From the Red Kite guy To Mr Voyeur for starting this thread,
You know I love windsurfing and, by and large, I love windsurfers, but am willing to make an exception.
I regularly walk back upwind through the area in front on the Scarboro SLC. I usually stop for a cordial chat with the windsurfers, many of whom are friends.
I really get off on watching a windsurfer do a good bottom to off the top snap, done with style and power. Windsurfers have always said that if you can look good at Scarbs you can look good anywhere. To my mind Scott McKercher still has set the bar on performance level in Scarboro and that was back a dozen years ago, when he was a regular in the Scarboro washing machine. In his wake have come many talented Windsurfers and standouts [to my mind] today include Ben Arthurs, Matt Holder, Ben Severne, Justin Stock, Ash Nicol, Mike Galvin and others who let the spray off their rail in the bottom turn do the talking, rather than having a whinge in the apparent anonymity of a forum,
I spent more than half my life Windsurfing , I love it and have no reason to diss it. You and I are probably just alike, we love the freedom of the water, the dynamic power of nature expressed in the wind and waves, and then feeling it harnessed through our bodies.
I do not know you Mr Voyeur, but clearly you know me. You wont be the first or the last to whine about kiters on a forum. buts lets establish ownership of what we have to say, I use no Nom-de-Plume, I am uncomprimising but I like to be fair. Please feel free to introduce yourself to me, and if you're worried by my kite, lets have a friendly chat about it, talk through the issues in an adult way, and please let me know why it is you find my presence offensive.
You said a number of plain Mistruths in your posting, whether through ignorance or malice I do not know, and most of those have been already addressed by other postings.
Truth No 1---Of course the waves are better at the SSLC [there is no kite beach and no windsurf beach for that matter, no apartheid, just a beach], windsurfers [mostly] are not fools and on most days in summer the difference in wave quality really stands out, but particularly at the moment as the heavy rain has re-opened the drain upwind and pushed the bank out. Believe you me if the waves were as good anywhere else I'd be there [but then of course so would you!]. Believe it or not I'm thinking bash the **** out of the lip , not wondering whether I am entertaining the windsurfers on the beach.
Truth No 2 -I have never heard an incident of a kiter being physically or verbally aggressive towards a windsurfer, but the stories of the opposite scenario are, sadly for windsurfers, legion.
Dick and Angel stand out of course, and are quite happy to assault windsurfers as well as kiters, in fact just about anyone who strays into what they regard as their patch. Almost everyday I will have a windsurfer come over the back of a wave that I am clearly riding and sail straight acoss my path [slalom style] with a glaring **** you attitude on their face [obviously nobody explained to them that going straight to the beach is not wave-riding]. They probably bash up little old ladies crossing the road too, in between scouring penis enlargement websites on the net, and wondering if the anyone has noticed that it's a hairpiece. I say [and do] let them off.
Truth No 3 -- I'd rather be run over in the waves by a kiter than a windsurfer anyday [2 kilo board, body weight dangled from a string, short fins vs an [all up] 12 kgs of deep finned fully loaded windsurfer]. In 5 years of kiting I have never hit a windsurfer or other water user, I wish I'd managed the same record during my windsurfing career. I know incidents have occured but they have amongst windsurfers too, Kiters are mostly a danger to themselves, not other water users. Aggression on the water increases the danger to everyone.
Truth No 4 -- You were not here first.
There is black bloke passing outside your manicured front lawn right now whose fore bearers might have claimed that right, but your name does not sound Nyoongar to me [and sadly I never met one who windsurfed, in fact I just read the world's shortest book, 'socially deprived people I have met while windsurfing']. Our founding fathers created no free hold on the beachfront [nor on the ocean for the matter]. No one has jurisdiction [except white pointers]. If they had created Freehold, there would be a smarmy guy in a shiny suit bashing a FOR SALE sign into the sand right now, and you know something , you couldnt afford it because, like most lovers of the ocean, you too have spent too much time indulging your passions to make any serious dough, and it will be bought by some podgy share trader who likes to impress his friend's with the view and never goes in the water.
Appreciate what you have got Mate, start worrying about why you still lean back and stall in your bottom turn, Kiters are not the cause of your failure, and, like your Mummy always said,..[LEARN TO SHARE].
