Upon arrival Officer made contact with Operator of vessel 1 who informed him that he was the operator of the boat that struck an adult male skier.  Operator1 stated that his boat and another boat were traveling towards each other and both boat operators were forced to take evasive action.  Operator1 stated that he was operating his boat at a speed just fast enough to "be at plane".  Operator1 stated that he observed a pontoon boat anchored near the shore and as he swerved away from the skier in the water, swerved towards this pontoon boat and then back the other way as he was "killing" the motor.  Despite his evasive action Operator1's boat still struck skier causing a laceration (approximately 2 inches) to his left ankle.  Officer spoke with vessel operator #2 who stated he was teaching 15 people who to ski and that he didn not know the male that had been struck by the boat.  Operator2 stated that skier was skiing off his boat when he fell in, the victim told Operator2 that he would swim back to thier boat & that he didn't want to climb back into the boat.  Operator2 stated that skier told him several times that he would swim back to the pontoon boat.
North Liberty                 