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Replies: 22
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
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I took that Boater Safety course this weekend and learned two things ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 5:19 PM
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1. In SC, if you're pulling a skiier or tuber or whatever, you either have to have a spotter or one of them big rear view mirrors. You can't go it alone.
2. In SC, if you take the helm of a boat, you've implicitly consented to a sobriety test. I had wrongly assumed that DNR needed a reason to ask you to blow. They don't.
Kinda interesting. And very *sobering*.
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Paw Master [16165]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Re: I took that Boater Safety course this weekend and learned two things ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 5:27 PM
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90% of the boaters on reservoirs need to take boaters safety course. Any kid under 21 should be required to take boaters safety and get license just like driving a car. The waterways are super packed nowadays, add in under-educated boaters, often drinking and its a crap shoot being on water. From April to October, as a long time boater/fisherman, there isn't a day during the wknd in warmer months that someone doesn't do something 100% idiotic around me. Ski-doos, wake boats, pontoons that think they can run 25yds away from parked fisherman, etc., its like common sense goes away on the water.
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
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My primary pet peeve is
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Aug 17, 2025, 7:09 PM
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a boater who does not realize that, while there is no "right way" to move up and down a channel, it is generally accepted that one keeps to the starboard side.
Invariably, a boater who sees his/her time as more valuable than every one else's time will pick the straightest line they can find through a given channel, at the expense of all order and decorum.
The other pet peeve is those who do not know "give way/stand on" rules of the road, and thus play chicken with those of us who do.
Yes, everyone who operates a motor boat should have to take a course.
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Paw Master [16165]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Re: My primary pet peeve is
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Aug 17, 2025, 7:34 PM
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Prime example, I was traveling in main marked channel in Seneca river, boats in navigational waters have the right-of-way! This boat runs out of creek in front of me across the navigation marked channel and he flips out because I didn't swerve. He 100% should have yeilded my progress as I am not required to yield to boats entering navigation waters, and I absolutely am not required to move out of navigation waters to avoid boater which may cause me to hit a shoal.
This incident escalated when dude went ballistic, tried to splash me with his boat after I came off plane to miss his path. At that point, I let him know how frigging stupid he was in non-PC terms. IF I had not been watching and I hit him and hurt him or passengers, he would have been 100% in the wrong, yet I had to deal with this idiot when I was managing my operation correctly. And it almost got even uglier as I don't deal with ignorance being belligerant in front of family and friends real well. I wrote down his numbers, never called DNR but should have.
This is where boater education would have saved a bad experience on the water but it happens all too often when you are on the water 100days a year, you see idiots non-stop!
Ski-doo operators often don't abide by water rules and run across paths of established traffic, do donuts, laugh and run away. If I was DNR, I would burn more ppl woth navigation issues vs registration and paperwork stuff.
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
42
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I think I've come across that same guy.
Aug 17, 2025, 7:45 PM
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Or his brother or cousin. Or maybe all three.
Another fun one: As you know, it can get pretty tight moving up and down the Seneca branch. So it's always fun when someone decides that 100-yard-wide section of lake is the perfect spot to either A: anchor and float or B: do donuts with a tuber.
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All-TigerNet [6058]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Re: My primary pet peeve is
Aug 17, 2025, 8:40 PM
[ in reply to My primary pet peeve is ] |
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this is very true. Stubborn rudeness on the water is a huge danger in itself.
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All-Time Great [96821]
TigerPulse: 100%
63
Posts: 11216
Joined: 2020
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Re: I took that Boater Safety course this weekend and learned two things ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 5:49 PM
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After Labor Day I can go out fishing here for hours and maybe not see another boat.
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Paw Master [16165]
TigerPulse: 100%
51
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Re: I took that Boater Safety course this weekend and learned two things ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 6:20 PM
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Maybe during the week and because you are way up Tugaloo, but I assure you there are plenty of nuts on the water after Labor day. We always used deer season as the date where waters became calm in the fall.
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Orange Elite [5588]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Rival Killer [3049]
TigerPulse: 100%
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All-TigerNet [6058]
TigerPulse: 100%
39
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I am surprised that the rules allow a big mirror in place of a spotter ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 5:52 PM
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they should do away with that rule. No less than the driver and live spotter on the boat when tubing or skiing. If the tuber gets in serious trouble or injury, the captain is going to need help.
The Implied Consent makes sense, That is the same law that applies when driving a motor vehicle.
Did you take the class online? How many hours?
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Paw Master [16165]
TigerPulse: 100%
51
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Re: I am surprised that the rules allow a big mirror in place of a spotter ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 6:22 PM
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Mirrors are why Ski-doos can pull skiiers and tubers. That rule has been around since at least the 80s
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
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I know they can pull folks, but I've never seen a jet skiier doing that.
Aug 17, 2025, 7:15 PM
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I have an intense dislike of PWC. The drivers are usually goofballs who do all sorts of stupid stuff out there.
