I was out at woodies and at around 4, I saw a guy in an aluminium boat motor up to some people, jump out and swing an oar at them ina threatenning manner. Then there was a bunch of pointing and shouting and soon after the guy got back in his boat and drove away. about ten minutes later he was back in his boat, running over one board seemingly deliberately, and also, which I was most shocked by, he steered his boat towards one of the kiters who he was arguing with earlier, who was out on the water, neerly hitting him and shouting/waving his oar on the way past.

These actions seemed pretty full on and dangerous. What was the deal? Anyone have any idea?

edit: It seems I have dropped a Drama bomb.

I saw the incident, as well as several visiting kitesurfers from NSW. They couldn't understand what on earth made an Instructor act in such an irresponsible and dangerous manner. Perhaps CHOICE KITESURFING would like to explain their actions. We all 'share' the kitesurfing sites, even with people visiting from 'oversees' . I think a kitessurfing school should act as an ambassador for the sport and resort to diplomacy not violence.

what BOAT RAGE.......

OARsome

rumour has it that the new WAKSA protocols were followed in this instance in that as the oar was raised it was accompanied politely with the inquiry -:
"SCUSE ME - where would U like me to ram this first ?"

- FINN X

Mark Downing said
"They couldn't understand what on earth made an Instructor act in such an irresponsible and dangerous manner. We all 'share' the kitesurfing sites, even with people visiting from 'oversees'"

I just got off the phone from Choicey, and he's pretty upset about the whole incident. From his point of view, what Mark suggested was exactly what he was defending, and got him so wound up - safe conditions for all to kite on.

Those who know Choicey would know he's a pretty mellow dude .. I didn't know he could get so excited! He is pretty keen on safety.

I'm don't want to relay the whole story coz I'll get it way wrong .. I leave that the Gray when he feels up to it...

Suffice to say he politely asked some international gents to give others (including learners) a bit of room whilst doing jumps and tricks as they were getting dangerous, but they responded in the negative in words and actions, and it escalated from there, over two days, with the boat incident being on day two of play. Urrgh.

Bit of a bummer really .. there's a meeting tomorrow with John Geye (WAKSA) and the german guys to try and work something out .. hope it all works out well...

quote:

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I just got off the phone from Choicey, and he's pretty upset about the whole incident. From his point of view, what Mark suggested was exactly what he was defending, and got him so wound up - safe conditions for all to kite on.

[i]is pretty keen on safety.

---

Choicey is a very mellow top bloke and he has on many occasion going and rescued lost kites and boards. He has always had the top end of woodies for his school and its easy to stay away from the students.

I dont know what went down but i have stopped going to woodiees as it can not support the amount of kiters that are there. Its asking for some **** to happen.

Its all down to respect, respect the locals, respect our rights, respect our beaches and rules. To easy...

Show respect or kiting will get more localism like surfing. You wouldnt rock up to margerts and take over main break and last very long..

if you need a hand to clean up the beach get in touch

I can feel a spud gun comming on[}:)]

Visitors please respect our area

as most local riders will know its a pretty

close knit kitesurfing community in perth

we need to shut these fools down before they stuff it for us

get a group (2 or 3 and dont go it by yourself unless your shunter
proportions) and politely tell these people the rules

If they get abusive simply tell them they will not be allowed to launch their kite orkite here and if there are 2 or 3 of you an individual would be pretty silly to push his luck.

lets get serious on this and stop the scumbags drifting in causing trouble and shooting off again

most crew I think are trying harder these days to be responsible
lets get on top of it and not sit back and cop because of some
inconsiderate direspectful kooks

Sorry brownee & all, but it's fizzzzed out!!

The meeting went down this morning, and the visitor's didn't show!

Anyways, a lot of positive stuff has come out of it for those who attended, and there are guidelines being drawn up & all that sort of stuff, so visitors know what's cool and what's not, Department of Marine & Environment also got involved and a whole bunch of flyers will be made up.

Onwards & Upwards .. Laurie

I think the sign is a good idea. If you guys have any other CONSTRUCTIVE ideas it would be great to hear them as we want to come to a peaceful resulution. People we don't want to see kiting go down the path of surfing, we are to amped to get that aggressive. We have to accept that its never going to be like it used to( 2 or 3 out at woodies) Like it or not its going to get WAY more crowded in the next years as more people realise how good W.A is.

gags aside I reckon we would all agree that we are full on behind graham on this 1 ( so just keep fella )
But reckon it would be a great tribute to one of our pioneering WA icons if we adopted "Shunters gag" of generic spelling of "OARSOME" as a part of our kiters ID kit -

OARSOME gag shunter

- FINN X

Out at Woodies yesterday, 2 people had swim back to shore, 1 person couldn't get back to their board,1 kite was carried back to shore by someone kiting. It just goes to show how useful it is to have a boat around....and someone willing to retrieve and rescue! Puts everything into perspective doesn't it.
We all need to work together and sort things out. It shouldn't be necessary for one person to tackle the problem alone. If that happens their actions can be misinterpreted. Plans are in action, to hopefully ensure that similar episodes won't happen in the future. Good luck.

