SPOKANE RIVER: Safety issues

I want to underscore and accentuate the comments made by Avis Stafford in a My Turn guest opinion on March 31 regarding wake boarding on the Spokane River. I have regularly fished and boated in this river for the past 24 years. My boat is a 20-foot Lund boat that can handle big waves and heavy water. I observe that most of the smaller boats, canoes and kayaks are struggling to stay afloat after a wake boarder passes.

Despite my skill and the size of my boat, my fishing partners and I have often been tossed around and nearly thrown out of the boat on many occasions after a wake-board boat has passed our location.

Like Avis Stafford I too have witnessed countless times when others have been impacted by the large wake put out by most wake boarders. I’ve seen little children wading the river knocked over, kayakers have been overturned, and other pleasure boaters trying to dodge the wakes of people who care less about their actions. Someone is going to die or sustain major injury because of the failure of the authorities and law enforcement to recognize that other recreational uses are being seriously impacted by a few wake boarders who do not wish to take their sport into deeper waters on the main lake where their wakes would not impact the majority of homeowners and other recreational uses of the river.

JIM GRASSI

Post Falls