[Paddlewise] Riding Boat Wakes

Craig wrote:
>Now I'm going to have to search out the natural habitats of boarder 
> boats and sneak rides on their wakes. A great way to pass an hour of 
> kayaking and with no long trip to the ocean involved.
> 
> I suppose I should feel guilty about having so much fun on his gas......
> nawwwwwww.

"Sneak" Now you are getting right the idea Craig. You have to catch them by
surprise and from enough to the side of their course they don't try to be
polite and reduce their wake. I learned to hang out at some choke point but
well off to the side looking non-chalant until they were no longer concerned
about me (if they ever were) and then I'd sprint in from the side and grab
their wake. Sometime you can go for a mile right behind them and they never
even know you are there. 

One tip you probably have learned already, try to favor the upwind side of
their wake so as not to gas yourself on the gasoline or diesel fumes. Not
only is wake riding great fun but it is also excellent practice for turning
following seas into a free fast ride rather than a scary struggle. 

Never get so close that you risk bumping the other boat. Another tip, don't
be too blatant about wake riding if the authorities are around as it is best
if they don't tell you not to do this. That way you won't have to look
around quite as carefully for them before you do it next time. I once surfed
on a Harbor Patrol boat's wake (about 50 yards away from it on the divergent
waves) and they turned around and came over and told me I couldn't surf boat
wakes and additionally the officer told me I was not allowed to paddle a
kayak through the nearby Montlake Cut (the choke point for big boats that
made ambushing the big boats easy). I asked what law that was it that said I
couldn't surf on boat wakes and the officer just got angry. I wasn't sure
what they might be able to come up with to charge me with for wake riding so
I didn't do that again right in front of them, but I immediately paddled
through the Montlake Cut since I knew they had no right to stop me from
using navigable waters and I was willing to see them try. Sometimes you need
to exercise your rights to keep them.

One night years later I was surfing a large cruiser's wake around Seattle's
Lake Union (for a mile or more) when from off in the distance the blue
lights started flashing and the patrol boat was headed right towards us at
high speed on a plane. Could they be after me for wake riding? I slinked off
the wake into the darkness putting the cruiser between me and the patrol
boat so as not to be too obvious about having been wake riding when they got
closer. The stopped the boat I was following and from the snatches of
conversation I was overhearing they were accusing that boat of running over
some small boat down at the south end of the lake. I paddled up and asked
where this had occurred and told the officers they must have stopped the
wrong boat because I had followed that boat closely the whole way around the
lake and they had certainly not hit anything or I would have seen or heard
it. That cruiser pilot was probably really grateful that I had been
recycling his used gasoline. So don't feel guilty Craig. You are just
recycling waste while it is temporarily in a state where you can wring some
fun out of it. 

Of course, if you keep hollering HIT IT or otherwise goading them on maybe
you should feel a twinge of conscience.

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com  
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