I heard there was a bad accident at Bondi a few weeks ago and it is going to appear on bondi rescue. Does anyone know who it was>

dragged and hit the promenade hard, lost the kite which ended up in the skate bowl.
The whole thing caught on tape by the Bondi rescue crew.....

It wasn't the festival of the winds. The lifeguards were on duty and my girlfriend who was teaching surfing at the time witnessed the whole thing, as did a TV Crew. The life guards told the kiter not to go out but he assured them he was up to it.

We don't want the tosser at Wanda - Isn't there something more appropriate like a duck pond or reservoir pref. a long way away?

LOL .....

Fitzy Gold Coast OZ

Pass the word round... if we can't kite bondi or if you get banned from ur local reservoir or duck pond there's always sunny wanda. See u there Sebol!

The incident did happen, the beachies at Maroubra told me about it and that Randwick council were going to place a total ban on kiteboarding in the area and La Perouse was mentioned. I suppose it is inevitable that we will lose access to all our patrolled beaches and even some unpatrolled, given the acceleration of our sport and the incidents that go with it. A sensible attitude of knowing your limitations has been lost in the advertising of the ease of the new generation of kite (not that I'm starting a kite type discussion.)

Isn't there a simpler solution...name and shame the guilty party's responsible for these bans (i.e. the bondi guilty party) and make sure people know exactly who has made these things happen. I'm sure the backlash from the community on those people would be sufficient enough to ensure that it won't happen again in the near future.

Kitepower Australia said...

The foolish and $$$driven promotion of kiting as the "next, exciting, EXTREME sport for anyone" started around the time of the first 4 line kites.

Personally I would prefer to see zero promotion of the sport, that includes promotion of comps in the media. We can still have comps, but keep the publicity of them to an absolute minimum.
Every kiter is promoting the sport anyway, why do more?

Reality is such, that with so many brands and a rampaging capatalist mindset driving them, the current trend to over promote cannot be stopped.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve


I agree Steve I had a whine on here about the St Kilda Festival

see www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=35109

KBV calling off the comp is perhaps not such a bad thing.

Why do we desperately need to parade our sport in front of 400,000 people. ( just hold the comp another day )

How many more people do we want out there on the water.
My attitude has changed , when people asked me about kiting I used to tell them it was amazing and really quite easy, from now on I will tell people it is very dangerous, expensive and very very hard.

Do we really want anymore people starting to kite I know it sounds selfish but every where theses days is getting pretty busy. ( where there was 4-5 kites there are now 15 -20 where there were 15 + kites there are now 30+ ) ie: ST Kilda, When will it end ? probably when the councils ban it..

Lots of spots now are over-run with beginners standing in the middle of the water with their kites at 12 effectivly cutting in half the usable area. I know we were all beginers once but where there used to be one or two beginners learning in a spot there are now five or six. More kites are getting loose, landing on the roads and powerlines other beach users are having kites or bodies crash near them etc....all leads to council complaints and more bad publicity.

Kites in the sky are pretty conspicuous so why not let the people come to the kites rather than take kiting to the people.. at least that should help to filter the wheat from the chaff or something like that.

I feel better after that
now to open google earth and find a quiet secret all time spot..... heres hoping

not so much fun if the gear is cheaper but we have nowhere to ride or have to drive an hour.

Bans at city beaches will mean more driving, more fuel costs and any money you saved on your gear will quickly be eaten up.

Licences / passbooks could be the way to go a bit like those you need when buying racing fuel.

No kite shop should sell a kite to anyone unless they have had lessons therefore instructors should provide licence cards or certificates to these people which they are then required to show at the time of purchase.

Policing the second hand market would be more difficult.

But our local kite associations ( line cutters in pocket ) could do random checks at beaches checking for registration tags etc..... and also police people riding in areas where kites are banned.

also
I still cant believe that people are out riding without registration and insurance.

If anyone is reading this and is not a member of their local association and therefore most likely not insured. DO IT ASAP because if you lose your kite and it lands on a road causing an accident, if you injure someone on the beach etc... you could be sued. With no insurance you will find yourself paying someone else money for a good part of your life.

lex123 said...


IMO kiteboarding in australia can't handle becoming a mainstream water sport like surfing. Just not enough room.That being said the more popular the sport becomes the cheaper gear becomes. PLease correct me if im wrong.

Have you ever seen a European spot? The density of kites at a spot is easily 3 times higher than here in Australia. And concerning your statement... not enough room... Ever checked google map/earth? There are probably only 5% the number of kiter around australia compared to europe but with at least 1000% more coastline and kitable areas spots. You can almost kite everywhere around the non metropolitan areas. E.g. why is everybody going to longreef on a SE with 25+ kiter on the water when you could go at the same time to Narrabeen (just 500 m away, next beach) with only 2 people and 5 times the space (longreef 1 km long, Narrabeen, 5 km long). The same applies to some spots at botany bay.

