MANITOWOC (NBC 26) — Wake surfing has generated concerns at one Manitowoc County lake.
- Wake surfing boats have drawn concerns at Cedar Lake in Manitowoc County
- Boating industry research shows the boats should operate in 20 feet of water, Cedar Lake averages 9 feet
- An ordinance banning the activity is currently tabled by the town board
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Welcome to Cedar Lake in Manitowoc County is a beautiful home and a place to play but an email from one home owner has me looking into a growing concern on the water.
Calm, blue waters but underneath a problem is stirring.
"I always wanted to live on the water,” said Cedar Lake resident Scott Otterson.
Wake surfing is an activity that uses a special wave enhancing boat, allowing surfers to ride lake waves without a rope. A growing activity that's loved by some, but not all.
"There's been more activity on the lake and more impact to the shoreline and lake bottom that I've seen,” Otterson said.
Otterson has teamed with longtime resident Mike Strebe, trying to pass a Cedar Lake ban on wave surfing. They are citing damage to the lakebed and shoreline erosion.
"Trees don't grow in the water and that's what it looks like here because of what they lost,” Strebe said of one shoreline.
The men say Cedar Lake houses as many as a dozen of these boats, but are they truly an invasive species of their own?
The DNR says the jury's still out, but points to boating industry research that says wakesurfing boats should be 200 feet off shore and in water 20 feet deep. Cedar Lake has an average of 9 feet deep.
"A lot of those studies find that these boats can create waves up to four feet high and that it takes time for those to dissipate,” said DNR officer Joseph Mulrooney.
Mulrooney says that the DNR does not enforce the boats and leaves it up to towns to decide.
I also spoke with a boat dealer in De Pere. He says they tell wakesurfing buyers to stay 200 feet from any shore, but he doesn't believe depth matters. He told me the produced wave is very small in waters under 10 feet anyway.
But Otterson and Strebe disagree.
“There is no middle ground on it, this lake is not fit for that type of action,” Strebe said.
As the sanitary chairperson here on Cedar Lake, Strebe conducted a survey of the people living here. 70 of them said they want wave surfing banned, while 25 people want it to stay. The DNR says the boats cannot be banned, just the wakesurfing activity.
