Like a speeding boat T-boning a sea wall, on Feb. 19 any hope for wake surfing legislation this year in Wisconsin came to an abrupt halt.
“There will be nothing happening on wake boats in this legislative session,” said Sen. Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Local Government. “It is over.”
Tomczyk made his remarks to an overflow crowd that had come to the Capitol to testify on that very subject.
The Senate Committee on Transportation and Local Government held a hearing Feb. 19 on seven bills, including SB 1024 and SB 1025, competing proposals on wake-enhanced boating.
Lake protection and local control advocates backed SB 1024, which would require wake surfing to take place 500 feet from shore and in water at least 20 feet deep. In addition, it would specify legal immunity to local units of government if they enacted a wake-surfing ordinance stricter than state law.
The boating industry and wake surfers supported SB 1025, which would require the activity 300 feet from shore but with no depth requirement. Unlike its counterpart, SB 1025 is silent on local control.
Passionate supporters and detractors of both appeared over about six hours in the Senate committee hearing.
But the reason Tomczyk made his summary statement about wake-surfing legislation being “dead in the water” was due to action and inaction in the Legislature’s other chamber.
In a odd move Feb. 19, the Assembly amended its version of SB 1025 to include a sandhill crane hunting provision. There is no similar bill in the Senate so it couldn’t be taken up in the limited time left, according to legislative staff.
And though Rep. Nate Gustafson, R-Omro, had introduced it, Assembly leadership did not give a bill number to its version of SB 1024, blocking the proposal in that chamber. Bills need to pass both chambers to be considered by the governor.
So during a fluid day in the Wisconsin Legislature that left many observers shaking their heads, Tomczyk issued his realistic assessment of the prospects for wake-surfing legislation in the 2025-26 session.
“This issue is not going forward,” he said.
Assembly leader Robin Vos, R-Rochester, had set a goal of wrapping up that chamber’s work in February. The Senate is likely to continue into March but no schedule has been fixed.
The likely end to the Legislature’s consideration of wake-enhanced boating proposals came as abruptly as it started.
The 2025-26 legislative session began in January 2025. However, the first wake-surfing bills weren’t introduced until Feb. 9, 2026.
The Assembly put AB 1033 on the fast track and gave it a hearing two days after it was introduced. On Feb. 11 the Assembly Committee on State Affairs passed it out of committee on a 7-3 party line vote, with all Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. It was then combined Feb. 19 with the sandhill crane hunting bill and passed on the Assembly floor.
The Senate has no plans to take up such a combined bill, according to multiple sources in the Legislature.
The Feb. 19 developments were deflating for people passionate about prospects for statewide regulation of wake-enhanced boating.
A large majority of the public has been pushing for added restrictions on wake-enhanced boating, which involves the use of a special power boat with ballast tanks or other features to increase displacement and create larger than normal waves. In many cases the waves are 3 feet high and strong enough to allow a person to surf on them without a tow rope.
In the 2024 Wisconsin Conservation Congress meetings the public was asked if a statute should be created to prohibit wake-enhanced boating on lakes smaller than 1,500 acres, in water less than 20 feet deep and within 700 feet of shore and other lake users. The result was 10,274 yes, 3,363 no, or 75% in favor.
But no statewide legislation has been passed on the topic. As such, wake surfing can occur 100 feet from shore in most lakes, the statewide boating regulation for any activity that creates a wake.
The Feb. 19 Senate committee hearing gave Wisconsin lawmakers the first head-to-head comparison of proposals on the topic.
Tomczyk referenced the interest in wake-surfing issues in his opening remarks at the hearing.
“Welcome to the most popular committee in the Senate,” he said to an overflow crowd in Room 411 South at the Capitol.
Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Fox Crossing, who co-sponsored SB 1024 with Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, said the requirement of at least 500 feet from shore and in water at least 20 feet deep would help protect lakes and is the “better alternative.”
Sen. Dan Feyen, R- Fond du Lac, co-author of SB 1025, acknowledged wake-enhanced boating was controversial in Wisconsin and felt a statewide standard would be helpful.
“There’s no doubt that wake-surfing boats have sparked debate across Wisconsin and the state has a duty to step in and provide some regulation on them,” Feyen said in a statement. “I’m hoping this legislation can strike the right balance, protecting the environment while giving clarity to local government, property owners, and boaters.”
The boating industry had supported SB 1025.
“Our goal has always been to ensure Wisconsin does not become the most restricted boating state in the country, and we continue to encourage the adoption of AB1033 and SB1025, which is a balanced compromise that provides clarity and establishes a minimum statewide standard of 300 feet,” said Lee Gatts, executive director of the Water Sports Industry Association. “Without action, the law continues to be 100 feet from shore for all watersports.”
Due to the failure of state elected officials to take action on wake-enhanced boating issues, 77 local ordinances have been enacted to prohibit or restrict the activity, according to Richard Phillips of the Last Wilderness Alliance, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit organization.
Five lawsuits have been filed by wake boaters against Wisconsin towns over local ordinances that restrict or prohibit wake-enhanced boating.
Due to the lack of action by the Legislature, wake-surfing debates and litigation will likely be more intense than ever in 2026 in Wisconsin, Phillips said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wake-surfing bills dead in Legislature, according to state senator
Reporting by Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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