Bill Description: House Bill 569 would amend and add to the state’s regulation of water skiing.
Rating: 0
Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?
Idaho law imposes a number of regulations on water skiing, including requiring that, in most cases, there must be an observer in the tow boat other than the driver. The law has an exception for boats “operating within a regulation legal and permitted slalom course and that are equipped with a rearview wide-angle mirror.” The mirror must be “no less than four (4) inches from bottom to top and across from side to side” and “be mounted firmly to give the operator a full, complete view beyond the rear of the vessel at all times.”
House Bill 569 would amend Section 67-7024, Idaho Code, to complicate this exception. It would change the mirror requirement to say it must be “a large mirror that is at least seventy-eight (78) square inches” and be “firmly mounted in a position that allows the operator to face the direction of travel and observe the person being towed at all times.”
Many typical rear-view water-skiing mirrors that meet the current law are approximately 12” x 4” and would not meet the new requirements.
The bill would also add a list of regulations under which one could water ski without an observer in the boat outside of a “regulation legal and permitted slalom course”.
This would include the same expanded mirror requirements as above and also require the boat to have “a propeller that is recessed under the boat” and “a platform on the stern of the boat that is as wide as the stern of the boat and allows for a person to safely exit the water and enter the vessel without assistance.”
It would also add requirements that the person operating the boat be at least 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license and that “the person in tow remains in contact with the vessel at all times using a tow rope that has a handle or similar apparatus and utilizes water skis, a water board, a surf board, or a similar contrivance.”
The current law prohibits water skiing from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise except in “duly authorized water ski tournaments, competitions, expositions or trials.”
The bill would add an exception for boats that meet all of the above requirements. It would apply “between one (1) hour prior to sunrise and 9:00 a.m. from May 15 through September 10 of each year or at any time of day from September 11 through May 14 of each year.”
It is unclear why this exception would apply only to the short period between an hour before sunrise and 9:00 a.m. It may be that “9:00 a.m.” is a typo and the exception is supposed to apply until 9:00 p.m.
Overall, this bill is a bit of a mixed bag. The mirror requirements are more restrictive than current law, but it does create a highly regulated path to allow water skiing without an observer in the boat outside of a “regulation legal and permitted slalom course”.
It would be better to keep the current standard for rear-view water-skiing mirrors and simply strike “operating within a regulation legal and permitted slalom course and” from subsection 2, without adding any of the additional regulations.
(0)
