I strongly suspect many people have no idea that they have even come to the attention of authorities after a big swim in.

I think everyone should either have a friend to keep a vague eye on where you are, or ph number on kite. Seems sensible to me. When I kite on my own I often txt my intentions to friends (kiters) with where and when I will be back. We check up on each other too, especially in really gnarly conditions. I live in a remote area though...and there's little chance of a sea rescue. If you go down, only the fishies will know......

As for teaching people to be responsible when it hits the fan; yes, there are many excellent kite instructors out there. There are also a number of appalling ones, and I'm not just talking about "unregistered" mates teaching mates. Some instructors are simply not skilled enough to be teaching others, in my opinion. It still makes me really pissy but it's best not to get me started on that.

There has to be some way of raising awareness so people realise that they are being monitered at busy beaches, and that they could raise an alarm.

It's tricky, because sometimes members of the public see you in the water for five minutes and think you're going to drown (I'm thinking of Goldies earlier thread about having the chopper called on him at Long Reef). And then, on the other hand, there are kiters who can't swim...and probably ARE drowning after five minutes.

It's such a tricky one......

fair enough tagging equipment for identification. not registering or paying money for the right to kite..cutting lines forget it if i see someone trying to do that your gunna cop it. if u have kook or inexperience how about lending abit of your time to assit him be being a better rider instead of sitting there calling him a kook...everyone has the right to kite.. the one thing i liked about this sport was the support among the crew to help u improve.. but i guess there are always going to be idiots that think they own the sport... so u can blow your regulations.. if the cops want to police it let them. if your not doing something wrong its not going to bother u....

self regulation is the key. Man i'm not paying money for registration, just write your details with a permanant marker on your kite and board and all should be good. you can stick your sticker up your ass.

stay freindly with the lifeguards and let them see how you self regulate your spot. this is the key to our sports survival, not licences and anything that costs us kiters money.

pfr said...

self regulation is the key. Man i'm not paying money for registration, just write your details with a permanant marker on your kite and board and all should be good. you can stick your sticker up your ass.

stay freindly with the lifeguards and let them see how you self regulate your spot. this is the key to our sports survival, not licences and anything that costs us kiters money.

I think registration is unworkable, as a sport we are just not big enough.
Who is going to do all this work?
AKSA, forget it, AKSA is 5-6 volunteers.
Your State Assoc, maybe, but they are also 5-6 volunteers.

Who's responsibility is it?
Surely the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of each and every kiter?
We should never defer our basic responsibility to a volunteer run Association, that would be shooting ourselves in the foot.

I'm going to get some stickers made ASAP, that will stick to the tip of each persons kites and where you can record YOUR name and contact details.

It is OUR responsibility to kite in a considerate way and to not cause other people to come looking for us if we screw up.

Kook behaviour is just behaviour by the uneducated, so go over introduce yourself with a smile and inform the so called kook that there is a better, proper, correct tolerable way of doing things.

Cyad

Goodwinds

Steve

The problem is it is too easy to get into the sport. We should close all kite schools and return to 2 line kites. That will bring the numbers back. Also what happened to the card with your name and phone # in a pocket on the leading edge.

Kitepower Australia said...

pfr said...

self regulation is the key. Man i'm not paying money for registration, just write your details with a permanant marker on your kite and board and all should be good. you can stick your sticker up your ass.

stay freindly with the lifeguards and let them see how you self regulate your spot. this is the key to our sports survival, not licences and anything that costs us kiters money.

Who's responsibility is it?
Surely the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of each and every kiter?

It is OUR responsibility to kite in a considerate way and to not cause other people to come looking for us if we screw up.

Yep, word!

waveslave said...

Kitepower Australia said...

I'm going to get some stickers made ASAP, that will stick to the tip of each persons kites and where you can record YOUR name and contact details.

Hey Shopguy,
The sticker is a great new product idea.....
if it sticks ??
Maybe kite companies should provide a factory patch sewn onto the wingtip for personal I.D. info.
Another cool gimmick.
But what happens when you sell your kite on eBAY.....
I guess you just cross your name off and fill in the new details. lol.
It starts to get messy, hey ?
And why are there runaway kites in the first place ?
Folks are attached to their kite with a death-leash, aren't they ?
Except us.

Well Slave, typical pointless unhelpful gibberish, no surprise there.

The board stickers we had printed are free.

Then kite stickers will be too.

When you sell the kite guess what?
You peel the sticker off, but I guess it takes a brain to think of that eh?
In fact many kites come with a piece of repair cloth, so all those kite owners already have a sticker to write their details on.
Maybe they should just do it, now?

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

How's this for an idea?

I wrote my name and number on my AKSA tag and then attached it to my centre strut one-pump hose with a plastic clip.

When I change kites I move the tag.

Now I have my AKSA tag with me when in the water and my kite labelled without having to use ink.

Bigwavedave said...

How's this for an idea?

I wrote my name and number on my AKSA tag and then attached it to my centre strut one-pump hose with a plastic clip.

When I change kites I move the tag.

Now I have my AKSA tag with me when in the water and my kite labelled without having to use ink.

