Could all people who ride at Henley please be mindful of swimmers (by law we must stay 50m away) and other beach users. If we fail to co-exist I don't need to tell you who the ones banned will be......

...i think it's important for all kiteboarders to join up to s.ak.s.a,whether or not you are an active member,because this tells councils that we self regulate...plus by having numbers in the association,when there is an issue,they will take more notice...without those numbers,its a lot harder to plead our case,plus it lets down the commitee members in the front lines,who behind the scenes are fighting to keep the beaches open so we can all ride...so get off your asses and join up!

Henley kiting community has to realise how serious a situation this is. This is happening in all states with a lot of metro beaches experiencing kiteboarding bans already. We as a collective group have to ensure that we project our behavour positively to the wider community. Although there are many people who stop in their cars to watch us kite, unfortunately they don’t write positive letters to the council about how much they love seeing us in the water. But those one or two swimmers who get pissed off by being sprayed or have a kite come down close to them, DO write to councils and complain. There is a common opinion amongst kiters that where there are a lot of kiters in the water the swimers should go somewhere else or deal with the kite traffic. Unfortunately in a world of beaurocrats and lawyers it seems legally the swimmers have right of way over kiters and we must stay 50 meters away from swimmers at all times. If we fail to do so, we will be the ones who get banned!!

To all the guys who rip it up and are busting out the big moves: could you please ensure that there is plenty of room with no swimmers any where near you when you do these tricks. Even Ruben, Drea and Ben Wilson dump thier kite from time to time. So if they drop their kites, i'm sure you do.

To all the new kiters out there: I hate having to say this, but this is very important.
While you are learning to kite, could please for the future of kiting at Henley drive the extra 10 to 15 mins to the chicken shop at Tennyson or even better Largs Bay. I'm sure you realise that Henley is the second most popular beach in this state. So that means alot of swimmers, families and dog walkers are using the beach with us. We all remember the time where you spend most of your session trying to water relaunch your kite or slowly walking up the beach trying to get back up wind and trying not to lose control of your kite at the same time. We are all aware of how dangerous an out of control kite is. So imagine how you would feel if you where out with your family and a kiter lost control of their kite and hit or nearly hit one of your family members. So while you are learning to kite, try to kite in an unpopulated part of the beach until you are competent enough to kite upwind. The reason I highlight Largs Bay (north of sailng club/ jetty) is that there is alot less chop on the water, the water is shallow, the beach is huge with plenty of room to practice, has a lot less people on the beach to possibly hit and there is generally a few other kiters learning in and around the same area as well as a kite school if you want to speed up your learning curve. I know that we are all time poor and just itching to get on the water, but for the future of kiting at Henley we all have to be less selfish to our own interest and support the guys who are doing their best in keeping Henley open to us all. Otherwise we will all be driving to Largs to kite and no one will be kiting at Henley because of bans.

We all need to work together on this from the top riders through to the new guys. Otherwise we will ALL be the ones who lose out! So as a general rule, Henley between the river mouth and the first beach ramp is for experienced riders and Largs bay for learners. If we keep to this hopefully we can all keep kiting the metro beaches for years to come.

Cheers Kitecroc

I am new to kitesurfing, currently at waterstart level. the first thing I did when I rolled up with my kite was to talk to a couple of kiters asking about if OK to kite here and if there were certain condition I had to be aware of etc etc. Basically making sure safety is OK and Im not intruding.

I was not told that beginners are better off somewhere else, so thanks for this info, I appreciate this as it makes sense.

I will ask my girlfriend about the chicken shop at Tennyson and Largs Bay, she s local. I m not.

Anything else I need to know about those two sites?

Cheers,
Eric

PS: if anybody needs someone to go out with at times when others are at work, Im not working. waiting for my VISA to come through and I reside in Glenelg south.

""To all the new kiters out there: I hate having to say this, but this is very important.
While you are learning to kite, could please for the future of kiting at Henley drive the extra 10 to 15 mins to the chicken shop at Tennyson or even better Largs Bay. ""

Problem... There are two beginner kiters who live right on the beach between The river and the ramp. You cant tell these people to move on. They probably have more right to tell us to move on. One is Deep within the Government politics and the other is a cop. These beginners are our best assets in the access war.

