Skiers frustrated by closures for rowing

Karapiro Lake users were left frustrated when rowers forgot their manners on the lake during the build-up to Maadi Cup.

Karapiro Water Ski Club members said they had limited use of the lake during the buildup because it was often closed.

The club’s ski coach Michael Wortman said that when they were allowed on the water they were not very welcome.

“They sometimes didn’t close zone three over to the left so we would ski there but rowers would still get shitty. Even when it was open and we did our best to minimise the boat wakes that went into their space by driving on a diagonal line, they still got annoyed.”

But Cambridge High School rowing coach Selwyn Cleland, a regular user of the lake, said that while rowers sometimes have issues with skiers, they understand the need to share the lake.

“Sometimes you get the odd hooligan who doesn’t know what to do, someone who speeds past and isn’t aware of the implications that they have with their wake,” he said.

“But generally with other lake users it’s their water as much as it is ours so we’ve got to share it, we’re got to be considerate of each other.”

During practice for Maadi Cup skiers were usually limited to using  the back waters of the lake.

Wortman said public use of the lake was also limited outside regattas because the rowers left their course spread across a large area of water that could not be driven through.

“They leave it there full time,” he  said.

Ski club members said they have had trouble accessing the public side road leading to their club during regattas.

“They have a warden up at the gate who actually tells you that you can’t come in. That’s been an on-going problem for about five or six years now,” Wortman said.

He said rowers brought a recent ski competition to a halt when they rowed into the tournament.

“One end of the lake was closed for our water skiing tournament but they didn’t obey the closure, rowers just went straight through it,” he said.

Wortman said most skiers feel the high number of lake closures is unfair to the general public.

“There are too many closures and it does affect us in the sense that we can’t do as much skiing as we would like.”

Harbourmaster Richard Barnett said the many rowing events at Lake Karapiro are approved about a year in advance, and released to the public in a yearly calendar on the Waipa District Council website.

Events are also advertised closer to the time on the council website, in the newspaper and on public signs.

Barnett said event organisers have the right to clear the water of any disruptive people when they have approval to close an area for an event.

“They have the right to marshal people away from the area if need be,” he said.

But in some cases organisers are obliged to allow members of the public to move through areas of the lake.

Barnett said often when areas of the lake are closed other lake users can slowly move their boat around the event to a quieter area of the lake.

“We’re trying to reduce the conflict between lake users by applying different speed zones to certain areas for different activities. If zone three of the lake is closed Karapiro Water Ski Club members can contact event organisers to arrange for them to quietly idle over to the other side.”

He added that if people cause disturbances on the water lake users can contact him to resolve the issue.