How to Navigate "Lock Through" the Chittenden/Ballard Locks

For more info check: ballardlocks.o...
This 1999 video "Locking Through", while a bit dated, continues to provide valuable information for first time boaters planning on navigating the Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks.
We also suggest our "Drowning in 60 sec." Water Safety Video
• How to Drown in 60 Sec...
The Large Locks can be especially intimidating when the elevation difference is 20 feet or more and large commercial vessels are present. While the Small Locks are easiest, you may not have a choice on a busy summer weekend, so be prepared. Typically early mornings are the least busy times.
The locks are over 100 years old. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks Centennial was on July 4, 2017...

[@user-ib3qb5zn8u]

I was here aug 1995 ...Seattlle this best city in a best country ...Salute from rUSSia ...

[@karynholmberg1008]

My family visited the Ballard locks when I was a child, and I remember being both terrified and fascinated. I imagined giant bathtub-type plugs below the surface to let the water level drop and I had a horror of falling in, getting sucked down and drowning. Even so, I couldn't look away. Yes, I was a strange child.

[@freyjathorsdottir5126]

You might have been, but I’d feel the very same way.

[@scottholman3982]

Locking through on my dad's sailboat was a routine, as we liked to sail on the Sound, but had a slip on Lake Union. Only time it was a hassle was when the large lock was in use on a hot summer day. Then, you had to sit in a windless hole waiting until enough boats arrived to make up a lock load. Always had to be alert when the level was changing, as the boats could shift around.

[@benjaminhollar7462]

Any issue with PWC's going though the locks?

[@user-sx4yu3nw4j]

Like jetski’s? They’re not allowed. Neither are SUPs.. but kayaks are allowed in the small locks

[@benjaminhollar7462]

@@user-sx4yu3nw4j any idea why kayaks are ok but jetskis a no go?

[@Tsunseyu]

@@benjaminhollar7462Jet skies lose steering control without thrust, no thrust no control.?.

[@benjaminhollar7462]

@@Tsunseyu from what I can tell all the boats and kayaks that go through are tied while in the locks. I would think the same could apply to a ski.