small lakes

OK, it's a slow work day and I am bored, so I did a comparison of small lakes we use. Since I use such a small lake, I was curious as to how some others stacked up.


Quinner's - 3,815 feet


Tim B's - 2,783 feet


Wayne O's - 4,662 feet


Mine - 2,397


Mine (growing up) - 2,998 feet


So I've got the shortest run. Its barely adequate, but good enough, especially when no other boats and I can run up and down the middle, against the rules of counter clockwise, which turns the lake into a washtub after two laps. Also especially for my old bones that don't have the endurance they used to. Frustrating thing is working on barefoot stuff. Even with just me out there, it gets tore up pretty quick, minimizing the number of tries you can get in when working on something new.

We can fit a slalom course on it. My neighbor has one, but we have not set it out in years. It has to come in and out and it's kind of a fuss when you only have a couple passes in your arms.

Its not that much less than the run in the lake I skied on growing up and it never occurred to me that that was a short run. It was plenty.

I was surprised that my run isn't that much less than Tim's. Having been on Tyler, his run/lake seems much longer.

Here in Florida we have many lakes we ski on less than 1800' long. just long enough to get a slalom course on.

How come mine is the only one frozen??

As another comparison, one lap on Deep is my longest BF run, young HW has done 2 and I think only let go so as I could maintain some dignity.
Slalom I will typically run that line a bit shorter or northeast to southwest about 3 times per set.

Larry, Deep Lake is about 200 acres, 60ft at it's deepest and a natural spring fed lake.

Interesting comparison Larry... But that's not the typical path we take on our lake. Only Wally's drive right down the middle. ;)

Due to prevailing west/northwest winds, we ski 3 sides (north, northwest, west) when traffic is low or we're solo. Either button hook at the end or drop and turn around and go back up your own path. This preserves the water, rather than running in circles, which creates a wave pool like you mentioned. 2-3 boats can share the water if they know what they're doing- one Wally can screw it up for everyone else.

You might consider doing something similar?

I ran the northwest to west shore when I was there Tim, its a good run. I was just avoiding the dog legs for the sake of this comparison. When we have to run circles on our lake, its a mess in a hurry. When I can run up and down the axis of our lake, not setting up any rollers to run perpendicular to the path, it stays good for a while. The accepted path of a third leg along the dam screws things up in a hurry. Problem with our lake, besides the size, is that it is pretty much all bulkheaded. Looks pretty, but sucks for keeping the water flat.

This is our typical barefoot run. When you follow this line the point intersects rollers from the red line and turn and prevents it from traveling back down the blue line. Where the red line starts the water gets rough. If the water is decent we will continue on the red line and drop at the red circle and repeat back the same path. You can ski this all day long as long as there are no other boats out.
If the water is rough or windy you can foot the blue line from the red dots drop and turn around. Usually one pass up the boat line clears rollers out and makes it happen. That is also the typical slalom line run. full blue for slalom if the water is good. That little cove where the blue line starts is wind protected mostly unless its extremely bad.

quinner wrote: Larry, Deep Lake is about 200 acres, 60ft at it's deepest and a natural spring fed lake.

Sequoia is about 250 but the coves and everything west/southwest of the end of the yellow line is a no wake zone. I used to live due east of the little island, in the no wake zone. Nice and quiet and having the island in our view/sunset view was nice. I now live at about 11:00 on that same point, so I get to see the action on the lake, which I enjoy. Also puts me right at the turning point so we get beat with waves weekend afternoons. Fortunately big weighted boats are not allowed, but its still gets pretty rough at the dock.

We also have said Counter-Clock Wise towing rules. So 5 minutes before the lake opens (10AM) I make the barefoot pass, by the time I am halfway down their are at least 2 other boats starting their "Circles" usually they are skiers, by the time those two boats make one lap, 3 other boats have joined in pulling tubes. Then their is no less then 5 boats out there (turning circles, my favorite is when the pontoons come out to do "Hot Laps") until the lake closes at 4PM. I always pray for rain, because then I can do dog bones right down the middle (always turning Left of course - a very tight CCW circle, to keep the Lake Nazi's happy).

