy your newly acquired perspective, lol.
(Ever seen what, say, a 50ft object traveling at 50mph can do in a small channel? LOLOL. Just saying. Uh, I almost forgot - add a drunken captain.)

--

hes not joking.

first year of taking our little boat down there... I'm used to wakes, and how to avoid, or hit them... Friday evening, main channel... tooling along, BEAUTIFUL late season night, as many are down there, on our way to paradise for some burgers on my wifes bday. Heading north, shadows were low, so I didnt see that the 40ft cruiser crossing in front of me, out from under the bridge and no wake area to turn left that was just sort of trolling... had sped up and started plowing a HUGE wave until it was "jump or be jumped" moment. I turned and hit it 45 degrees, but it didn't matter...it was 5ft tall.... bow went down over the back of it, boys were up there lounging.... I was briefly terrified wed sink... then had selfish thought.. "oh great, theyll never wanna come down here again" But, 2 seconds later, soaked, they realized we're fine... turn back, in unison "that was awesome!"

LOL

I Know to watch those huge machines even closer now.

in the vid, that's unfortunate. Little more respect from the big boat, and a little more experience maybe for the toon driver, wouldnt be so bad. Personally I wouldnt take a pontoon on the ocean. Wife bugged me a couple times about taking our boat down there. I showed her some of those haulover inlet vids, and reminded her of the ozarks thing... "not til we get a bigger boat" she says