Michigan SB 812: The Status of State Wake Boat Legislation
Last Updated: July 2026
Michigan lawmakers are advancing the state's first specific rules for wake boats. Senate Bill 812 would ban them from operating in “wake sport mode” unless they are in water at least 20 feet deep and stay a minimum of 500 feet away from the shore, docks, swimmers, rafts, and anchored boats. As a state with roughly 11,000 inland lakes, this would immediately switch smaller waters to off-limits to wake surfing. The bill is sitting in committee as of summer 2026, continuing a broader wave of legislation regarding how and where boat-generated wakes are allowed in the Midwest.
Jump To
- The SB 812 Summary
- Status of the Bill
- Will this Impact Your Lake?
- The Science Behind the Numbers
- Both Sides of the Debate
- How You Can Still Surf Without the Wake
- Frequently Asked Questions
- On the Bill's Horizon
In the Great Lakes region, wake boats have gotten bigger, more popular, and more contested, and Michigan lawmakers are now taking a serious run at regulating them.
The SB 812 Summary
Senate Bill 812 was introduced on February 26, 2026 by Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D-District 13) and referred to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture. It amends Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, adding an update to define wake boats as a distinct category and writes operating rules specifically for them.
The bill adds three new definitions to state boating law, updating what was a dated document:
1) Wake boat: "a vessel equipped with wake-enhancing equipment, including wake surf boats and ballasted boats."
2) Wake-enhancing equipment: "ballast tanks, ballast bags, compartments, containers, or similar systems designed to make a boat’s wake bigger."
3) Wake sport mode: "operating a wake boat with that wake-enhancing equipment engaged."
With those definitions in place, the operative rule is short and specific. Under SB 812, an individual may not operate a vessel in wake sport mode where the water is less than 20 feet deep, and anyone running in wake sport mode must stay at least 500 feet from the shoreline, as well as from any dock, raft, buoyed or occupied swimming area, or vessel that’s moored or at anchor.
In this case, both conditions apply at the same time. It isn’t 20 feet of depth or 500 feet of distance. To legally surf, there must be deep enough water and enough open space between the boat and everything along the shore.
Note that Michigan already prohibits operating any boat at wake-generating speed within 100 feet of shore in shallow water, and this bill keeps the existing rule intact. The new language layers a tougher, wake-boat-specific standard on top of the baseline that already applies to every vessel.
Status of the Bill
As of summer 2026, SB 812 is in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture and has not yet received a hearing. In fact, a House bill introduced back in 2023 never even got a hearing, and a follow-up effort, House Bill 5532, introduced in 2024 by Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) with the same 500-foot and 20-foot standard, stalled in committee as well.
So, SB 812 is best understood as the third serious attempt at essentially the same rule, with more momentum as similar bills like Wisconsin's AB 1033 are capturing attention. Advocacy groups including the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association, the Michigan Waterfront Alliance, and a growing list of individual lake associations have been actively urging members to contact their state senators in support. Whether the committee takes it up before the session closes remains the open question, which heading into fall and winter may act as a strategic deferral as attention turns elsewhere.
Will this Impact Your Lake?
Given the state's geography, the 20-foot depth and 500-foot setback, taken together, would put a large share of Michigan’s 11,000+ inland lakes effectively off-limits to wake surfing. An investigative report from Bridge Michigan illustrated a point of contention: on one lake it profiled, the only stretch deeper than 15 feet still leaves a boat within 450 feet of shore, which means there was nowhere on that lake you could legally surf under the proposed guidelines.
If you want to know how your specific lake would fare, several northern Michigan watershed groups, including the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, have started publishing wake-zone maps that shade in which parts of a given lake meet the depth-and-distance criteria and which don’t. If SB 812 or a bill like it becomes law, this sort of map (or other Bathymetric resources) is how most riders will figure out what's off-limits. Until then, the current 100-foot slow-no-wake rule already applies everywhere, and local ordinances vary lake to lake.
The Science Behind the Numbers
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has studied the lake impact issue directly, publishing a wake boat report in 2023 that it used to brief the legislature. The DNR’s findings pointed to several distinct impacts from the large wakes these boats produce: shoreline erosion, damage to docks and shoreline structures, degradation of bottomland vegetation, reduced water clarity, and harm to fish habitat. When oversized waves reach a shoreline or churn a shallow lakebed, they stir exponential amounts of sediment that can release phosphorus and feed algae growth.
Michigan’s DNR work drew in part on a widely cited research program from the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, which we discuss more deeply in our article about Wisconsin's AB 1033 bill.
Ultimately, the research is contested and the debate continues to develop. The watersports industry has funded its own studies concluding that wake boat waves settle out within about 200 feet, though Michigan’s DNR has criticized that work for relying on a modeling approach it considers unreliable beyond 100 feet. Scientific disagreement is only one of the factors contributing to the lengthy trial of wake-restricting regulations.
