Rumored Wakesurf Bill Update and Lake Beulah Wakeboat testing!
there is buzz in Madison that a select group of legislators may introduce a bad bill at the behest of the wakeboat manufacturers. As we noted on our FACEBOOK page on Friday, we’ve been watching the agenda for the Assembly Committee on Forestry, Parks and Outdoor Recreation.
We are glad to report that there will be no hearing tomorrow on wakeboat legislation. The Assembly Committee on Forestry, Parks and Outdoor Recreation will meet, but only on other unrelated bills.
Had an Assembly sponsor and the wakeboat industry wanted to drop a wakeboat bill, they would have had to publicly notice it by noon today—which did not happen. This is a major win. Your readiness to show up made them hesitate, and no bill will be heard tomorrow. Thank you for standing ready—we are proving our strength together!
Looking Ahead:
Stay alert: a bill could still appear with just 24 hours’ notice.
Watch your email and social media—we’ll notify you immediately if a bad bill drops.
If a hearing is scheduled in Madison, we’ll provide full details and calls to action.
Lake Beulah Study Presentation
This past Saturday, the Protect Lake Beulah organization (“PLB”) held a symposium where they presented a number of findings from their independent wake boat research conducted on Lake Beulah over the past few months.
The Lake Beulah Management District in keeping with their responsibilities to protect the lake wanted to know the impact of wakesurfing on Beulah. To that end, they retained the environmental engineering firm Terra Vigilis to conduct in-water testing over the course of the summer.
The summary findings from Terra Vigilis are linked here. These findings were presented at the symposium in addition to other presentations from PLB.
Primary takeaways:
A wakeboat in surf mode can disturb the bottom down to depths of 25 feet (the deepest depth tested.) The results were consistent with the Minnesota Phase II Study.
A team of divers were utilized, and two of the divers spoke at this forum. Both have the Divemaster certification, including one who was a local fire department rescue diver.
The divers noted that in one of the test situations, at 24 foot depths, they experienced a “silt-out” event after the wakeboat passed over the top of them. The downward waves and propwash blasted up the bottom silt, causing the divers to lose all visibility and requiring them to surface.
Both divers said they were surprised as to how significant the underwater turbulence brought on by a wakesurf pass was, even at depths of 20-25 feet. They noted that they would get lifted up and pushed down in the underwater churn. They did not experience any of these effects when being underneath numerous test boats, including pontoons, jet boats and I/O’s.
Aquatic vegetation does get uprooted with taller weeds torn off or uprooted, even at depth.
The PLB team presented Livescope images of a variety of boats passing by the sonar and only the wakeboat in wakesurf mode caused water disturbances clearly visible on the scope down to depths of 20 feet.
One of the most striking images of the event was the video below filmed by the Terra Vigilis researchers, showing what wakesurfing waves look like from a wakesurf boat passing by 200 feet from shore.
Watch the docked fishing boat and shoreline get rocked! This is an all-too familiar scene for many riparian owners.
These wakeboat waves are NOT ‘more or less similar’ than other boat and watercraft waves at 200 feet from shore as wakeboat industry spokespeople often claim.
The video below is a four quadrant view that compares the wakesurf boat with three other non-wake surf boats for comparison. Give it a watch and focus on the fishing boat tied to the dock and also the shoreline in all four panels.
Finally, watch the video below where the wakeboat is in surf mode 500 feet from shore. You’ll see the wakesurf boat waves are still more powerful than the other three boats only 200 feet from shore.
The majority of the Lake Beulah testing was conducted on July 23, 2025, in the presence of members of the public, two Town of East Troy board members (including the chairman) and a member of the media.
As a reminder, the Town of East Troy voters at their annual town meeting on April 15, 2025 voted overwhelmingly to prohibit wakesurfing on lakes in the Town, including Lake Beulah. This was an advisory vote only. To date no wakesurf ordinance has been discussed or enacted.
