Bill Description: House Bill 887 would amend the state’s regulation of water skiing.
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NOTE: House Bill 887 is related to House Bill 569 (2026).
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 887 would amend Section 67-7024, Idaho Code, to reword this exception. The new language would apply “if the vessel has a large mirror that is firmly mounted in a position that allows the operator to face the direction of travel and observe the person being towed at all times, and the vessel is operating within a regulation legal and permitted slalom course or the vessel is being operated 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 expanded exception would only apply to the short period between an hour before sunrise and 9:00 a.m. during summer months.
(Both the current law and the law as it would be amended by this bill broadly prohibit water skiing from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise except in “duly authorized water ski tournaments, competitions, expositions or trials.”)
This bill would remove the specific size requirement for the mirror and amend the exception from applying only within a “regulation legal and permitted slalom course” to include other areas during certain times.
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