Both Sides of the Debate
The support coalition for SB 812 is broad and mostly organized around water quality and ecological impact. Lake associations, watershed councils, many anglers, and shoreline property owners argue that wake boats concentrate damage on fish, plants, and shoreline structure. The Michigan Lakes and Streams Association (as one vocal party) has been careful to frame its position as pro-responsible-use rather than anti-wake, with focus on reducing permanent damage.
On the other side, the boating industry and many wake boat owners see the bill as an overreach aimed at a specific, popular sport. Dealers and groups like the Michigan Boating Industries Association and the national Water Sports Industry Association raise a few consistent objections. One is economic: cutting wake boat use equates to fewer sales and dent the tourism spending that some lake towns depend on. Another is the slippery-slope concern, that once the state starts restricting boats by type and lake conditions, pontoons, jet skis, and ski boats could be next.
Two more concerns come up constantly among the people impacted by the ruling. The first is enforcement. Boaters point out that the existing 100-foot rule is already inconsistently enforced, and they question how a sheriff’s deputy is supposed to judge water depth and a 500-foot distance in real time on open water. The second is invasive species, which is really a separate issue from the wake itself. Wake boats take on thousands of pounds of lake water as ballast, and if that water moves from one lake to another, it can carry invasive plants and organisms with it.
How You Can Surf Without the Wake
For watersport enthusiasts watching all of this and wondering whether there’s a way to keep that on-water surf feeling without the growing list of restrictions, an alternative presents itself that works on entirely different physics: the eFoil (electric hydrofoil surfboard).
An eFoil is an electric hydrofoil board. After building speed, the wing beneath the board generates lift, the board rises clear of the surface, and you ride on air instead of on a wave. Because you’re foiling above the water rather than displacing it, you generate virtually no wake. There’s no ballast, no engine noise, no exhaust, and no gas.
In the context of a bill like SB 812, eFoils avoid the concerns of all stakeholders: no wake means the 500-foot and 20-foot restrictions written for wake boats simply don’t apply to the impact an eFoil has on a shoreline. No ballast tanks means there’s no lake water being hauled from one body of water to the next, which takes the invasive-species worry off the table too. And because eFoils run clean and quiet on electric power, they’re welcome on many smaller and more restricted lakes where larger motorized craft are not.
Surfers and wakeboarders can still carve a turn - now while floating above the water - and pick up foiling within their first session. Even new riders with no board-sport experience can usually get riding comfortably within only two hours with a bit of coaching. Glyde carries the Fliteboard lineup and works with riders across the Great Lakes region who are curious about trying.
In the spirit of transparency, an eFoil isn’t a replacement for a wake boat. If what you love is the social scene of a full boat, pulling multiple riders, and surfing a boat-thrown wave, a solo electric board is a different thing. But riders who mostly want that surfing sensation on flat water, or something they can ride on lakes where wake boats are restricted, an eFoil opens up a lot more opportunity. As wake regulations tighten across the Midwest, it's a way to stay confidently out of the crossfire.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does Senate Bill 812 ban wake boats in Michigan?
A: No. SB 812 doesn’t ban wake boats or wake surfing outright. It restricts where you can run in “wake sport mode,” requiring at least 20 feet of water depth and a 500-foot distance from shore, docks, rafts, swimming areas, and anchored boats. You can still own and operate a wake boat; the limits apply specifically to running it with wake-enhancing equipment engaged.
Q: Would I still be able to wake surf on my lake if this Bill passes?
A: It depends on your lake’s size and depth. Because the bill requires 20 feet of depth and 500 feet of clearance at the same time, many smaller and shallower Michigan lakes wouldn’t have any area that qualifies. Larger, deeper lakes are more likely to have a usable zone. Several Michigan watershed groups publish wake-zone maps showing which parts of specific lakes meet the criteria, which is the best way to check your own water.
Q: How would a wakeboat ban like this even be enforced?
A: That’s one of the most common questions raised by boaters: Michigan’s existing 100-foot slow-no-wake rule is already enforced unevenly, and judging depth and a 500-foot distance from the water is not simple in practice. How enforcement would work is one of the details likely to get attention if the bill advances.
Q: Do eFoils fall under wake boat rules like SB 812?
A: No. Wake boat legislation targets vessels using ballast and wake-enhancing equipment to build a large surf wave. An eFoil is a self-contained electric hydrofoil board that produces virtually no wake and carries no ballast, so the shoreline-distance and depth rules written for wake boats don’t describe how an eFoil affects a lake. As always, confirm the specific rules for any lake before you ride, since local ordinances vary.
Have more questions about eFoils? Visit our full FAQ page for answers to the most common questions about eFoiling, Fliteboard, lessons, and more.
On the Bill's Horizon
The Michigan Senate committee will decide whether SB 812 gets a hearing, and given the two prior attempts that stalled, that first step is far from guaranteed.
Zoom out and Michigan is one piece of a regional shift. Wisconsin spent last season fighting over competing wake bills, Indiana passed new wake surfing restrictions built around lake size and daylight hours, and Minnesota has been wrestling with the same questions the U of M research raised. For anyone who rides in the Great Lakes states, it's wise to keep a pulse on what's happening in office.