Depth of private ski lakes?

[jkski]

I have been looking for a private ski lake with a course forever, like many others out there, I am tired of the crowded public waterways. Anyways, I tried one out yesterday morning, and while it is a bit tight at 2100 ft., my chief concern came when I took a fall around 3 ball and came up with a chunk of mud on the tip of my ski, only to find I was standing in about 3 feet of water. I further found that the majority of the course sites in a consistent 4 feet of water, right down the middle of the boat path. I have heard that it is not all that unusual for a private site to be shallow, but what are others out there seeing? A lot of other boats run this site and tournaments are held there, so it must be OK, but what do you make of it?

[6ballsisall]

That seems a little shallow to me. I've been reading up on the subject as I have plans :D Depending on the soil content I like the idea of a little deeper lake, around 10 ft-12ft so you can go more years without dredging it back out. 2100 ft??? Thats a long one! I skied a 1700ft one a couple weekends back, really nice setup. The first couple runs were nerve racking as it seems short, but no big deal really. Nice course!

[betsy&david Harrison]

The ones that are in the area of my place vary in depth. The deeper ones are 8 to 15 feet and they ski really nice. There are a few shallower lakes and I personally don't like the way they ski. If you look on the thread "Lets see your Lake" I think on pg. 3 there is a pic of man made lakes. Three of them...that were shallow (3 to 4 feet) are being redug to 8 feet. The lake I ski on is going to have to be redone in a few years. It used to be 7' and is now about 5 to 6' deep. Just an FYI, I have never actually hit the bottom on the 3 to 4' deep lakes. They just ski different.

[jkski]

The only nerve racking thing about this set-up is that they pushed the course down towards the end that has the turn island, so you don't have but about 2 seconds once the boat passes through the 55's on the exiting end to make the turn for the island. At the opposite end you have plenty of room though. They moved the course down further to shelter it more.

[betsy&david Harrison]

Now that you mention that, the burms on the sides need to be raised to protect from wind. we have a lot of buildings and trees and ours is probably the most protected lake out there.

[bret]

We have been looking for land and our plans were to have the boat path and out to the training buoys, 7-8 ft, then gradually go up to 5-7 at the turn buoys.

[jkski]

Good to know, I appreciate it. Why does the depth make the lake ski different, I've heard this before, but don't quite understand the effect on the boat wake, etc?

[ski_king]

Is this the lake? (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Norton,+OH&ll=41.040759,-81.623955&spn=0.008969,0.014616&t=k&hl=en)

[bret]

The shallower water at the turn buoy is said to make the ski ride a bit higher in the turn - not that my level of skiing will be effected :) but we do have a couple of other members in our club who it might assist.

[ski_king]

My concern with the shallow water would be safety. While most of my hard falls have been bouncers, I have taken a few were I went under water a few feet. Like diving into shallow water.

[betsy&david Harrison]

Good to know, I appreciate it. Why does the depth make the lake ski different, I've heard this before, but don't quite understand the effect on the boat wake, etc?
I have found that the wakes on the shallower lakes are a bit larger but if you are on edge and your form is good it shouldn't be a big deal.

[bret]

Myself also, that's why we wanted at least 5 feet at the turn buoy, if not a bit more. IIRC, Bennetts lakes are about 5' at the turn buoys, a couple of them being a bit less...well, last time I was there anyway.

[G-man]

Some lessons learned where I own a lot. Our depth was designed to vary from 5 1/2- 7 1/2 feet. Our lake is dug flat from turn bouy to turn bouy, then a 10-1 slope to the shores. First lesson learned is when lake is full at 7 1/2 feet our slope is increased quite a bit. Erosion happens quickly at this level. Now we only fill to the 7 ft level. We have 4 lakes the shortest about 1950 feet, the longest 2300. The two in the middle are 2100 and 2150. This is plenty long. We only have one turn island and it is on the longest lake more for decoration. Islands require a fair amount of maintenance.

Second lesson is you must have grass or weeds growing around your lake or you get a lot of silt in your lake. If your grass goes to waters edge the wakes will cliff around the roots causing backwash. Our shorelines require yearly shaping of one sort of another. There is a lot work that comes with a project like this and it is on going.

If you have the chance to disallow v-drives your shorelines will thank you. Wakeboarders prefer to have 10ft or more under their boat to produce large wakes. We only have three v-drives on our lake, they prefer the longest lake. That lake requires more maintenace. The downside to this is limit your marketing to slalom skiers mostly. I will also add our wakeboarder's take pride in the community and don't load their boats beyond factory ballast and Coast Guard limits.

Third lesson is insurance is expensive and not to many companies want anything to do with ski lakes. AWSA's new company doesn't have a policy avalable yet. They are working on it.

There have been other lessons but these seem to stick out.

[Robert Averyt]

Lake depth is not a simple question.

Our lake is 8 feet deep. check out our drawing on our web site. http://pages.tca.net/raveryt/

Alot of things come into play.

What does it cost to move the extra dirt?

What do you do with the dirt?

How deep until the soil changes?

How many acre feet of water do you have to treat with herbicide, dye? (the deeper the more it costs) Aquatic chemicals are costly.

One thing about our lake being deep is, We have not ever run out of water in a drought. Here in Central Texas we are in a pretty good draught right now and we still have 6.5 feet of water, other lakes in the area are about to have to stop skiing if we dont get rain soon.

