Tubing Where Others Are Skiing

[Long Pine]

Today I was pulling the kids tubing and on my second or third pass by a ski boat in about 30-40 minutes, a guy in the ski boat waved his arms at me in what looked like a show of frustration. I slowed down and pulled along side him to see what he was trying to tell me. He very politely let me know that when he pulls tubers, he tries to stay away from areas where people are skiing, since they generally prefer not to deal with the additional waves that a tubing boat creates by going back-and-forth rather than straight. Of course, he was absolutely right that it would have been considerate of me to find another part of the lake where people weren't skiing. Since I am not a skiier, I just wasn't thinking from his perspective. I have been boating on the lake for several years but I guess have generally been pulling tubers in areas where several others were as well (and therefore skiiers were not there). I post this both as a mea culpa, and as a reminder to people pulling tubers to alert them to the skiier's perspective, and as a reminder to skiiers that all tubers are not trying to be jerks, but just may not be aware of the impact they are having on skiing conditions. My thanks also to the boater who chose to be polite and constructive rather than obnoxious in expressing his dissatisfaction (even though he may have been upset).