Boat ramp etiquette
So I've been taking my canoe out to this lake, parking at the chamber of commerce welcome center which has a boat ramp.
I load my canoe right by my car and make sure that when I'm on the ramp everything is all packed and I can just jump in and go.
When I was coming back after paddling for a few hours, these 3 yuppies, 2 guys and 1 girl were launching their jet skis. They seriously had their truck on the ramp for about 25 minutes and even after all their boats were in they just hung out on the ramp for awhile, blocking it.
Does it really take that long to unload a small jet ski from a trailer? I was able to untie my huge 100 pound canoe from my car by myself, portage it 50 feet or so with 120 pounds of sandbags+ my gear, and paddle out to the middle of the lake faster than it took them to unload their tiny jet skis.
I wanted to yell at them to move since I was tired and wanted to get out and relax, but I have no prior boating experience and I didn't know if they were in the wrong or not. Were they? One of the guys immediately asked me to move my boat once it hit the ramp so he could put another jet ski in. I was like damn dude I was going to move it anyway.
I don't leave my canoe chilling on the ramp, I wait for others to go first, but is their behavior acceptable?
I feel like they were just some rich douchebags I should have said something to.
Listen mate, the basic tenets of Watersports dictate that if you own a jetski, you're a cunt.
Don't get me wrong, we ALL enjoy jetskiiing - but people who own one are always borderline gangmembers (ie hard but not nearly hard enough).
When it comes to jetski fucks, the only option is
>step 1: tell them to please open the slipway for others
>step 2: tell then to fuck off cos you've already called the cops / harbour authority
>fucking call the cops before step 2 because they're going to get in your face and be a pretend hardman so you need backup. The second they see a flashing light they'll be a little bitch.
Every
Fucking
Time
>>798742
Jetskis? Isn't it obvious they are rich douchebags?
However, in their defense, you don't unload your boat on the ramp while they are still loading/unloading (unless its a 2 lane ramp).
But it sounds like they were being slow and you've got a canoe so I would have told them "hey I'm gonna put in next to you and I'll be gone in a minute". I wouldn't exactly ask permission more just tell them what I'm about to do but if they objected, then I'd suggest they hurry it up then and ask if they need some help. (Of course, that might result in some sort of retaliation depending on how they take that. They are douchebags afterall.)
They looked like douchey frat boys, pretty tough looking though. I honestly don't care how muscular they are when I have a paddle I can use to knock them upside the head.
One of them said he'd help me put my boat back in the water when he was done but I was like 'I'm good bro, its a canoe lol.'
>>798742
So when I had my jet skis at a busy boat ramp on a Saturday, here's what I would do as the one person with jet skis not trying to be a total asshole
>pull into parking lot
>take off the straps, get out the life jackets, put all my personal shit in the dry box deal
>back into ramp, just have to unhook the one strap remaining once they get into the water
>drop them in the water, bring em right to the dock and tie them up
>go park truck and trailer
>take off
The worst thing was always people who had no fucking clue how to back a trailer. I would get everything ready in the lot before I even got near the ramp and it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. I think you just got stuck behind some stupid fucking yuppies. I have seen some people who like to park the boat at the dock by the ramp and fuck around there for half an hour before they take off or pull it back on the trailer, but that's normally not a big deal. They still never have the trailer in the boat ramp for more than a few minutes.
>>798902
I didn't. I just paddled around in circles for 20 minutes or so waiting for them to finally move aside.
They were mostly just hanging out on the fucking launch ramp.
I'm not going to interfere with anyone loading or unloading their boats but they shouldn't hang out on the damn ramp.
Granted, this boat ramp is always pretty sleepy but I wanted to get out pretty quickly as I was tired.
>>798915
>One of them said he'd help me put my boat back in the water when he was done
"Help" as in help it bounce off the ground because it "accidentally" slipped out of his hands.
You made the right call.