Our lake is 2150 long 250 wide in the slalom area and 375 wide in the jump area.

I do not understand it but I think our lake ski's easier when the water is shallower. Or it might be the temp change I do not know.

I encourage anyone who has the where with all to do a lake project.
I loved building mine and would jump at the chance to do it again.

Robert Averyt

[betsy&david Harrison]

Is this the lake? (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Norton,+OH&ll=41.040759,-81.623955&spn=0.008969,0.014616&t=k&hl=en)Wish I could tell you but I can't open it...dial up ..need I say more?
:rant:

[divetravis]

Our lake is about 8' deep down the center and a bit shallower than that at the turn balls, the only time I have came up with mud on my ski tip is when the lake is down 3 or 4 feet. Our lake only fills when it rains and there have been a couple of years here in Austin where we didn't see much rain. To my knowledge no one has ever gotten hurt at our lake due to shallow water. I have skied on another private lake where at one end the water was only about 3.5' feet deep, had to make sure when you went down you squated on your ski or you would put it in the mud.

Larry

[Tony Knight]

Concernes with a shallow lake.
We seem to have a lot more injuries at the shallow lake we ski in.... The water is hard when falling because of the shallow water.
Skiing is usualy difficult as the water is very fast.
The optimum engineered ski lake would have deep water at the boui so the water feels soft and the ski sets deep and turns better and shallow water near the boat wakes for better acceleration.
Be aware of the cost of dredging or digging the lake out as this will come into play sooner than later as well.
Not honestly as concerned about fallling and hitting bottom... a little mud on the ski is normal.

[east tx skier]

The site I ocassionally ski is 12 feet from center out to the balls. After that, it begins shallowing up according to plan. The owner claims that he has never missed a ski day as a result of the deeper water all the way to the turn balls even with drought conditions.

[G-man]

There is a lake locally where it is shallower under the boat path and shallower around the bouys. I don't know if it really helps but the owner seems to think so.

[Ric]

Our lake is about 8' deep down the center and a bit shallower than that at the turn balls, the only time I have came up with mud on my ski tip is when the lake is down 3 or 4 feet. Our lake only fills when it rains and there have been a couple of years here in Austin where we didn't see much rain. To my knowledge no one has ever gotten hurt at our lake due to shallow water. I have skied on another private lake where at one end the water was only about 3.5' feet deep, had to make sure when you went down you squated on your ski or you would put it in the mud.

Larry
There was a mapple interview after the 03 Open at Lago in Houston and he bent a wing in the clay mud when he dropped at the end to shorten right in the heat of battle. Our lake is pretty shallow 3-4ft at one end but it's an old sand pit and the bottom is soft sand which has not hurt me or my fin YET.

[betsy&david Harrison]

Figured it out..out of IE and into Safari and it opened. This is not where I have a lake. You would have to go to Arvin,Ca maps and find it. I guess you can actually zoom right down to my lake house...so I am told. It is 107 out there today. Problem with man made lakes and hot weather...the top 6+ inches of water are very warm and green up fast if the lake is not taken care of.

[ski_king]

I remember your lake (http://www.tmcowners.com/teamtalk/showpost.php?p=67581&postcount=23) Betsy. Looks like that area is close to waterskier heaven.

The link I had earlier was my guess of the lake that jkski is looking at. Near Akron along the interstate. I see it as I drive past and wish I was there.

[Workin' 4 Toys]

I have been looking for a private ski lake with a course forever, like many others out there, I am tired of the crowded public waterways. Anyways, I tried one out yesterday morning, and while it is a bit tight at 2100 ft., my chief concern came when I took a fall around 3 ball and came up with a chunk of mud on the tip of my ski, only to find I was standing in about 3 feet of water. I further found that the majority of the course sites in a consistent 4 feet of water, right down the middle of the boat path. I have heard that it is not all that unusual for a private site to be shallow, but what are others out there seeing? A lot of other boats run this site and tournaments are held there, so it must be OK, but what do you make of it?

Our usual spot is about 4 feet the entire course. Sort of nerve racking at times since I know someone who broke their neck in about 3' from skiing in another lake. How much difference does that 1' make. Could we hit the bottom head first in a hard faceplant? Hope we never find out.

[betsy&david Harrison]

I just love that picture. How do I pull it up on Google Maps? Do I just go to Arvin, Ca?

[ski_king]

The Google Map (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.171871,-118.927817&spn=0.018883,0.030770&z=2&t=k&hl=en) shot looks a little different.

I love looking at that also. ;)

[jkski]

Powerslot82,

Let me solve your mystery about the lake off 224 in Norton. It is called "Emerald Lake" and was constructed and owned by Mr.Mike VanDevere. He is a really nice guy and I actually live about 2 miles from his site, however, it is for his use and that of his family(8 kids I believe.....kinda wish I was one of them!). Anyways, I have spoken with him several times about the construction of his lake and if memory serves me it is 2600 ft long and 300ft wide with a course depth of 8-10 feet and a shoreline slope of 8 to 1.
The MC Pro Championships were held there in August of 2004 and it was great, but they chose to move it to a bigger market this year in NY.
The lake I am talking about is Stillwater located in Deerfield/Edinburg Ohio. It's a really nice site, I was just curious about the depth issues.