Thats another great idea
We can get these tags from any farm supplies business, they are just cattle tags, then you just put on on each of your kites with cord or cable tie, job done.
I'll try to source some blanks.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

Against my better judgement, I'm going to jump into this one....

I think having the AKSA tags printed with a name, membership number and telephone number is a pretty unobtrusive way of avoiding the expense of an unwarranted search and rescue operation. It's also a relatively inexpensive way of labelling one's gear. I suppose there would have to be a way of getting more tags though, I just bought my third kite, and I'm sure there are enthusiests with more. Perhaps they could be ordered in lots of 5 or something, then you could tag harnesses, lines etc. perhaps even get some kind of short lanyard and attach them to your board. (Okay, I've never left a set of lines behind on the beach before, but I hear about it happening occasionally...)

I agree Darren!

Important is education, regardless. Many bodies like Aksa, IKO, local communites/councils, life guards, clubs... can help and will help!

Next step is that people become aware of the important issues that various locations face.

There are general rules in watersports and rules that prevent accidents or problems in the water such as , International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea ect.. These rules should be known and followed by everybody!

It is not about cutting lines, or harming people. Its again about educating people.
That will give our sport a sustainable future without facing problems that can possibly get kiting banned in certain areas! Just keep in mind that there are people that make a living of kiting!


Signs, handout sheets, websites with spot desciptions (have a look on our website- good example, i think), guidelines, proper courses ect., make a lot of sense and have to be promoted as well as making the locals sensitive re important issues.

Kiting is the fastest growing fun-sport in the world. One passion that all kiters have in common, is travelling and chasing wind/locations.
Therefore, you will constantly find new people on the beach that mostly do not know what is going on at this specific location.

AGAIN EDUCATE!

Love your beaches and all the great kiter and people there.


I hope things will get better in WA!!

Peace*

Kitehard said...

waveslave said...

Kitehard said...

WE NEED A LICENSE AND COMPULSORY REGISTRATION if we are to survive our own idiocy.

This is all about money.
It's always about the money.
Kitehard has always had ambitions of being the Chief License Examiner-Guy.
lol.
STFU about stupid licenses.

This is the sort of idiocy I am refering to. 2191 posts and still nothing intelligent to say waveslave.

You are obviously part of the problem if you aren't willing to offer any kind of solution. I have no interest, nor time to be the licensor, perhaps you'd be willing to stick your hand up???

I agree with Darren.

I believe its inevitable that we will one day need to hold an AKSA issued licence to kite solo; similar to the HGFA issuing licences for hang gliding and paragliding.

The licence maybe some short test with emphasis on safety for yourselves and others, and to demonstrate the basics: Set up, self launch, self land, self rescue, body dragging. Something like a small written test at the end of an IKO course.

I believe hang gliding/paragliding were forced into a licensing regime after similar issues when these sports first started.

Kitehard said...

This is to all the kiters who are intent on having our sport banned.

I demand AKSA look into and do something about a registration system where all kiters are registerd and attach a tag or flag to thier kites with their name, phone number and AKSA membership no. on it. The only way to get one of the tags is compulsory AKSA membership and certification by approved schools............

I love the drama of it. ^^^
lol.
Don't be fooled by Kitehard.
This is just another despicable fear and loathing campaign to create alarm where none exists.
Read the above quote, it clearly states his private agenda. ^^^
> "Certification by approved schools" < ^^^
Do you get it ??
This is all about the money.

There's no alarm, there's not going to be any banning of the sport because Sea Rescue found a couple of runaway kites.
This is a false alarm by Kitehard.
It's contemptible.

The Sea Rescue people get called out all the time on wild goose chases.
I'm not saying that this is ok, but it's the reality of the work.
Unfortunately, it's an imperfect world that we live in.
Sea Rescue deal mainly with boaters, very few kiters.....
Boaters that stupidly run out of fuel,
Boaters that slack-off with maintenance and have battery problems,
Boaters that just generally do dumb stuff.....
But boating is not getting banned, and nor is kiting.

you guys talk about slashing bladders and cutting lines........It has never been done by anyone before!!!

so stop batting your chests...like gorillas.....and STFU!

Most of us wouldn't have the guts to be so bold(or self-righteous) as to go thru with such an act.... so stop pissing in the other forum users pockets!


Ranters!

And the last two posts are right on the money too.....

And for the record I think waveslave is not self opinionated!

Cutting lines is just an inevitable evolution of the sport. Sometimes after all other avenues are exhausted it is either cut or let natural selection take its course. Whilst some may argue that if someone is so completely insistent on meeting their maker then who are we to interrupt the appointment. However, the fact remains that continued access to our local supercedes any divine meeting. It seems that the best path is to publish a set of brochures about base jumping, participating in the Dakar Rally or taking up competative Russian Roulette so that when you cut someones lines you can politely offer them a brochure of other potentially lethal action sports and explain that the other sport would be much better suited to them for the purposes of killing themself and correspondingly protecting access to local kite spots.

On a serious note I'm sure I am not the only one who is quite amazed by the amount of newer kitesurfers out there who can't body drag, instinctively activate a quick release, self rescue, self launch, self land or even relaunch reliably yet are happy to set off in some river mouth flanked by rocks with solid 6ft surf at the enterance and are disaster assisted by a raging 8 knot outgoing current.