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JUSTICE MAAG delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Brian Sullivan, was injured when his leg struck a submerged pipe while he was water-skiing on a lake that was owned and maintained by the City of Hillsboro. Plaintiff filed an action against the City of Hillsboro, alleging that the city had actual or constructive notice of a latent hazard on its property and failed to warn him and others who used the lake about this hazard. The trial court held that the city was immune from liability pursuant to provisions of the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (Act) (745 ILCS 10/1-101 (West 1996)), and the court granted the city's motion for summary judgment.

The pertinent facts follow. On June 16, 1995, plaintiff, Brian Sullivan, and four friends went to Glenn Shoals Lake to boat and water-ski. Glenn Shoals Lake is a public lake in Montgomery County, Illinois. It is owned and maintained by the City of Hillsboro. Though plaintiff was an experienced water-skier, he had never visited or skied on Glenn Shoals Lake. Plaintiff had received permission to use a friend's lot on the lake. Due to a mistake in directions, his group launched the boat from the adjacent lakefront lot. That lot was owned by the Boston family. The city permitted lot owners whose property fronted the lake to install and maintain boat docks in the lake. The city required owners to remove and store the docks during the winter. At the time of the incident, the Boston family had no dock. It had been set afloat by vandals a few years prior to the incident and was never replaced.

Plaintiff was the first person to ski. He made a "no-wet" start approximately 15 feet from shore. As the boat picked up speed, it began to pull plaintiff. About 30 feet from shore, plaintiff's leg struck a galvanized steel pipe that was submerged in the water. The pipe, which was about 1