No
self regulate
just a kind of kite school certificate and insurance before buying a kite, based on self regulations by the schools, shops and 2nd hand kite sellers.

just be happy there are "crowded" spots, that means kiters are not on the other good spots.
usually the crowded spots are not the best, but the closest to city. its better to have 2 spot with 30 kiters and 4 spots with 5 kiters, than 6 spots with 13kiters (about same number total of kiters).

there are no crowded beach in australia

look what that means a crowded beach in winter in france (12degrees air and water).



and most of them are not locals, and drove 2h to get there. there is twice as many kiters and poleys in spring, never less than 100 kiters on windy week ends above 15°.
it still works without any regulations, not much accidents happen there, but they are fighting to keep this spot open, cause its near a nature reserve, and the local council want to close it to "save" bird species

NO WAY why would we make this sport even more complicated its already expensive enough .but what i dont understand is, why is it a problem now, peolpe have been kiteboarding for years and never needed any of this and the sport has been going fine so why wreck such a good sport. i agree with kiter01

Posted - 16/01/2009 : 6:51 am
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You dont need a license for any sailboat if it hasnt got a motor and last time i

checked i dindnt have a 2 stroke merc on the back of my board so NO why would

we bring in extra expenses to a sport that is expensive already.

I think someone wants to do a whole lot of paper work so chicks come up to you

and say do you have to be strong for that and then you put your undies on the outside

of your pants and draw an "S" on your shirt and say no baby but i got this little

piece of paper that makes me a hero tho does that count.

doesnt really make sense to have a licence on a free sport next thing we will be

endorced on every size kite we fly and wearing L plates when we are learning.i

Yes

NO!

Freedom within Kitesurfing is one of the best parts of the sport/lifestyle. There will always be D***heads with or without rules. Various parties will always talk of bans, Bondi even had a swimming ban many moons ago.

There is no reasonable way to police the introduction of rules and restrictions. The only out come of this line of conversation is to give City Councils ideas for permit and registration systems. With regulation comes fines. This would slowly limit the freedoms of the Kitesurfing Community.

We may even run the risk of being pushed out into back water locations that could be designated “Kiting Zones".

I love being able to grab my kite gear knowing that when I stop along the coast (anywhere in Australia) I can get out there and have a blast.

Don't give in to the brow beaten rule making fuddy duddies. They will make noise, they always have, but we risk losing our freedom if we try to appease them.

We are a community and as a community we lookout for one another. From time to time that may mean having a word to someone. If they are unreasonable then let others in the area know. There are not a lot of us out there so good old peer pressure should sort out most of the problems. Peer pressure, not just a bullies tool.

Wow that was a lot more that I had planned to write, Sorry.

Anyway NO, NO and NO.

YES
After the lunacy I saw today in Sydney
At Wanda an ex-sailboarder turned kiter insisting on sailing through a Surf lifesaving event at Wanda. I hope his gear was confiscated

At dolls a guy teaching four friends/relatives, he could not even stay up wind himself. Thank god they shred the kite on the viewing platform before they hurt themselves or anyone else

Yes

Lets all buy AK47s and saught out the kooks or RPGs if their kiteing already

Oh **** - thats right, before you can even buy one you need a licence.

The Police can do spot license checks anytime that will put the ****s up Dumb MF kooks & force them to pull their kook heads in !!!

Not many shootings lately compared to kooks (expert & noobs & euros) farking things up faster than the sports growing

A cautious "yes" because I don't want to lose the ability to do what i love, and I think it might start happening if we don't change the way things are heading

but there are some obvious problems

On principal I prefer self regulation. But it ain't working

Easy to introduce for people who don't already kite.

People who have been kiting for years is more of a problem though. Even ignoring the logistics of assessing so many people, there are problems in how you would deem someone competent. Either it has to be an assessment of technical skills - ie ability to stay up wind and self rescue etc. Well the tossers can definitely do that. Or else a written (usually MCQ) exam about a little government issue brochure. Doesn't exactly stop tossers either.

How would infringements be policed? Reporting from others? You can imagine a single person with a bee in their bonnet reporting everyoneone. Picture the chaos that could be caused by just one angry dog owner, or perhaps a poley with a grudge (not meant to be an attack on poleys in general - the majority are really good, but every kiter has come across one kite hater at some stage).

If state based associations are to run it, then problems of being part of "the in group" result in unfairness. To a lesser extent if it is a national approach but more likely to result in mis-applying standards to different areas - ie what might result in being banned in a busy place like Cott is more liekly to be acceptable on the west coast of tassie.

Maybe councils can issue their own permits to people who apply. Would work in one sense, because their rangers would be the ones policing it. But the downside - kite surfaris are a thing of the past, and localism would reign supreme

If anyone is going to seriously introduce such a scheme, these issues need to be considered very carefully

what about an industry style licence...as someone mentioned kinda like the scuba ones... no government involvement...

This way is someone F&*$s up and causes a catastrophe we ( our state assoc or AKSA ) can at least respond to the authorities that the

" perpetrator has been identified and delt with (warned or banned or re-educated ) and that the incident will not happen again "

" The other solution is the council say well you guys wont do anything about it so we will make sure it doesnt happen again by banning kitesurfing from the beaches in our shire "

And the new advertising /tourist slogan will read "..............Beach/Point/ Bay with family friendly kite free beaches "

harry potter said...


The difference is
1) there are about 5 times the number of kiters on the water now as just three years ago..... means more incidents, more complaints etc.. ( these ar not just restricted to the members or the public being hurt..... but also kites in powerlines ( residents dont like having their power cut for a few hours while kites are retrieved ), across roads..etc..

2) in the past it was experienced water people ie: surfers, sailors etc.... taking up the sport THESE PEOPLE HAVE COMMON SENSE with an understanding of wind weather and waves....... the new breed of kitesurfer is now coming to the beach for the first time.....many are clueless and have no understanding of the dangers or the power of the kite.

A licence or some sort of regulation will weed out the blow in show ponies and prevent the ebay kite catastophe

THis would have to be policed by kiters... ....... in the way surfers police the breaks
"IF YOU ARE A KOOK AND ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG AT A BREAK (SNAKEING DROPPING IN, PADDLING OUT ON THE LINE OR JUST GETTING IN THE WAY ) YOU WILL BE SENT IN BY THE LOCAL CREW "
its the unwritten law obide by the rules or piss off........ in most cases the person will either leave or apologise and correct their behavior...backchat results in a beating

We as kiters all need to harden up and actually " SEND PEOPLE IN "

That sounds like a good idea HP but it is much easier to pull someone into line/pressure them to head in when you are surfing and sitting in the lineup at a peak with a bunch of other surfers somewhere.
It is much harder when kiting because most keen kiters setup then go out and kite until they have had enough then come in pack up and go home.
It is hard to let them know what they are doing wrong if you are both on the water. I do agree that we need to speak to anyone that is doing the wrong thing if they are on the beach at the same time though.
I think most of us could recall a time when we saw someone ****ing up but didn't take the time to let them know, we have to start letting them know even if we do have to go out of our way to do it.

i was taught by angry sam, and yes kids, he gets angry very easily.

YES

It's a matter of when and how - not if IMHO

No to licencing ,

Yes to AKSA (WAKSA)