The Stillwater city council on Tuesday approved a request by the new organizers of the community’s annual summer festival to add the Minnesota Wake Surf Championship to the July event. Wake surfing involves using specialized boats to create large wakes that can be ridden on small surfboards. Last year’s event was held on Lake Minnetonka in the city of Mound.
The competition is scheduled to take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday through Sunday, during Lumberjack Days weekend. It will involve one competition boat that will work with all participants and a dinghy to ferry people from near the Gazebo to the boat. The wake surfers will show off their abilities in an area of the river visible from Lowell Park. Organizers said most competition will probably take place south of the lift bridge.
Lumberjack Days organizer Brian Asmus submitted the request to the city. Asmus is owner of Brian’s Bar in Stillwater and a partner in LJD Stillwater Events, an organization formed this year to produce the annual festival. A nonprofit group called The Locals had organized the festival for the past decade, but stepped down this year.
“LJD Stillwater Events is working directly with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to obtain the necessary permits needed to host the event on the St. Croix River,” city parks superintendent Chad Rogness wrote to the council. “Pending approval from the WCSO, Council will determine final approval.”
The letter also said organizers expect about 1,000 people to show up for the event over the course of the weekend. The council approved the request unanimously after a brief discussion. The competition organizers have already announced the change of venue and registration opens tomorrow.
Environmental and safety concerns
Wake surfing has been increasingly controversial as it has rapidly grown in popularity in the last several years. The wakes the boats create not only carry the surfers, but also damage shorelines and docks, aquatic habitat, and other boats.
Large wakes were the most common problem reported by Minnesota boaters in a 2020 report from the Department of Natural Resources. Wake surfing was reported as a problem by 24 percent of respondents. The activity has been a hot topic everywhere from the state legislature to local governments and lake associations.
A 2022 study released by the University of Minnesota found that the wakes from wake surf boats take up to 500 feet to decrease their wake size to that of a typical boat. Advocates have pushed for requirements that the boats stay 300 to 600 feet from shore and other boaters.
If the wake surfing contest on the St. Croix River follows recent guidelines, it would leave a narrow corridor for safe operation. The St. Croix River is from 1,500 to 1,800 feet wide in the area where the competition is planned. Currently, state boating regulations prohibit boats from creating wakes within 100 to 200 feet from shore, as well as within 100 feet of the Lift Bridge.
Lumberjack Days weekend is also typically very busy for boating on the river. It’s not yet known if competition organizers will block off areas of the river with buoys or take any other measures that might impede navigation.
The boats used for wake surfing have ballast tanks that are filled with water, adding hundreds of pounds of weight that cause the boat to displace more water and make bigger wakes. Rarely fully drained and dried, ballast water tanks can carry invasive species like zebra mussels or spiny waterflea, or fish disease, from one body of water to another. A 2021 study from the University of Minnesota found that ballast tanks were the most likely place to find zebra mussel larvae on a boat.
The Lumberjack Day organizers plan to base the Wake Surf Competition in Lowell Park on either side of the Lift Bridge. The judges will likely be watching competitors from the location, and thus most activity will likely take place as close to the bridge as possible.
Wake woes
In 2018, the Stillwater city council considered asking the DNR to implement a no wake zone on the section of the St. Croix River in front of town. The request originated with the owners of Mulberry Point Marina and Portside Restaurant.
The Stillwater proposal was soon followed by a request from Sunnyside Marina to the city of Oak Park Heights for a no wake zone near the marina. Neither idea has yet been implemented.
The river level at Stillwater is currently very high, with the forecast calling for it to reach at least 688 feet above sea level, which would be moderate flood stage. The city is responding to the high water by sandbagging in areas along the riverfront. No wakes are allowed on the river when it is above 683 feet, and it will need to fall at least five feet in the next month for the wake surf competition to take place.
Comment