Paddle Sport Safety Tips

Wear a life jacket! - More than 90% of boat fatalities related to drowning involve victims not wearing life jackets. Wear it for your safety and because it’s Wisconsin law, as well as U.S. Coast Guard law. Paddleboards are treated the same as kayaks and canoes. This means there must be a personal flotation device for each person on board. The best way to obey this law and to ensure your safety is to just wear the life jacket.

• Carry a whistle

• Be a competent swimmer

• Know how to self-rescue

• Know how to tow another board

• Know the local regulations and navigation rules

• Understand the elements and hazards – winds, tidal ranges, current, terrain

• Know when to wear a leash

• Be defensive – don’t go where you aren’t supposed to be and avoid other swimmers, boaters, paddleboards

• Use proper blade angle to be the most efficient paddle boarder

Boating ordinance 2025-1

Please be notified that the Town of Springwater has passed Boating Ordinance 2025-1. 

Of particular note is Section 8 Prohibited Activities (paraphrased): 

No person shall swim more than 200 feet from shore unless accompanied by a competent person in a boat and having readily available a US Coast Guard approved Personal Floatation Device (PFD) for each person on board and in the water.

Prohibited Equipment: No person may use or employ on [Pine Lake] water sacks, ballast tanks, submersible wings or any other device which causes a boat to operate in a bow-high manner, or which increase or enhances a boat’s wake. 

Prohibited Operation: No person may operate a boat on [Pine Lake] in an artificially bow-high manner in order to increase or enhance the boat’s wake. This includes the use of ballast, mechanical hydrofoils, uneven loading or operation at a transition speed where the boat is not quite planing or operating at a speed to support a skier. 

For the complete ordinance click on the link above. 

Wisconsin Boating Regulations

Be sure to review the entire document Wisconsin Boating Regulations to learn about statewide regulations.

Boating safety

These are just some boat operating practices that are dangerous and illegal in Wisconsin:

It is unlawful (and unsafe) to operate a motorboat:

• within 100 feet of any swimmer, diver, dock, raft, pier at a speed in excess of “no wake.”

• at a speed in excess of no wake from one-half hour after sunset to sunrise. On Pine Lake this rule is from 5pm until 10am.

• while a passenger is sitting on the gunwales, tops, backs or sides of seats, or on the decking over the bow while under way, unless such person is inboard of guards or railings sufficient to prevent the person from being lost overboard.

• in a repeated circuitous course within 200 feet around any other boat or swimmer, or in a manner to create hazardous wakes.

• while under the influence of an intoxicant or a controlled substance, or to use water skis or similar devices. In Wisconsin, all motor boat operators are deemed to have given consent to a blood alcohol test.

• Chasing, harassing, or disturbing wildlife with your vessel.

Please be considerate of your neighbors, wildlife and others who enjoy the lake.