Remember, you were all beginners first. Policy should not start with " because we were here first" You should all take beginners under your wing. Dont "move them on " The more people involved in kiting the more value it places within the community. Can you emigin banning surfing in Torquey... ? the National hub of the industry.

Think before you demand a begginer moves on. He may know someone a lot bigger bader and heavier hitter than you

I am still learning.
I also Kite at Largs...

and I love it there!!

But

15 minutes a day there + 15 minutes a day back x 5 days a week = 150 min a week

5 km's a day there + 5 km's a day back x 5 days a week = 50km's a week (2500km per year!!)



And I know I know...

If there is a ban... everyone has to drive up there.

Just think about it the time and effort though...

I cant speak for the other schools, but Adventure blue fits all these requirements. Go and give them a visit and see there facility.

Also in my experience, Red Barron runs a top notch school.

But none of this changes anything. Beginners are the future of the sport.

Experts only beaches! its hard to take this seriously. What defines an expert ? and if you are injured or have a bad session , is your status revoked? Off to Tenison for you lady !!

Hey Saffie boy,

I believe that what we are asking is that while people are learning they go elsewhere. The reason being we have had lots of kiters body dragging through the swimmers which is so dangerous. Once people have good kite control and can stay upwind there is a much lower risk. Does that make sense ?

When I learnt the amount of kiters was much smaller and we had access to City of Holdfast. On a busy day there would be 10 people at the spot. Now on a busy day at Henley there are over 30 along with large amounts of swimmers and the like. It is quite a thin line we are skating and anything we can do to lower the risk is worthwhile.

Please if anybody has any questions feel free to pm me or approach me at the beach. I promise not to bite....

ben mack said...



""To all the new kiters out there: I hate having to say this, but this is very important.
While you are learning to kite, could please for the future of kiting at Henley drive the extra 10 to 15 mins to the chicken shop at Tennyson or even better Largs Bay. ""

Problem... There are two beginner kiters who live right on the beach between The river and the ramp. You cant tell these people to move on. They probably have more right to tell us to move on. One is Deep within the Government politics and the other is a cop. These beginners are our best assets in the access war.

Remember, you were all beginners first. Policy should not start with " because we were here first" You should all take beginners under your wing. Dont "move them on " The more people involved in kiting the more value it places within the community. Can you emigin banning surfing in Torquey... ? the National hub of the industry.

Think before you demand a begginer moves on. He may know someone a lot bigger bader and heavier hitter than you

First of all peer pressure not violence is what we are trying to use to move people on if they are not doing the right thing, and if you read what Crocker wrote it is aimed at everybody and not just beginners.

Second of all I don't care who they are or where they live, it is not their private beach they can drive just like the rest of us !

This is not for selfish reasons when todays beginners are competent riders they will be the ones on the beach politely asking newbies to fly at a less populated place.

OMG some common sense!!!!!! Lets just hope all people involved can come to the table!!!!

jordy said...

Oh but this is a lot more fun!!

It might be fun jordy but at the next council meeting when the transcript from this forum is tabled, what do you think there going to do. Use the any excuse to cover them selves.

Theres a time for fun and a time to be serious this is the latter.

kitecroc said...

Henley kiting community has to realise how serious a situation this is. This is happening in all states with a lot of metro beaches experiencing kiteboarding bans already. We as a collective group have to ensure that we project our behavour positively to the wider community. Although there are many people who stop in their cars to watch us kite, unfortunately they don’t write positive letters to the council about how much they love seeing us in the water. But those one or two swimmers who get pissed off by being sprayed or have a kite come down close to them, DO write to councils and complain. There is a common opinion amongst kiters that where there are a lot of kiters in the water the swimers should go somewhere else or deal with the kite traffic. Unfortunately in a world of beaurocrats and lawyers it seems legally the swimmers have right of way over kiters and we must stay 50 meters away from swimmers at all times. If we fail to do so, we will be the ones who get banned!!

To all the guys who rip it up and are busting out the big moves: could you please ensure that there is plenty of room with no swimmers any where near you when you do these tricks. Even Ruben, Drea and Ben Wilson dump thier kite from time to time. So if they drop their kites, i'm sure you do.