Otherwise, we ballast up and just go throw huge waves running the tight CCW circle in the center so we can surf.

I have no idea how you did the measurement thing, but Tuttle lake is 155 acres near Budsin, WI or Neshkoro, WI, halfway between Wautoma, WI to the north and Montello, WI to the south. About 30 miles west of Green Lake.

Our close to home ski lake, also pictured in its "solid" state, where both quinner and hollywood have skied is Lake Shangri-La, it is just north of Antioch, IL over the IL/WI border. It closes at dusk, most weekdays and evenings you can get good water.

Joe's buddy's lake. Again, this one is significantly smaller, I would guess total length about 1200 feet, maybe only 1000.

Joe's cove   3702 feet


Joe's buddy's pond 1266 feet


Slalom course (850') on the pond.

Shangri la

Tuttle 2,671 ft

Larry,
How about 1318 state hwy 32 54562. I went to google earth and it seems to require a download. I'm on my wife's laptop and don't want to download it. there are 20 lakes on my end of the chain and I'm on the south bay of Medicine. Thanks.

Lake Benedict is a pain in the d*ck to get on. The one and only ramp is chained up and costs $20 per in/out. I have a few friends that keep ski boats there but most of the homeowners are 100 years old and do nothing but complain. The circle pattern is also a "rule". It's best to just wait till everyone goes in and do your own up thing up and down the middle (left hand turns like they ask for) and keep your ears shut.

Do most of our skiing on Powers Lake. Several good runs depending on the wind, and you can easily share the water with a few other skiers. However, again, when the cops are out, you have follow the circle jerk pattern. You don't have to go into all the bays, some are no longer deep enough to ski through.

Slalom course and jump used to be the red line. Practice starts from deep in the bay. You can extend that run on the pink line but watch out for the rock bar unless you need a new candlestick holder.

Blue lines are typical dusk patterns during the summer when the wind is coming from that direction. You can occasionally extend the run with that purple line but you stir up the muck.

Green line is the dream run you'll get a few times in early spring or fall.

Barefoot whips in the back of the (red) bay are very exciting. Look out for the buoys and swim rafts...



I don't get out on Elizabeth often, the one day Alan and Rob came up to barefoot it was unseasonably warm and all the hot lappers were out getting sta-bil through their fuel systems. It is typically a good ski lake, little traffic since most people are jammed up on Mary and you cannot navigate between the lakes with a powerboat.

Lake Mary is home to Aquanut Water Shows. Lots of friends and team members live off the green line and it's usually protected from the wind so we trick and slalom back there. Blue line is ideal and usually out of the wind. It's hard to resist taking another whip at the NE end but you'll screw yourself with rollers.

We start our big pyramids on the yellow line and red is the show course, with orange being another extended back pass for bring the pyramid down or setting up a big barefoot line.

Lake Mary is insanely populated. Homes are stacked on top of each other as well as off-lake associations and condos. Ironically enough I will be keeping my Ski Nautique out there at a friend's condo. There is surprisingly little traffic outside Memorial Day to Labor Day. Thankfully there are minimal seawalls.


These lakes are all supported by the town of Twin Lakes. It's less than 4 miles to get from practice to where the BFN and PLBC's Air are parked, not to mention other non CCF ski buddies. Gary S, quinner, M3Fan, skutch (shangri-la), Frankenotter, probably more, all ski within 45 minutes of here too, southeast or northeast. There were many Saturdays I'd meet up with M3Fan for a hungover slalom set in the morning (late of course), then some relaxing barefooting with quinner, followed by a ski show on Mary and capped of with more footing on Powers.


Lastly, Jackie was tired of sleeping on people's couches. We are buying this foreclosure. It's located near the K in Twin Lakes on the above map. 24.4' deep garage and plenty of lawn parking! It'll be more work than ski this season but will be so nice to have a base of operations in the area finally. Way too many late night treks home. Showing off my MS Paint skillz with the future car(boat)port.