Ski club

[bcampbe7]

Does anyone here belong to a ski club with a course? If so, how do you keep morons (read river turds and the like) out of the course while members are skiing. Aside from H2OSkeeFreek's method. We have somewhat of a problem with inconsiderate boaters on our lake. Just this past weekend we were lined up ready to make a pass when two younger females on a jet ski came "slaloming" down the course. One guy in our boat got their attention and asked them if they knew what the course was. They stated that they thought it was skiing or something. NO S@#$!!! He rather calmly asked that they leave the area, and they did.
We thought about printing flyers out that tell about the club and gives membership information. We would keep them on our boats and pass them out to those that take an interest to using the course.
I'm not trying to be an a$$, but we spend a lot of our time replacing balls and such from people running over them, cutting them loose, or shooting them (yes your read that correctly). Maybe educating the locals would keep them from demolishing the course.
Any ideas???

[east tx skier]

I'm in a club that maintains a ski course on a public lake. Well, sort of. The club leases a portion of the lake from the city, and is supposed to have sole access to it during posted hours. There is a huge sign attesting to this fact set up by the city.

The course is permenantly set up in this cove. There are two large metal barels secured with a lock in the boat lane adjacent to the 2 and 5 ball.

People, mostly fishermen, tend to ignore the sign. I've been in the boat with some of the diehards when people, unwittingly or not, swing into the cove. They usually ask them to please respect our property/lease rights during the posted hours, and offer to pull them for as many passes through the course as they can stand when we're done, if they are interested.

They have good success with this method.

Since, during posted hours, nonclub members are essentially trespassing, I would like nothing more than to see the game warden out there from time to time handing out tickets.

The course doesn't take much of a beating like you're describing from year-to-year though. Usually just a ball or two.

[DanC]

These ideas may not work for you if your course is out in open water.

One club I ski at has large 6 foot signs that say
CAUTION COMPETITION SKI AREA
MERGING BOATS
This course has blind corners at each end so people tend to steer clear.

Another club posts a large sign on the shore that says
Competition Ski Course
Open (or Closed)
Of course it always says closed

Several courses swap the balls for clorox bleach bottles when not in use. If you ever hit one of those, you won't a second time

[east tx skier]

As for the balls getting shot, I'd have to say, kevlar balls.

[jimmer2880]

We have a course on public water. We have sub-bouys & only mount the surfact bouys when we're skiing it. Since we ski from 7-10ish in the mornings & week nights - the only major problem we have is fishermen. We politely tell them that we are skiing this & ONLY this stretch of water. They don't have to move, but we'll be buzzing them so the fishing will stink. That works really well. But - like I said, we pull the surface balls off when we're not using it & ski early.


good luck - I'm feeling your pain.