And I say idiots because apparently one of them was an IKO instructor (not from SHQ or Kite Republic so don't want to degrade these two guys who do lessons at St Kilda) so he really should know better.

Yesterday I arrived late at St Kilda to watch my wife doing some lessons with an instructor. I later heard that upwind of her (and everyone else - not the best spot to be doing it with a kite thats clearly too large to be teaching on), there were some guys riding with a 11m Best C kite. Firstly, they almost took out numerous beach goers launching the kite in the middle of the powerzone and crashing it all over the place and laughing while their mate was dragged halfway down the beach. I missed some of the earlier stuff but I arrived there just in time to see one of them launching in the powerzone and acting like a rocket scientist flying the kite with no leash OR harness holding the chicken loop with one hand and the bar with his other hand showing off to his mates, although by this stage, one of the guys from Kite Republic had already chatted to them so they were about to pack up.

Come on guys. You have no excuse. As an IKO instructor (if you are actually one) you should know better than to teach guys on the wrong size kite, upwind of other people learning and should at least know enough to know where to launch the kite. I have no problem with people learning at St Kilda (my wife was after all) but when you sit there endangering other people by being irresponsible, I have a big issue with it.

In this particular case, the choice of whether St Kilda is an appropriate beach for teaching is probably best left to another discussion or debate as I think thats likely to get open a whole new can of worms and this relates rather to the behavior of individuals rather than the choice of venue.

On this particular day, you couldn't even blame it on the number of kiters, no one in the water and only 3 kites in the air on the beach.

Hi Junglist,

Can you please email me privately and let me know who this person is? I am sorry if this is an IKO instructor and action will be taken, but many reckless riders I have approached have also told me they were IKO and when I checked this was not the case.

If it is however, we need to know to commence disciplinary actions.

Thanks and good winds,

Jeez, there's a few head explosions going on at the moment isn't there. The more I hear about people the more I like my kites.

Good to bring up though Saffer, despite kites getting safer these days it doesn't seem that people are, and it just takes one idiot to turn things totally pear shaped. We all need to keep this in mind.

Hi Saffer
I was there yesterday afternoon and would never have guessed that it was supposed to be an instructor. We all watched gobsmacked and were about to run to try and rescue the situation as the kite was launched all over the show.
There are only a couple of schools with permits to operate on St Kilda beach and for good reason.
The schools have been there a long time and have a good track record and are respectful to others.
We have insurance and run professional operations.
The last thing we all need is some cowboy shutting the beach down for all kiters
Cheers
/john