After reading recent articles about Andrew Harris and Scott Wilk, two fine local (Lake Anna) young men dubbed as the "jet skiing teen athletes", I couldn't help feeling happy for them and their families regarding their accomplishments. Riding jet skis is great fun and having ridden a jet ski for years, I can only imagine acquiring that level of skill. I admire them for their love of the sport and their obvious dedication to mastery of the categories in which they participate. I am anxious to see them compete at the next event.

After I finished the article, it dawned on me that if a small number of folks in the LACA (and now apparently the LAAC) get their way regarding speed and other restrictions on the our lake, these young people and others like them won't be able to practice their sport here anymore nor will Lake Anna be able to host their events. Simply said, there are some who want to squelch this and other similar activities on the lake. I believe that the majority of us who use Lake Anna don't want to see our boating privileges on it or anywhere else in Virginia become unduly restricted. If we fail to stop to these efforts, an enfeebled movement sponsored by a few vocal and persistent people will dowse the aspirations of not only Andrew and Scott, but untold numbers of others like them.

A special subcommittee has been appointed by the LAAC to pursue speed and noise limits on Lake Anna and other Virginia waterways. They will be meeting in late January (the 23rd I believe) on this issue. I urge boaters to contact the LAAC sub-committee members Willie Harper, Rae Jones, and T.C. Waddy, and ask them to stand down on this issue. I also urge boaters of Lake Anna to contact their respective county supervisors or other governing officials and tell them that they don't see the need for further restricting events and activities like this on Lake Anna and to stay focused on the many larger and more substantive issues ahead. From the evidence at hand, provided by the DGIF themselves, the rare and isolated speed and noise incidents clearly do not pose a significant enough issue on Lake Anna to warrant diverting our law makers and limited government resources away from the multitude of other truly important initiatives.

An All-Too-Prevalent Boating Safety Issue

Posted: September 2007

By: Sandy Sinden

This weekend my 8 year old son Brandon was nearly run over by a SeaDoo jetboat and most likely would have been killed. It was the absolute worst thing I've ever been through in my life.

It was later in the day on Sunday when the boat traffic had slowed down. He had just gotten a new wakeskate for his birthday and wanted to try it out.

We headed out on the water and I began pulling him behind our boat. Within a few minutes it became clear that the boat traffic was still a bit too heavy, so I headed back towards our dock, towing Brandon on his wakeskate to finish his ride. Because of the boat traffic in the area, it would have been too hazardous to stop the boat and leave him alone in the water and circle back to pick him up. So we were just having him ride back to our dock and out of harm's way. Just then I noticed a Sea-Doo jetboat in my mirror directly behind our boat - and inside my wake!

I was about to tell my other son (who was a passenger in the boat) to yell this boat off since he would surely run over Brandon if he fell. Just then Brandon fell off his wakeskate and into the water. The driver of the other boat apparently was not paying attention because he continued right in our path, on his way to run right over Brandon. I started honking my horn and screamed as loud as I could. According to my son, the terror in my voice was pretty bad so we're thinking maybe he heard that or the horn and he turned quickly. He missed hitting Brandon in the head with his swim platform by about 1/4 inch.

I truly believe had I not reacted as I did, the other boater would have run him over. When I got to Brandon in the water, I was in such shock I just wanted to get him on the boat and in my arms. The guy who did it just looked at us and said nothing. I just wanted to get Brandon back to the dock and make sure he was okay. Once I settled down I tried to find a police boat and report him but couldn't find one. I also wasn't able to track down the other boat driver.

I think people need to realize they cannot ride inside the wake of a boat pulling a wakeboarder or water skiier, and yet they do it all the time. Many boat drivers don't realize if they are essentially "tailgating" another boat that is pulling a wakeboarder, and the wakeboarder falls, they're going to run them over. I don't know how we get that message out but I thought LakeAnnaBuzz.com might be a good start.

And it might be a good message to all wakeboard boats to start thinking about using red flags to alert other boats to stay away. I grew up in California and they are mandatory. I will be using mine from now on. I've also developed a hand signal so my kids know if there is someone on our wake to just ride carefully until we can get out and away.

This was a huge learning lesson and reminder how stupid and unaware people can be on the water, a situation in which my son was almost killed.

Editor's Note:

I've seen this all too often. Boats that are towing tubes, wakeboarders, waterskiiers, etc. should be given a proper distance and even then, another boat should not follow directly in the towboat's path. This is common sense but unfortunately not understood by many boat drivers. At least once a weekend I must pull my skiier off to the side after a boat has come up directly behind my skiier and has continued on that path. Any attempts to wave off a boat is typically met with an angry gesture back my direction. My hope is that the authorities that patrol the no-wake zones on the lake can observe the narrow channels of the lake, and keep an eye out for the type of reckless boating described above.

This web site best viewed with Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher.

legal disclaimer & privacy policy