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Next month an international wakesurfing competition will crown the sport's world champions. Since the event was first held two decades ago, wakesurfing has become much more popular, and that's also sparked concerns about its safety and environmental impact. Danielle Kaeding with Wisconsin Public Radio has more.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)
DANIELLE KAEDING, BYLINE: Overhead, clouds threaten rain on a late morning as Mike Scandin and Mark Mapes head out on the waters of Lake Minocqua in northern Wisconsin in a boat designed for wakesurfing.
MARK MAPES: It's a lot of fun. It's very gentle movements. You're moving everything in your body to do it.
DANIELLE KAEDING: That's Mark Mapes. Once an avid water skier, he now wakesurfs instead. Similar to water skiing, a wakesurfer is towed behind a boat with a rope, but the person eventually lets go to surf the large waves left in the boat's wake. Scandin waits for Mapes' signal that he's ready to surf.
MAPES: All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT ENGINE RUMBLING)
DANIELLE KAEDING: The two co-own a school that teaches people how to wakesurf and operate their boats responsibly. Scandin says that means surfing in the deepest water possible, far from the shoreline. But just how far and how deep is at the heart of a debate making waves on Wisconsin lakes. The boat's design helps it plow through the water, and critics say they need to be very far out to avoid shoreline erosion, property damage and harm to fish habitats. But Scandin says if any power boat is too close to land, that's a problem.
MIKE SCANDIN: Anyone can be a jerk in a boat. It's not the style of a boat that causes the problem.
DANIELLE KAEDING: Sales of wake boats surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, roughly 13,000 were sold nationwide. As their popularity has grown, Jeff Meessmann with the conservation group Last Wilderness Alliance says that's meant more problems for others on the water.
JEFF MEESSMANN: A lot of people have bad experiences with wakesurfing boats, and they want to do something about it.
DANIELLE KAEDING: On smaller lakes, Meessmann says people who kayak or fish can't be near the boats without facing the threat of being swamped or tipped over by their large waves. He wants the boats to stay more than 700 feet from shore. Wakesurfer Jennifer Eckert, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., vacations with her family on Lake Minocqua. She says everyone needs to be mindful of others on the water.
JENNIFER ECKERT: We do try to get out early when there's not a lot of boat traffic,because it's also better for surfers to be out when there's not a lot of other traffic.
DANIELLE KAEDING: When they're wakesurfing, the family stays at least 300 feet from the shore. Cliff Goudey authored a 2015 study funded by the boating industry that found 200 feet is far enough to reduce the boat's large waves.
CLIFF GOUDEY: It does not take much of a distance offshore to greatly reduce that resulting wave height and the risks of damage.
DANIELLE KAEDING: But a more recent crowdfunded study from researchers at the University of Minnesota suggests otherwise. One of the study's authors, Andy Riesgraf, says they found wake boats should stay as far as 500 feet from shore.
ANDY RIESGRAF: I would say if you're wakesurfing, operate your boat at a further distance, you know, out in the middle of the lake, where it's deeper and further away from shore, to minimize any potential environmental impacts.
DANIELLE KAEDING: Some states, including Vermont and Maine, have statewide regulations on wake boats that limit where they operate. In the last year, lawmakers in Wisconsin introduced dueling bills on wake boats that failed to advance. However, some towns in the state do restrict their use at the local level. Wakesurfing enthusiast and teacher Mike Scandin says he's not saying there aren't any problems with the sport.
SCANDIN: My statement is that with proper education, it can be done correctly.
DANIELLE KAEDING: But he thinks limiting or barring the boats because of a few bad apples on the water is the wrong way to go. For NPR News, I'm Danielle Kaeding.
(SOUNDBITE OF RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS SONG, "SCAR TISSUE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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