Since I have been kitesurfing, mainly in Vic, but also FNQ and one trip to Bali in big surf, I have been greatly impressed by kiters respect for each other, helping each other out, and general friendliness.

It has been fantastic to get involved in such a great sport (the best in the world!) from the early days, and its great to see it get more popular across Australia and worldwide. I have friends who kite in every state now.

However, I have also noticed a trend for a few kiters to get snarky and put up posts that are unfriendly, unhelpful and/or a bit elitist.

I am wondering if this is a carry over of some of the negative aspects of surfing culture such as hassling over waves, agro in lineups (even including some biffo)?

Just sayin...

I encourage everyone to "be nice", respect other kiters and newcomers, and for us all to keep kitesurfing enjoyable, friendly and safe for everybody.

I wont do it again. Im sorry.

Peterc150

Naa ya freakn wrong bout that crap and fwucked up aggro stuff - dontcha start shootin ya mouth off at our local or we'll run ya in

Oops - sorry I thought this was the Rokingham 'Pond' topic

What can you say HUMAN NATURE !!! its just not friendly.

What the hell is "Öasis"???? Was that the band that backed Elvis????

Yeah,,your right,
Its the same patern that windsurfing has done,
No one would think of admitting to that anymore

But I hope in 20 years time when kiting is old hat like windsurfing has become,
I hope I am open minded enough to enjoy hoverboards,or what ever is invented and not live in the past saying "back in my day"

Bring on the future.I want a hover board

I think there are a couple of reasons:

1. Kiters have kites attached to 30m lines meaning more chance of getting in each other's way and annoying the crap out of other kiters.
2. As more kiters are arriving, more newbies getting into the sport, more chance of people getting annoyed by people who don't know what they are doing
3. Douchebags getting into the sport. Its way more affordable so the douchebags who normally wouldn't have the patience can now do the sport.
4. The internet allows people to vent anonymously.

Some examples:

I had a session today where I could easily vent about 3 separate incidents, mostly caused by new kiters. 3 years ago, these kinds of incidents didn't happen because the newbies respected the kiting zones. Now, they don't seem to give a **** and kite where they want. You chat to them and there are 3 more newbies to replace them.

Peterc150 said...


However, I have also noticed a trend for a few kiters to get snarky and put up posts that are unfriendly, unhelpful and/or a bit elitist.

I am wondering if this is a carry over of some of the negative aspects of surfing culture such as hassling over waves, agro in lineups (even including some biffo)?

The snarky posts don't come from surfing. Take a trip to the shortboards forum and you'll see helpful posts and frothing over good lineups.

Generalisations are OK if they are valid.
More GenY's have social interaction problems due to electronic media and not getting out doing stuff (than do baby boomers or GenX, for example)
More GenY's have poor grammatical skills due to text speak and reduction of some requirements in school (than do baby boomers and Gen X's)

I did not say all of them

Any time I encounter rudeness and lack of etiquette online, the vast majority of the time it is the younger crew.

Mark _australia said...

Generalisations are OK if they are valid.
More GenY's have social interaction problems due to electronic media and not getting out doing stuff (than do baby boomers or GenX, for example)
More GenY's have poor grammatical skills due to text speak and reduction of some requirements in school (than do baby boomers and Gen X's)

I did not say all of them

Any time I encounter rudeness and lack of etiquette online, the vast majority of the time it is the younger crew.

How do you know which ones are young or old?
How old am I?

Yawn,,,,yes I know,,dont feed the trolls.Sorry people.

So your real last name is Australia is it...lol ,,gutsy

Lol

You're proving PeterC's point Mr Holic

lotofwind said...

How do you know which ones are young or old?
How old am I?

uuummm i'd say 12 going on 8 !

how did i do?

But like I said, anonymously stirring on the web is a GenY thing and way uncool.

Why is it that we want to label a generation anyway?
The lemon doesnt fall fare from the tree
It is the same sh!t different year.
Is your generation the same as the "bra boys"? They upset a few people but didnt use a keyboard

Being an old guy I guess you laugh at your kids when they do stuff and they think you don't understand, but you know very well you have been there and done that so you know how they think, right!
The young minds of 40yrs ago think much the same as young ones today, we just have different tools at our disposal to go about our life.
No longer do you wait till school to tell all your mate what you got up to on the weekend.

I bet your great grandparents chin dropped when they seen some young person at the beach wearing a bikini or Boards shorts and wondered what is the world coming to

Well I am sure you have seen the actions of plenty of sh!t stirers in your time.

This thread is more about human nature, there would be just as many older people that have been sh!t stirers all there life and would rebal in this new technology and get almost instant gratification from it

Whether its kiting, lawnbowls or what eva, the sport is just a small sample of the greater community.

I personally have not noticed a correlation with narky members and a younger crew. For the record I am 51 and have been stuck in a mid life crisis since 25.

The correlation to surfing culture doesn't seem too strong either. Some other topics/posts about "mowing the lawn" etc have attracted a lot of bile - and this is flat water / twintip kiting.

I think there is a correlation between anonymity and agro posts though - some people says things under pseudonyms that they wouldn't under their own name. This is a hot topic in the Internet, from Wikipedia editors to Google+ (Google have been trying to enforce real names) and FB (ditto). nma.tv

Some states seem to be over represented with narky posters too - I am not sure why this would be the case?

There is also a definite correlation between narky posts and the "noobs at my local stuffing things up" topics. This is not age-related, its experience related.

Getting narky, at the beach or online, is not a good way to deal with an influx of new kiters and resultant issues that could impact kiting locations (such as kiting bans).

Hence my original comment about us "being nice", respecting other kiters and newcomers, and for us all to keep kitesurfing enjoyable, friendly and safe for everybody.

^^^^ Are those days gone?