Water Sports

MIAMI -- An offshore powerboat racer has died after being critically injured in an accident at the Key West World Championship, the third racer killed during the boating competition, officials said Saturday.

Joey Gratton, of Sarasota, Fla., died at the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, said Roderick Cox, a spokesman for Super Boat International. Racing partner Stephen Page, of Fort Myers, was released from the hospital Saturday.

COALVILLE -- Bert Leishman knows well the joys of fishing the Weber River on a sunny late-summer day. He knows his favorite spots, and while he's on private property on this particular afternoon without written permission from the landowner, he's not breaking the law.

Leishman is one of many anglers who take advantage of a six-year old program that has been seeking to strike a balance between private property rights and public access to some of the state's best fishing and hunting grounds.

"We might not have total access, but this is a step in the right direction," he said shortly after reeling in and releasing a healthy-looking 16-inch brown trout. "There's still plenty of options."

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OGDEN -- Water-skiers competed in a record-setting waterski tournament Tuesday in Ogden and will continue to try for record runs and personal bests from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today on Goode Ski Lake, 621 W. 21st St.

DALLAS -- Boating bottlenecks usually occur at the boat ramp, where vessels are launched and retrieved. Most ramps have only two to four launch lanes, but that's not the real issue. Too many boaters do not know how to effectively back a boat trailer.

There's a reason you seldom see a fishing boat jackknifed on the ramp. Fishing is a year-round sport, and anglers get a lot of practice launching and retrieving their boats. Recreational boaters? Not so much.

Many of them launch only a dozen or so times each year, and that's not enough experience to master the tricky art of backing a trailer. Trailering skills are crucial, because the boat ramp is an unforgiving environment filled with boaters in a hurry to launch. It's a tough crowd and there's a lot of pressure. Learning boat-backing skills at a crowded ramp is like learning to shoot free throws at the NBA Finals.

MIAMI -- Dropping to the sea floor off Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, I imagined my surroundings 90 feet down were like the surface of the moon -- but with a lot more color and life. A steep, rocky crater surrounded a huge sand pit that extended far beyond our 60-foot range of visibility. Unlike the moon, though, this landscape was dotted with schools of tropical fish and a cornucopia of soft corals undulating in the gentle current.