Hi All,
5 or 6 years ago when I first dared to go to the off shore side of Woodies, I was glad to see one or two other kiters there. Since then I estimate that the number of kite boarders has at least doubled every year. That means an exponential growth in popularity. Any sport with this growth rate has so far inevitably become regulated. So there is a great probability that it WILL HAPPEN with kiteboarding.
The question is, therefore: Who is going to regulate kite boarding?
The first possibility is the COUNCIL. In fact it has been happening in Europe and US, and has started in OZ. Council regulations usually happen through bans, restrictions, and making things compulsory.
The other way is SELF REGULATION. Self regulation means freedom and prevention from being regulated upon. This can happen in various ways with one common elements: kiters need to take responsibility not only for themselves, but also for the rest of kite border community.
Self regulation also means organized education. One possible way is licensing. Licensing DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN restrictions or policing. Just like driving license is not made to restrict people from driving cars, rather it is made to educate them to have a basic skill level and understanding of basic rules of safety.
Licensing does not need to be compulsory either, only encouraged. Shop owners, who have obvious interest in keeping the sport free, when selling kites or boards may give certain discount to those who own a license, or to those beginners who sign up for a licensing course. Private sellers may encourage the buyers, especially if they are beginners, to take on a licensing course. Licensing experienced kiters could be just a simple test that can be subsidized by AKSA for its members, or for an affordable fee for non members. Again, it does not need to be compulsory or policed.
AKSA may take on the job of designing a licensing course that makes sure that at the end the kiter reaches a certain skill level, and can pass a simple test about the guidelines of safe kiting. It may also include information about the best local beaches for various skill levels, and what are the specific recommendation to any particular spot. Kite boarding instructors would run the courses.
Any discrimination against tourists or other visitors will create more trouble, and certainly will not prevent more and more of them from visiting OZ. Openly sharing information about where they should and should not kite is a much better way. One in every 5 Australians was born overseas. They likely to have accents, and they likely to have relatives and friends who will visit Oz, and some of them may be kite boarders. AKSA may provide information in various languages, although most of the tourists I met so far speak at least a basic English.

An experienced kite boarder with medium skill level, I am happy to donate some of my time to work out something implementable so that we can prevent being regulated upon.
Cheers

I vote the man in the neat yellow top with the whistle




Or this bloke...
www.seabreeze.com.au/Members/Profile/Details.aspx?member=laurie

Licensing or any other form of CONTROL is not the way forward, to protect you kite spot simply get together with a few other local kiters, and if you see someone either behaveing like a twat them ask them not to as it can agrivate the council or locals, if you see someone having trouble with their kit etc help them dont just watch and laugh, as a wrongly rigged kite could cause injury to someone, I kite at a spot in the uk where, as today sunny and windy there were over 40 kiters out, and thats quiet, we all look out for each other and tell twats where to get off and give advice to begginers, as we were all begginers once and a bit of help and advice would of been great.

talking of non compulsory licensing is crap, no one would do it and why the bloody hell should we, there is to much of big brother watching us already.

I'm with nickloop 100%

You see, human beings are corrupt, greedy and egotistical.
Look at IKO and 90% of their advocates for instance.

I am a member of AKSA by choice, for support to my local club only.

i will , for free beer and hot chicks.

I feel sorry for the elephant

my vote goes to king of the point

I think we are all missing the point here,

We are seen as a nuisance in alot of areas and while many people stop to enjoy the spectacle there are a vocal minority who strongly dislike us and complain to the council.

Once the council has received a written or verbal complaint wheels are set in motion to investigate and resolve the complaint.

We all need to be proactive in the way we conduct ourselves and in self regulation of our local beaches, if we are good ambassadors for our chosen pastime we can minimise complaints and continue as we are now- but if too many choose to allow poor behaviour or kite in an unresponsible manner or in unresponsible places we will see council or government regulation of our activity.

Experienced kiters need to set good examples and self regulate their beaches and shops need to send beginners to schools.

The spotlight in many areas is already on us - how we behave will affect our own future......

Hi Guys,

I have also posted this on Making Kiting safer thread. ead on!

1) Kiteboarding is an inherently dangerous sport. We rely on an uncontrollable and unpredictable power source. We ride on an unpredictable and constantly changing medium. These two facts make sure we will never have all the bases covered. Accidents will always happen and unfortunately deaths will never be fully preventable.

2) Self regulation is the only REAL course of action. We cannot rely on IKO, Schools, Shops, Council, Rangers, police or any other government agency to regulate our behaviour on the water or enforce rules upon us or our sport. The way to start regulation is first to identify the culprits. We could have registration on all our kites so we can be identified. This maybe the easiest solution and cheapest. It will meet with opposition by some, but face it, if you ride responsibly and safely, you have nothing to fear and nothing to lose and everything to gain.

3) Voluntary registration numbers on our kites are a great and easy way to police our actions. You ideally would need to be registered to kite any populated beach such as Mullaloo, Pinnaroo, Scarborough, Cottesloe, Leighton, Melville and Woodies. You could still kite unpopulated beaches without registration numbers where you can kill yourself away from the public and other kiters without any protest from the mass population, you'll barely make headlines.