I think it is not a problem of space, it is a problem in your heads. You do not need to go to a spot where everybody else is going to. And it is not about secret spots ... just open your eyes and check out the coastline. You will find lots of nice areas to kite which are not mentioned explicitly as a kite spot.

And my last point... Kitesurfing will never become a mainstream sport like Tennis, footy or Cricket. It is just not interesting enough for an average spectator to watch you pulling a KGB or S-Bend to blind or riding a 20 ft+ wave. (It’s the same as for windsurfing, surfing, Wakeboarding, Waterski.......).... Surfing is not a mainstream sport from my view... mainstream means you have regularly TV broadcast, and thousands of spectator on each event a few times a month. A good indication for a mainstream sport is if the top 10% (and at least a 100 active people) of the sport can make a life out of it.

Cheers

Granini

Quite often I see people down at Brighton or St K who are in that phase of just have had lessons and are into it with their new gear for the first time unsupervised and are doing things like walking up the beach with the kite too low over sunbathers heads, or dragging around a few metres off the beach with the kite perilously in range of sunbathers. In a friendly and constructive way we need to all keep an eye on what is going on and ensure this doesnt happen because if one of those kites goes into a sunbather or swimmer, or lines get into them, someone will get hurt and as bad as that is, we are also going to see much worse bans and you can understand why. Often the guys dont know any better - its hard enough remembering everything from the lessons. So keep it friendly, but keep an eye out and take responsibility for keeping our sport safe for everyone.

Harry, I can not believe what I am reading.

And we try and discourage jumping in the dunes......you've got a kitemare over there.

strapped said...

In my limited experience, meaning I mainly kite around Sydney, it is not usually the Aussies who are the problem. So how would a license system apply to our visitors????

Very Easy because there is a License system in Europe (and everywhere on the World) too through Organisations Like Iko/VDWS/.... .

There are spots in Europe like Lake "Reschen (Rescia)" where you are only allowed to kite with a valid license level 3 (means in Europe you are able to go upwind). If you can not show a License you will are not allowed to launch your kite or you will be fined.

From my personal view I would not support this for Australia because it will not solve the problem. At the end of the day it is only another way for Schools to squeeze money out of the kite comunity.

Cheers

Granini

Every kiter, whenever they are kiting is promoting the sport, we don't need anymore promotion that that.

If people want to get into the sport, let them find their way to getting involved.

Involved means getting the correct advice from anyone they speak to, thats a big ask considering the behaviour I regularly see!

Lots of good responsible riders out there for sure, but there seems to be equal numbers of poorly trained begginers, show ponies, attitude freaks, $$$ driven beach based "instructors", etc, etc.

Not all beach based instructors and schools are a problem, but the guy I saw yesterday is, teaching body dragging and getting on a board just upwind of a large pile of rocks, not even a helmet on the student!

Also observed another person getting what seemed like a boat based lesson, with a boat driver who had no idea of the danger of getting between the rider and the kite when the kite is on the water and ready for relaunch!!!

Cutting peoples lines might be illegal, probably only a last resort, but its something that could easily be done and would teach someone a lesson for sure.

Licensing, yeah probably a great idea, that has not met the right time yet! Seems inevitable, especially in crowded areas in large cities. Who will license the licensors??

Maybe its time for the Australian Kiteboarding Organisation?

Wow Harry Potter, its amazing no-one has been killed or serioulsy hurt in those kites on the road incidents along Beaconsfield Pde. How long can that sort of thing continue to happen before the authorities say enough is enough???

Its quite obvious that taking the lessons offshore in our area has had a very positive impact on the good behaviour and safety at our local spot.
When schools set up and teach along a beach, it attracts all the people that were taught back to that area, and a lot of others like that guy that thought he would learn by evesdropping!! This then leads to congestion and really unsafe conditions.

There is no reason why a good operator in Melb could not go offshore and teach from boats, and only to people who have previous trainer/sport kite flying experience.
This stops the "I just want a thrill" lessons. Its also stops people regarding a particular beach, just upwind of a 4 lane road as a good location to come back to and learn on their own!!

Are we part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Personally we have taken a big hit in turnover for the school, that was initially a hard decision to make, now I'm convinced its the only sensible and sustainable option for most schools that are operating in built up populated areas.

Now we do about 75% less lessons, however 95% of those people convert and buy gear from us or some other shop, and they are overall much safer begginers in our experience.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

Ive seen that too Saffer and its bad. The instructors need to set an example as does everyone else. The beginners will watch every move they make, and they shouldnt try to act cool like that. Same goes for them doing jumps on the beach, so often you see the inexperienced guys then get their new kite and show it off by doing those beach jumps. Like you say Steve be part of the solution and we will all be better off in the long run.