Not trying to offend anyone here. But some healthy debate is good. I agree in surf it isn´t practical. In surf I myself don´t wear one. I was referring to open water riding

There should be an indemnity for kiters on surfboards.

what a load of rubbish. I ain't wearing no life jacket. Who's gonna enforce it?. Are they gonna chase me down the beach?. Good luck they won't catch me. If by chance they did, I don't kite with ID. What's my name?... get fu@Ked you small minded fools. what are they gonna do Handcuff me and take me away? only the police can do that. Theres no way the police will do that. LOL

"Punishes EVERYONE for the mistakes of a few."

Yeah, somebody has to scrap up your mates.

I know there are "heaps", but can you name a few countries that don't have laws/systems like this?

Do they have a lifejacket design to suit straight guys as well ?

sirstomp said..

waveslave said...
Patiently waiting for Steve to chime in with the latest goss on designer lifejackets exclusive to KP.

Aloha.

You weren't wrong there Waveslave, they're already all over it!
This just in on the KP Facebook page...



m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154982508494202&substory_index=0&id=133206584201

Just the market responding to yet another form of government interference. Marxist would be so proud right now...

don't particularly see a big issue with the life jacket circus license, it can't be policed, it will change little. It's the principle of over regulation And large, expensive unwieldy governments and thier subsidiaries stomping their nose into areas they needn't. Mor public servants doing set fck all for productivity. If we had a Berlin Wall it would be starting to crack and break up right now...

2 sides to every coin.

Instead of all the anger, maybe someone should ask KA/nswkba/Roads & Maritime directly for their comments.

jamee said..

K

I'm sure the big mummas of Bulgaria will love your whining about how terrible it is having to live in Australia. Enjoy.

im a filthy ukie



by the way ill be
SELLING rash shirts that have a picture of a life jacket printed on it for $30 a pop ala black milk for any of you with a misso

or even cheaper kitesurf with a shirt over the top like the cable wakeboarders so they cant tell at all

waveslave said..

MozKiter said..
Sensible people live longer.

Sensible people don't kite cause kiting isn't safe.

Sensible people sit on the couch.

lol.

Thats pretty much what my doctor said while she was looking at the x-ray of my fractured thumb...

Unless you are looking in the mirror. Now that will be very confusing

This is the start of the full licensing and regulation to our sport.
Ive been a boat owner for years and every year a new regulation seams to appear for the police to come out and book you. This year was the first year the cops were booking people for wearing a life jacket. Yep you have your jacket on. The police would simply open up your self inflating life jacket to see if you had serviced it. After I rang around to check with a few mates to see if they even new that these jackets had to be serviced, the answer was no....Then I went to the cop shop to ask them what the go was. They didn't know. So they rang the water police to ask them what the go was. But in the mean time 4 out of the five boaters who came back to the ramp the day before got booked.NO WARNINGS. So what im saying is. When I go fishing I have to have a car license, car registered, car roadworthy, boat trailer registered, boat registered, boat license, fishing license, in date flares, torch in working order, fire extinguisher, bailing bucket, epirb, boat ramp ticket, and yes FULLY SERVICED LIFE JACKETS. Just to catch a F.....g fish.
With all these regulations do people still die in boating accidents?
YES

I predict that 12 months from now we will all have forgotten this law.

Hi All

Without wanting to start world war three in what is an already fired up thread, the reality is KNSW (formerly NSWKBA) and KA do not go to Roads and Maritime or local councils and tell them to make laws like this. Actually, what we try to do is advocate to change perceptions about what is a good idea and safe when kiting. Comments that NSWKBA/KA receive money from councils or the government are entirely false. You can check out the annual reports on www.kiteboardingaus.com.au/policy and note there is no government funding for KA. I will try to find the link to the NSW reports also. We are entirely membership funded with some small sponsorships from corporates.

There was a lot of advocacy done against the law by NSW when it was being debated and people have tried to negotiate with decision makers. We are looking at ways to address that and have been talking to Roads and Maritime about what options are out there. Given we are a small, poorly funded organisation, doing a large scale campaign against laws like these is challenging.

Manual inflating belt lifejacket is compliant, this seems like the best option because if something does go wrong you have a backup plan but it doesn't impact your ability to duck dive.

We do communicate with councils and are preparing some information for them before next summer about why kiting is safe (including recent academic evidence), how they can put up signs to help people understand their beaches and if they do have issues they should talk to us before having any knee jerk reaction (ie being proactive rather than reactive and letting them ban kiting and then trying to get back in the good books).

If you have any questions about the email last week, which was more a heads up about the regulations than any endorsement of the change by KA please email at [email protected].

Glad to see so many engaged kiters, if we all worked together we would have a stronger voice and could do more to advocate to make sure regulations make sense for our sport.

Cheers

Kiteboarding Australia

Kozzie said..
[obscene rant]

Hi Kozzie

Actually KA and KNSW do not get any government funding.

Surfing does get significant government funding and their position inside the sporting structures give them lots of power when law making occurs. You can read about how the Australia Sports Commission worked to turn surfing around: http://www.ausport.gov.au/supporting/news/story_579766_surfing_australia_the_turning_point

I would correct your other statements, but to be honest I would rather be doing something positive for the sport.

Cheers Kiteboarding Australia

One must be positive about change..

Excuse me miss, can you help me blow my inflatable jacket up