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Paw Master [16165]
TigerPulse: 100%
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Re: I know they can pull folks, but I've never seen a jet skiier doing that.
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Aug 17, 2025, 7:56 PM
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They pull tubes and knee boards most often as slalom skiing can actually put enough torque on Jet-ski to turn it over. I hate PWCs with a passion as they are noisey, they can run in super shallow water so even if I am tucked way up a creek trying to hide from luxury cruisers, here comes couple idiots running around back of creek where I am fishing/hiding, does 3 donuts on fishing spot then leaves just long enough for water to calm down.
I have been hit and actually ran over in open water by a jet-ski two different times. The worst was 2 teenage girls trying to be funny trying to spray me and they forgot you dont have steering when not giving power, so when they got close and let off throttle, they literally went over the middle of my boat, one landed inside and the other just beside as she bailed off when she knew it was too late. $13k in damage and one went to hospital.
The other time, I was cruising slow looking at my GPS mapping, hear a ski coming to jump my wake, dude crashes, falls off, did not have kill switch attached and jet-ski hooks hard right straight into my bow. I was minding my own business out in middle of lake and gat slammed by idiot. Another $5k in damage when I was just looking for fishing spot.
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
42
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I admire your patience.
Aug 18, 2025, 5:09 PM
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If I'd been walloped twice by jet skis, anytime I saw one after that my default setting would be
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
42
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It took me about two hours all told plus the final exam which was
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Aug 17, 2025, 7:12 PM
[ in reply to I am surprised that the rules allow a big mirror in place of a spotter ... ] |
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just 50 multiple choice questions and another 10 state-specific questions.
Free online -- BoatUS.com. Once you've passed the test, you can print the little card to laminate and keep in your wallet/on the boat/in the tackle box.
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Clemson Conqueror [11829]
TigerPulse: 100%
46
Posts: 11357
Joined: 2007
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Re: It took me about two hours all told plus the final exam which was
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Aug 17, 2025, 7:43 PM
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My wife and I took the course when we moved to the area. Proud to say we both got 100s on the test. They celebrated with her 100...nobody said anything when I got mine right after. I'm still mad about that...
Anyway, to heck with more government control. I hate the government telling me what I can and can't do... and forcing my to pay taxes on my income, purchases, AND property I own. Even worse when they get to have say so over how I get around.
Increase penalties for boating issues and it'll take care of itself. People will be afraid to operate a boat without the education.
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Paw Master [16165]
TigerPulse: 100%
51
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Re: It took me about two hours all told plus the final exam which was
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Aug 17, 2025, 8:12 PM
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They wont be afraid! You have 15yr old kids running 65mph on Jet-skis that dont even have a driver's license. The parents own the ski that has zero insurance or the bare minimum and my insurance has to cover bill to fix stupidity. When I was a kid, my parents let me run around santee lakes in a 10' jon boat and a 4hp Merc motor. No way I would let my 10yr old kid do that nowadays, not necessarily because dont trust kid but I dont trust idiots on the water.
Im all for keeping govt out of my life, but I also know that education is a necessity. I don't think kids or ppl should own guns without gun safety course. I have been around guns all my life shooting a 22 at 3yrs old. But I was trained from a military father about gun safety from day 1. Just because a kid turns 18 don't mean they should be able to buy gun, drive a boat, drive a car, drive a jet-ski etc. Too many people in public places doing activities for uneducated people to have free reign of use.
And I am not talking about a kid sitting in their father's lap driving a boat, or kid shooting a gun with parent helping to guide and focus as that is hoow we learn, but a 14yr old running across lake at 65mph on Jet-ski solo should be illegal for the safety of others. Bottomline- too many ppl using the same resources nowadays. If its your private 10ac pond, please yes let them play!
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
42
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Agree 100%
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Aug 18, 2025, 5:11 PM
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Dad was a Vietnam vet (Army Infantry) and bought me my first shotgun -- a Stevens/Savage pump .20 when I was 10. Before I could even take it out of the case, I was told without hesitation that it was a deadly weapon and that is was never to be pointed at something I didn't intend to kill.
He told me if he ever saw me point that barrel at anything other than a dove or a turkey or whatever else we were hunting, that he'd not only take the shotgun, he'd also strip about three layers off my *ss.
That caught my attention!
Having fun does not excuse anyone from taking responsibility for it.
People who buy PWCs for their teenagers with no mind to the safety of their kids or others should be flayed.
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All-TigerNet [6058]
TigerPulse: 100%
39
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Which course? ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 6:30 PM
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i need to take it...lol
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National Champion [7296]
TigerPulse: 100%
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It's a NASBLA approved course available at BoatUS.com.
Aug 17, 2025, 7:13 PM
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Free and easy. And you do learn a lot of good things.
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All-TigerNet [6058]
TigerPulse: 100%
39
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Which course? ...
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Aug 17, 2025, 6:31 PM
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i need to take it...lol
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Replies: 22
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