Problem with self regulation is the majority of kiters need to be on the program. Just Yesterday there were more than a dozen kiters out at Cottesloe when a few kiters turned up at the Phone Box site and started to rig up. They were all riding new Switchblade 3's. I came in and asked them to move further South to the required 100m safe zone and explained the problems kiting has faced at Cott. They asked how much the fine was if caught? WTF? I re-explained the issues.

I rode off. To his credit, one of the riders moved upwind, the other three stayed and launched and landed repeatedly on the banned beach despite the sign and my request. 20 minutes later there was three more kiters turned up and began rigging at the phone box. I came in yet again and a little more sternly asked them to move. Again, only two guys moved, the rest stayed there and continued to use the beach even trying to launch with kite on road side in the lee of the prominent headland. NFI.

No one else seemed concerned or have we forgotten the battle fought by Johnno Keys just a couple of years ago?

The disrespect of the kiters using the beach despite pleas to move, and the apathy of the other riders to do and say nothing. Here within lies our problem. Everyone thinks it is someone elses problem until we get closed down. Then we all bitch about how unfair we are treated and how "the man" is taking away our freedom. He ain't taking it from us, we're giving it away!

So what do we do about it. Compulsory membership to WAKSA with each rider getting and keeping his/her own rego number. You should be encouraged to put these numbers on your kite. If suddenly you are able to be recognised and identified, suddenly I think we will see a different behaviour from all riders. Kiters without rego numbers would identify themselves immediately as potential trouble makers or visitors either way, people would be less happy to see them kite at our local beaches and pressure would be applied by the masses to conform, buy membership, get insured and tow the line. No one is forcing you, but there would be an underlying pressure to do the right thing.

This is the best way to handle our issues in my opinion. It doesn't take away our liberties or freedom to ride where ever we want to, it costs almost nothing to enforce, we exclude "the man" from regulating us, we become accountable. Our numbers in membership swell the WAKSA database and bank account, we get a stronger voice to deal with authorities as we then are ALL represented and most importantly, WE ARE looking after and are SEEN TO BE looking after our own and the PUBLICS best interests. "The Man" is happy

For a couple of extra dollars membership fee WAKSA/AKSA could even supply the numbers/letters for the rego of our first kite and we could buy any additional numbers for additional kites for a couple of bucks on a subsidised fee.

Think about it. The idea has flaws, but it is better than other ideas thus far????

I'd like to hear what others think.

Good winds,

How about this guy... he will be out of a job soon.

Kitehard said...

Hi Guys,
You should be encouraged to put these numbers on your kite. If suddenly you are able to be recognised and identified, suddenly I think we will see a different behaviour from all riders.

What about a small detachable but easily recognizable flag on one of the flying lines, with the appropriate colour representing the membership year?

Mr float said...
.that way everyone is in the loop Include visiting kiters to oz with short term memberships .I thought that WA had a no AKSA /WAKSA ,tag no ride policy already?

Short term membership for tourists sounds like a good idea. Some of the visitors will likely to have a license already from their home country. Giving them temporary membership would be easy (like overseas temporary driving licenses), or at the least giving them a booklet with all the info they need to know.

I've always read these threads with great interest but never been comfortable enough with any ideas to get behind them fully, mostly for reasons pointed out here by Kitehard. WAKSA and AKSA have limited funding and limited support.

What I think can work though, based on a few of the ideas brought up so far and considering all the current constraints, is a registration number on a flag attached to flying lines. Not compulsory to start with, voluntary, with a view to leading by example and buying some credibility with the councils. If it works people will do it. If people don't want to do it no-one is going to force them, but be they visitors or locals they will eventually stand out pretty clearly.

Attaching the flag to the flying lines would eliminate the issues with buying and selling kites, and having more than one kite. I imagine about 30cm X 30cm would be sufficient to carry 4 numbers visible from a reasonable distance (or with binoculars). I could imagine them having a pigtail loop at the bottom and top to larks head over the lines at the kite end - either on a front line or a back, depending what has the knot in the pigtail to hold it there, and just in case it effected the flight characteristics of the kite I might put two on, one each side.

Good post - Hope you have your asbestos suite handy...

It's all about numbers, they are increasing and so is the stoopid behaviour. Only a matter of time before a typical 'don't let the facts get in the way of a good story' media focus comes down hard on our very visible (and less than universally loved) sport. They will have true stories to start with (ie: kiddy sliced) and will have no probs finding heaps of beach punters who hate ALL kiters (rightly or wrongly).

Get into gear and have your say on how this is done - or whinge/moan about lack of freedom and stick your head back in the sand. Then whinge n moan even more when it is banned..

Our wives.

Some great ideas being put forward here. Personally I reckon that if it could be achieved (big ask) a kite licence would be a great move.
But in saying that you have to consider that the drivers licence; even with all its big sticks and road rules; doesnt keep our roads safe from hoons & dickheads OR those who just never learn to drive competently after passing the test.