Tube Wars Anyone?

[fishdog4449]

When I was in middle school, my best friend had a river house and a few boats. "His" (keep in mind this is 5th grade)was a old Swan Point Center Console with a Evinrude 28 SPL. We would go up there, cut grass all friday and chill the rest of the weekend. Anyway, we used to hook two one-man tubes behind this thing and have tube wars object being to knock the other people off their tube. At one point, we did it with two people on each tube. That 28 had quite a bit of power and it was a very light boat. Looking back, i can see it was probably a bit dangerous (head injuries, etc) but I think I will try it again this summer now that I have my own boat. Anyone else ever do anythng crazy like this with watersports?

 

[ilmostro99]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

We used to do kind of the same thing but with 6 - 8 kneeboards behind my friend's boat. It was a lot of fun until one guy, being pulled by one of the shorter ropes fell. One of the guys on one of the longer ropes had already fallen, leaving his rope being drug behind the boat. It wrapped around guy #1's ankle, with the boat still at speed. When the rope hit, it tore every ligament out and almost ripped his foot off. Of course, we learned our lesson after that. Always use the same length rope.
Erik

 

[fishdog4449]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

Thats the kind of thing I am always glad didn't happen. However, I think if you have a good spotter, and always wear type III PFDS and have someone responsible driving, its ok.

 

[ilmostro99]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

Oh, it was fun, and I'd do it again. I'd just make sure we give a bit more thought this time to safety.
Erik

 

[fishdog4449]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

6 kneeboarders is alot of drag..what you pull that with?

 

[rndn]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

We did the same thing on foam boards. We would launch off the wake and try to land on top of the other guy meanwhile the driver was trying to shake us off by zig zagging and doing donuts. It was a lot of fun and no one ever got hurt, although looking back on it it wasn't the safest thing to do. We used to do something similar in the snow by coming up behind someone else on the way down the hill and grab the back of the runner and pull. It would turn sideways and the rider would go tumbling.

 

[ilmostro99]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

6 kneeboarders is alot of drag..what you pull that with?

Wish I knew more specs on the boat. It was an older, perhaps mid '80's Cheyenne Skier with an inboard. That's all I know. The boat was struggling a bit but did an admirable job, plus, we were all pretty good and knew what we were doing.
Erik

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

we use to criss cross ropes with 3 slamoming. it is a wonder we did not take someones head off.

 

[tcindie]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

I remember doing a "tube wars" type of thing a few times.. Two tubes, each with a single rider, trying to knock the other off their tube any way they could. Whether just slamming the tube into the other one, or jumping over and throwing them off..

Thinking about it makes me ache now. It's amazing how resilient you are as a kid though.

 

[derekpfeiffer]

Re: Tube Wars Anyone?

I'm a 24yr old relatively new boater and just bought a new boat a couple of weeks ago. A good friend of mine who's 48 and his 13yr old son were out with me on my new boat and they kind of introduced me to this. I tell you what it was a blast on the Missouri river last weekend. My 48yo friend's son flipped him over twice and he was upside down and able to flip it back over while still going 30mph with me zig zaging. It was a blast.

The great world of boating
Doogie