Important Message from WAKSA

In the midst of summer when the beaches are at their busiest its important to remind everyone about a classic Australian icon that is always gracing our beaches; the red and yellow flags
www.slsa.com.au/site/_content/resource/00000341-docsource.pdf of the Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA)
sls.com.au/ .

These flags are there for the safety of all beach users, they identify the safest swimming area on a beach and they also show the area that is patrolled by the Surf Life Savers.

The area between the flags is for swimming, it must not and should not ever be entered by anyone kitesurfing. There is a 200m exclusion zone out to sea and to either side of the flags. This means you must not launch or land or kite within this zone.

The Surf Life Savers provide an unbelievable service to the community and we hold them in very high esteem. They are there to ensure everyone's safety and kiting in a flagged zone seriously hinders their ability to do this.

We know that the majority of the kiting community of WA understands these basic beach rules and adhere to them all the time, but unfortunately there are still a minority who are either unaware or careless and stray into these areas. It is up to us to educate those people and inform them where they should be kiting.

This time of year we get a lot of vistors to WA from abroad and many of them are not familiar with flags on the beach. Please, if you see someone setting up near the flags, take a few minutes to explain their purpose and direct them to a more suitable launch location.

We are blessed with so much space in WA that there is absolutely no reason to kite anywhere near the flagged areas.

Respect the flags!

People do it because they are people, and that's what people do. Regardless of this, the more manouvreable craft on the water should always give way to the lesser, in this case the kiter to the swimmer. It is the way of the water.

GreenPat said...

...the more manouvreable craft on the water should always give way to the lesser, in this case the kiter to the swimmer....

Not always the case

Fred

Trem said...

not usually a problem just an observation - always try to avoid boats, swimmwers, newby kiters, beach walkers, surfers, sunabthers, dogs, cats, birds, low flying palnes, helicopters(no joke I was worried about the down draft once) etc - keep it safe

yeh i nearly got hit by a helicopter once... i never thought i would get to say that. they were really relaly low about 40m maybe looking for a swimmer at scarb. who later they found out was sitting at home :) so they were stop starting and i thought they were stopped so i went to go back oout and they started moving again ... made a very quick turn back to the beach kite fell ... then i decided to wait till they left :)

Just as a matter of interest, the exclusion zone out from the red and yellow flagged swimming area in NSW for kitesurfing is 500m (not 200m as in WA) as per the maritime handbook. What are the regulations in other australian states?

well this isn't spur of the moment, your days of unrestricted downwinders are numbered if so if you see someone being a douche in representing the sport arc up against them cus it wont just be them suffering if they bring in some new threatening rules.

click red thumb as much as you want, im just the messenger and your the fool for not listening.

^ I know that it is 500m, not denying that by the way, but thats only because they try to classify kiters as 'vessels'... hence the absurd distance.

I could maybe understand why a boat aka vessel would cause worries between the flags, but hard see the reason for the zone to be 500m out for kiters... just the stupid and rather lazy seeming classification of kiters into an unfitting catagory.

If you ask me, I try just not to cross the flags, or I talk to the lifegaurds and ask them what THEY think would be an acceptable distance (most dont bother making me go much further out than 50m beyond the break), although I've had the odd paranoid ones who thought my lines were made of razorwire... so I just kept away.

Must say however that I definantly admire the lifesavers and I do leave the decision to them in the end.