Bjork

I. Introduction

This is an appeal by a boy who was injured when a towrope attached to an inner tube in which he and another boy were riding, and which was being pulled by a boat owned and driven by respondent, broke and snapped back, hitting him in the eye. The trial court held that the case was covered by the primary assumption of risk doctrine articulated in Knight v. Jewett (1992) 3 Cal.4th 296 [ 11 Cal.Rptr.2d 2 , 834 P.2d 696 ] {Knight) and, on that basis, granted respondent summary judgment. We reverse.

II. Factual and Procedural Background

On July 17, 1997, appellant, then age 15, along with four other boys, ages 11 to 15, went to Lake Berryessa, Napa County, where they spent the day in various water sports, mainly involving waterskiing and inner-tubing behind a boat owned and driven by the second cousin of three of the boys, respondent Mason. Mason, a self-employed adult, lives in Novato, Marin County, as did the five boys he took with him to the lake that day.

At the time, Mason owned a 19-foot, 1981 Ski Centurion boat powered by a 275 horsepower motor which he often used for waterskiing on, e.g., Lake Berryessa, Lake Shasta and the Sacramento River Delta. In…