Gotta love tubers

Yesterday a knothead slung a tube into the rip rap on the dam on one of the lakes in our neighborhood. The lady riding the tube took the brunt of the crash with her face and according to witnesses bounced about 10 feet along the rip rap. My son (firefighter/paramedic) responded and helped get her loaded into a med flight helicopter. Said she was conscious but face and head were pretty beat up.

Thursday evening, I was trying to pull a friend of mine skiing. We were sharing the lake with a tuber, who was not even coming close to attempting to go in the requisite counterclockwise pattern, swerving and veering every which way including deep into the no wake zones. I had a few "polite" words with him. We have to get registration stickers every year and to get it we receive and have to acknowledge a page of rules. I politely suggested that I am sure he reviewed it, but in those few minutes violated about half of them.

Yeah, it blows my mind that people get all pissy at me when I get in my car, blare the stereo and swerve all over the road while constantly turning my head backward to watch the mayhem happing behind me all while drinking and texting yet when they get on the lake it is ok for them to do it??? And all while slinging their kids around on a tube??? Hypocrites!

Although the lake is the best place to me IMO. It is also inherently dangerous because of morons who just because they have money think they can operate boats correctly and safely. On July 3rd here in VA, Smith Mountain Lake, a 17 year old was killed when a boat struck their boat. Drinking and driving a boat is just like a car, if not worse because you're very easily distracted and there are no lanes or anything. Be safe guys, and always always always stay sober if driving.

Orlando76 wrote: We spent a week on SML in June. There's places that gets crazy congested on the river portion. The whole time I kept saying I'm glad it's not Memorial, Independence, or Labor Day.

SML has its pros and cons. I personally love it. Reasons for that are its huge. So if a cove gets crowded or tubers wreck the water you can usually drive a few minutes and find another good spot. I also love how you can find skiable water at almost any time of the day, Sunday's are hard, but weekdays are glass in most coves unless it's super windy. The downside to this lake is that most of it is very developed so you have lots of millionaires who can't drive boats worth a crap. 9 times outta 10 I leave SML with a huge smile on my face. Sadly, not as many correct crafts here as I would like. Most of them are air nautiques which is okay but I'd love to see some more classics here!! I'm a lone wolf in my 74. But almost every day I take it out I get compliments :). 😎😎