its a shame only a couple of ****wits can cause so much trouble. It won't be long before someone acting like a dick will cause someone a serious injury and local councils start banning kiting at some of our most favourite beaches. then we are all ____ out of luck. If you see somebody doin something stupid very politely tell them to **** off. I mean i saw one kiter trying to self launch at a crowded swimming spot the other day with no other kiters about. this sort of stupidity is what is giving the rest of us a bad name

I surf and windsurf as well as kite
In both sports and especially in windsurfing on waves (in particular lancellin) i have found in general the Euros to be completley oblivious to all normal right of way rules that i and fellow water users abide by. I have a very good temprement but i have come very close so many times to lashing out.
As a rule i stay well clear of most Euros on the water, (except of course the blond female ones).
Sorry if i upset anyone here but i would say many share my feelings.

I dont want to slag anyone off either but .....

I also wavesail, and kite in the marginal conditions, and while up at Lancelin had an aweful time once.

There was a 25 knot seabreeze with 6 foot swell coming through - so it was large waves for Lano,

There was hardly anyone out and I was on this wave real early, carving up and down it etc and this Euro decided that it was his wave (remember that Id been on it for a good half minute already) so he got onto the face and then started to yell abuse at me telling me to f off his wave and that he was the better sailor so i should leave the wave to him etc etc etc

Anyway i continued to ride the wave, it had a beauty section with a steep face and we both hit the lip and wiped out -- obviously .

You wouldnt believe the ear bashing i then had to cop. Ive never have a fight, and would very rarely raise my voice. But this guy really pushed my buttons.

The worst thing about the whole incident was that there were so few people out and so many waves - the whole set went unridden on this occasion except for this one wave.


I personally believe from this and other incidences that some holiday makers over here have this attitude because.

1. They have payed a heap of money to get over here so want to fully get value for money - which often means being a bit selfish

2. They have limited time while here, so want the best of it every minute, which means very little patience

3. Some of them think that they are awesome sailors/kiters and that they therefore have priority over space and waves.

There are only a few like this -- I have had wonderful conversations and kiting/sailing experiences with many people holidaying from Europe and other international destinations.

Yet again it seems a few can wreck it for many, and unfortunately we cant just ignore it cause often people are on the edge of their limits so there is no room for maneuvering, avoidance etc etc.

I would think the best thing to do would be to make up a leaflet, brochure etc etc that can get handed out to all of the tourist sailors documenting the places to kite/sail.

places like (trying to think of crap spots as we speak).

no bad idea.

Maybe just documenting the general code of ethics that we all use locally,

and also

actual kiting, sailing and surf rules.

Maybe we could have a licensing situation like with boats where everyone has to do a very easy test to show that they have at least some knowledge of whats the go on the water.

This would ensure that everyone cant just say -- well I didnt know that was the rules here.

Im not sure if yachts have to have licenses or not - but when i was a kid, we had to get a sailing license before we were allowed to race dinghies and cats - which was a good was of teaching us the rules.

What does anyone think !!

Would be hard to police though wouldnt it.......

and more than that - we really dont want rules and regulations, just want to have fun.

It is all very well blaming the tourists, but we locals have to set a good example.
For example , yesterday a well known Safety Bay kiter decided to buzz one of my windsurfing students(an attractive female one, no less) and came within 1 m of her whislt she was standing on the sand bar.
If he was trying to impress her ,her reaction was this.
" Who was that tosser!!!"
When kiters complain about windsurfers attitudes towards them, the above may help explain why.
I am not going to name names, as this is not a slagging forum,but if the above kiter reads this, pull your finger out ,and start leading by example. If you do it again, I will post your name up here.

At the end of the day, it is not our right to use the ocean, but our privlige.




Simon
gowindsurfing.com

Im new to Perth, just moved from Adelaide and I rode on that day of the drama at woodies. I must admit I had no idea that there was a kite school goin on and I may have kited close to the lesson that was taking place. I believe no one is totally to blame in this issue as the Euro's may have not known that they were distrupting a lesson(maybe they did know, I dont know).

Anyway I must admit WA is not really that busy compared to Adelaide. Dan was sayin that on 'that day' woodies was as packed as it gets. Adelaide is almost always like that.

We have to make sure that the council doesnt get involved in this kind of stuff cos in adelaide 15 kms of the coast line have just been banned from kiting. A fine of $2000 will be given for ridin in these places. You guys are lucky here so we should try and keep it this way.

Cheers and by the way Finn Mccool your comments:

"I reckon we all need to start talking on how dull and boring it really is and how we are only doing it cos we bought all this gear and have to get our money's worth before taking up croquet/rowing or wotever"

They are too late for me cos Im here for good. Hehe. I love it and its true more guys from Adelaide and the East coast are considering the move I just made.

Cheers Adam