I have a serious question. Here is the scenario. How do you drive in this situation.

Wind blowing 20-25 mph, with 4-5 foot waves. You have to drive with the wind, thus your boat keeps going up and down in the waves. When on pad, you are keeping the nose from stabbing the back of the next wave, but barely. You are approaching a bridge and have to idle through. While slowing down to idle, how do you keep from taking waves over the bow?

I took two in a row last night at the I30 bridge on Ray Hubbard, and it was NOT FUN. My boat is 19' long, with a 200 HP motor.

Trying to stay safe. Thanks for the advice.

I always try to Zig Zag and not hit the waves head onbut if you got not choice then you just have to hope your bilge pumps can keep up

I tilt my motor up to keep the nose of the boat up....

Go at a pace that keeps you safe. Under the conditions you described there was little chance that your wake would do more damage than the waves. Keep an eye out for other boaters and go-go-go. I don't think the "no-wake" was put in place to risk someones safety but to avoid someone from hitting a tied up boat.
Little chance anyone dipping minners in those conditions.

"No Wake" to me in that situation is not creating a wake bigger than the waves.

I'm going to go whatever pace is required that I not spear waves.

Trim the bow up & keep pace with the wave - try not to get ahead of the one you're riding till you get through the bridge/obstacle.

Wait ... just re-read your post ... 'with the wind' ... with the wind at your back or driving into it?

tilt the motor up and slow down so the nose rides high. thats going into them. if I was coming back under that bridge, I slow down to a speed that is equivalent with the waves so I am basically surfing the waves Try to always have the motor in gear and dont turn sideways into the waves- if one crashes over your side- you will be swamped. I have 2 bilge pumps in my boat. one is ~900 gph on an automatic switch, and the other is ~1500gph on the manual switch. i am prepared to take 2 in a row over the bow.. i have done this and when it happens, it scares the shiet out of you. I idle back and get the nose high and switch both bilge pumps on. i have been in some ~5' waves on Cedar Creek in a basschamps tourney where a 21' boat wouldnt stretch to the next roller.. you would go under the next one if you didnt gas it on top of the previous roller/wave. you would come down off the previous one, it would grab your transom and shove the nose down under the next one... happened twice in the boat Mark Perry now has not my boat, so I probably wasnt driving it like i would have if it had been mine. I woulda been a lot more aggressive with my own.

btw! those were only solid 3's last night

If those were 3's, then I don't want to see 5's! Holy [censored]!!!

Zeek, the wind was blowing from the south, and I was heading north, so I was going with the waves.

I was on it that day in my 17.5 ft boat. Only took two over the bow. I was surfin big time on the front side of the waves.

temp was in the low 40's.... Jason and I ran from Log Cabin to DOns Port Marina and back that afternoon... think we both had hypothermia by the time we hit the bank..

Ok, then my original advice is what I'm going with ... bow up, ride the wave speed through the bridge area. Whatever you do, do NOT attempt to take a rear quartering or broadside wave as you go through.

When I have rough water, I have two approaches, one is when I'm riding solo, and the other is when I have passengers. Passenger approach is to trim the bow up & 'surf' a trough or the backside of a wave at low speed approx 12mph; the waves do pass me up, but it's a slow roll over the tops without slamming the bow down into the next trough.

When it's just me, I trim it all the way down, rev as fast as I can go, and plow on through - of course, 'as fast as I can go' is only about 20-25mph or so in those conditions.

i am with you Zeek. 2 approaches.... one is solo, and the other is if I have a passenger. I take it easy with a passenger.... and punch the waves pretty hard by myself. I broke my motor cowling loose a year ago on Hubbard and its now under I-30 somewhere

What if you're headed W or E'bound and the waves are coming out of the S or N?

This is what I would do...tell me if I'm wrong. If I've got big waves moving from S to N and I need to go E, I would aim the boat NE and then back SE. Is this the right approach?

I have a 17' Grumman that's pretty lite, like a Basstracker(at least the older ones) and it's like an aluminum can on the water.

zig zag the waves is what I do, and what I had to do last saturday on hubbard to keep from crushing my nutz!

i was jumpin waves a tawakoni saturday and sunday then i hit one really hard and my engine wont start now.
i wasnt even going that fast

run roh! better get Maaco!