Haha Carbine- never shy to tell it like it is!!

Oh, and everything that Harry surfer said...

The more you negotiate with councils the more problems you create. I'm so sick of reading about potential bans etc. We will only get banned if we keep pissing people off. Eg: rigging up next to beach goers and footpaths. Common sense prevails. Like others have said its the tossers and inconsiderate people who will cause bans. No matter how much you talk to councils there are always going to be tossers ruining it for everyone. So instead of approaching councils deal with the tossers. In summer at scarborough there are many more incidents involving surfers and swimmers, do you think they go up to the lifeguards and councils! no they don't. Are they facing bans? nope! I've chosen to go kite surfing and to be considerate. I'm having fun and doing my bit and giving no one a reason to ban the sport. So please stop posting re bans its boring me to tears.

By approaching councils you are admitting you are a nuisance. If a council approaches us then we will deal with it.

Lets all stop whinging, bleating and bringing the councils into this.

Winds looking good this weekend, Yeahh!!!

Oky doky. Lets wait until the council has moved without consulting us and put blanket bans in place - then we can have a real good whinge.

exactly!! lets not panic until the councils act, then you actually have something to fight for!

If they're happy for now, then why keep flogging this topic and drawing attention to us kitesurfers? If we keep telling them that we're an unsafe nuisance to all- they might start believing it, and look closer at implementing these dreaded bans that you're trying so hard to prevent.

greenleader said...

after much contraversity on the gold coast at currumbin, the council involved maritime safety qld to compile a report on the use of currumbin estuary by watercraft. kitesurfing and windsurfing featured in this.

delegates of the kite community highlighted the sports popularity,growth,potential dangers,safety issues and above all the need for areas to be put aside to accommodate this exiting sport.
delegates of the windsurfing community downplayed windsurfing activity as fairly non existant and pretty safe.

observations were, and i quote

"kitesurfing activity in the currumbin estuary intimidates beach goers and compromises swimmer safety. proficient operators invariably breach the speed limits when transiting through the estuary to open water while novice operators are more likely to lose control of their rigs and endanger beach goers."

"windsurfing at currumbin does not presently represent an unacceptable risk to public safety. this activity is reducing in popularity and windsurfers usually choose to keep well away from swimmers."

this report has many recommendations to reduce and limit watersports of all types in relations to swimmers and if acted upon by council will use the report for guidelines.

so the info that you feed these bodies can have a significant result at the end of the day. food for thought!

Yes - that can be true. As with all stats though it is the way you present them and also what you choose to show of your deck of cards.

I think the thing here is there seems to be a groundswell of anti-kiter sentiment growing (not entirely without kiters at fault) so heading that off seems a good thing.

Showing the council that you have made moves to self-regulate and effectively segregate kites and other folks may just register with them as "Great - doesn't look like we need to get off our burgeoning @rses on this and someone else can do the work for us. Right, now off top the next free lunch.."

Nicely said Darren- a bit of courteous behaviour goes a long way...

I'm afraid I have to agree with you Andrash. I do believe that we live in a society of reasonable people, but sometimes it disappoints. Take AKSA org. for example, and then councils as well. We trust that AKSA will do the right thing as we love our sport and want to believe that as volunteers they surely are doing the right thing. Then we have city councilors who we believe to be reasonable people, elected by the locals, but are a disappointment also.

It will be a sad day when and if a few vocal random people can so influence an elected official to make an emotional or greedy decision simply to stop a vocal minority. The only way to combat this is to gather the majority of sane people's signatures and present them to the decision makers..........so sad, but the brutal reality I'm afraid.

Also, most kiters that I meet are pretty time starved (for obvious reasons) and thus getting them to do anything "for the sport" is a big ask. However, I do believe that they are a great bunch and will rally when and if their access is at risk.

I have great faith in people to do the right thing, kiters included. This sport is about being free and using the wind while riding on water. I personally think that cars are much more dangerous than kites......it is Friday I know, and still not getting any wind here.

There is no more wind in WA

You are so right Greenie....have a good weekend bud.....I may get some early next week.........golf on Sunday when its windy....dam.

But there are always "randoms" looking for work..ie a fight.

My first post on Seabreeze, so please excuse any ignorance of the kite specific issues, but from my experience in safety issues through paragliding, another sport which uses often public lands and we have to jump through quite a few more regulatory hoops, I'd like to offer a couple of comments to the opening post.

2. Councils will have a number of complains against kiters. We need to be able to prove, that we are safe users of the beaches. We need to have some kind of statistics. Something like x number of kiters spend y number of hours on the water a year. We need to show the (low) number of accidents, the (low) number of times rescuers had to be called, and no (!! has to be NO !!) other beach and water users have been injured by kiters.

Is there an accident/incident reporting system in existence under any of the state KSA's? To start with, no need to make it too complex, just have a single point of contact (something like "safety at kvc.com.au" or whatever. Publish the reports with a bit of brief analysis of the causes and major risks. Perhaps this is being done already. Encouraging members to self-report all incidents (equipment damage and potential for injury) and accidents (injury), without fear of recrimination/shame is probably a key aspect to getting a decent statistical base.

3. We need to show, that we have appropriate education programs for kiters that includes appropriate guidelines for safety, and respect of other water / beach users.

Strongly agree on this one.

With regard to all the people complaining about councils etc, has anyone actually bothered to write any letters to their local councillors/members of parliament etc? Might seem like a hopeless task, but if enough kitesurfers actually put pen to paper then politicians in coastal areas may realise that there are (a very few) votes to be gained. Don't doubt that power until you've tried it. One thing that might make it easier is if the local KSA puts together a form letter or lists the priority points which need to be included in such letters. If kitesurfing in Perth is really growing so fast, then so should be the number of potential voters. As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets oiled!

My 2 cents worth, cheers,

Hamish