What's up Outlaws...I live in Oregon, and Texas and am an avid wakeboarder and need some advice as we are facing a potentially bad situation here.

This January there will be a hearing in Portland, Oregon to discuss the issues on the Willamette talk to The Bill "caused" by wakeboarding. I'm sure many of you have seen hearings like this elsewhere and I'm hoping you can share your experiences and insights as we prepare for this in Oregon. What would be helpful is to understand:

-Who are the organized groups that will likely make a statement
-What objections will they raise
-How do we answer those objections
-Is there an organized body within the wakeboard community that might be able to help us prepare for this hearing.

There may be a call to create legislation at this meeting. I am hoping we can head that off and am open to any ideas that this community has to suggest.

Here is the agenda for the meeting:
http://www.boatoregon.com/OSMB/programs/docs/Jan8Agenda.pdf

I look forward to your insights.

Warm regards

Eddie

Hey Eddie,

As far as organized groups - most likely annoyed homeowners and perhaps some environmentalists if they are complaining about erosion.

Not sure if there is a local wakeboarding forum in PDX - that might be a good place to start to try to gain some grass roots support. You should also check with your local boat dealers as they will definitely have a vested interest in allowing wakeboarding on the Willamette. Maybe some of them have emailing lists of their customers that they could notify about the hearing and try to get some to show up.

As far as the objections - they could be anything from "wakeboard boats are destroying my dock and my lakeline" to "wakeboarders are too noisy and are blasting their stereos so that I can't have a dinner conversation with my family".

As for how to battle - you can point to many places similar in size to the Willamette in Texas where wakeboarders and homeowners get along OK - for example I ride mostly on Lake Austin - for the most part homeowners and wakeboarders get along -- most of the homeowners put up wavecreating sea-walls to protect their property that keep the water choppy. ((side note) if they put up walls that were slanted at a 30-40 deg angle instead, they would have less repairs on their walls and the lake would stay smoother for everyone... )

anyway, you might try to find out exactly who is behind this bill -- that will give you an idea of their objections. good luck!

Eddie,

Shoot me an email when you get this. The American Wakesurf Association (AWSA) has a legislative liason officer than can assist and give you some information. Further, Ed Sullivan has develop a power pointe presentation that addresses most of the hyperlope associated with this sort of proposed legislation.

Virtually none of the major sanction bodies will get involved. Sometimes you can get manufacturers (board and boat) involved, but you have to really persevere.

Anyway...shoot me that email and I'll put you in contact with some powerhouse folks.

Click Here To Email Me

This post has been edited by Wakechick: Jan 3 2008, 07:02 PM

Hey all, what happenned on this one?