To all the new kiters out there: I hate having to say this, but this is very important.
While you are learning to kite, could please for the future of kiting at Henley drive the extra 10 to 15 mins to the chicken shop at Tennyson or even better Largs Bay. I'm sure you realise that Henley is the second most popular beach in this state. So that means alot of swimmers, families and dog walkers are using the beach with us. We all remember the time where you spend most of your session trying to water relaunch your kite or slowly walking up the beach trying to get back up wind and trying not to lose control of your kite at the same time. We are all aware of how dangerous an out of control kite is. So imagine how you would feel if you where out with your family and a kiter lost control of their kite and hit or nearly hit one of your family members. So while you are learning to kite, try to kite in an unpopulated part of the beach until you are competent enough to kite upwind. The reason I highlight Largs Bay (north of sailng club/ jetty) is that there is alot less chop on the water, the water is shallow, the beach is huge with plenty of room to practice, has a lot less people on the beach to possibly hit and there is generally a few other kiters learning in and around the same area as well as a kite school if you want to speed up your learning curve. I know that we are all time poor and just itching to get on the water, but for the future of kiting at Henley we all have to be less selfish to our own interest and support the guys who are doing their best in keeping Henley open to us all. Otherwise we will all be driving to Largs to kite and no one will be kiting at Henley because of bans.

We all need to work together on this from the top riders through to the new guys. Otherwise we will ALL be the ones who lose out! So as a general rule, Henley between the river mouth and the first beach ramp is for experienced riders and Largs bay for learners. If we keep to this hopefully we can all keep kiting the metro beaches for years to come.

Cheers Kitecroc

I don't appreciate being miss quoted, so please read the full post not just one sentence!!!

Saffie boy, sorry if i was not clear in my post. I'm not asking kiters to be at a pro level, but just be competent enough to stay up wind. That is a good sign that a rider has reasonable kite control. And just for the record i drove from Hallett Cove to Largs to learn my craft.


PEACE ALL

Peace and love to all kitesurfers from around South Oz and around the world.

To all that has read or commented on this topic: You need to really think about how much this sport has grown in the last 2 years. Its now not just 5 kiters on the beach, where every one know each other, like it was 9 years ago when kiting started in Adelaide. There is now over 300 plus kiters in South Australia riding every where, from down south to the River land to Port Lincoln. So its now time rules and regulations need to be put into place to keep this sport safe for the kiters, but mostly keeping the other users of the beaches safe.

About 5 years ago, while most people where dreaming about kite boarding, Holdfast bay over one letter to council banned Kiting on all Holdfast beaches, from Seacliff to Glenelg. It took a large team of very passionate people and heaps of support from the shops to get just one tinny part of Seacliff beach back after 2 years of fighting. The new crew in kiting haven’t respected that effort and now you see kiters, kiting anywhere they like on Seacliff and Brighton beaches. That has to be stopped as well.

At this rate with out rules and regulations that the boys SAKSA are trying to get into place, the foreshore councils will straight out ban kite boarding and this goes for all 5 foreshore councils. So if you are think that an extra 15 min drive is bad now, wait you could be heading further than that.

As the guys have stated, we are the last kiteboarding state that has not got bans on our beaches, this is mostly because its had been a small kiting community that has been able to patrol their own. But kiting in South Australia has got to big now, to be able to do that.

So please respect what the SAKSA guys are trying to do, and this will make it for a better Kiteboarding place in the future.

Thankyou, and safe kiting.

i'm dissapointed my post was the only one moderated because it spoke a lot of truths that someone may not have been able to handle

1. if there were allegations made and abuse then get rid of it by all means. I am anti-censorship, but stirring **** is being part of the problem and not the solution. I know, I have made that mistake all too often.
NOTA BENE: I have not seen any allegations, they ve been removed :-) Im talking in general here.

2. my two pennies worth, its analogy time, something that works even in kindergardens:

I am currently taking the drivers license. that implies im a **** driver, which is true. that could have consequences for other drivers, fatal ones. So I have to have an L plate, not exceed 80km etc. The point being its regulated for the benefit of ALL. So the "concept" of regulating in society is well documented and works well when done sensibly.
(another example is swimming pools with slow lane, medium lane, fast lane etc.)

I cannot for the life of me see why beginners, like myself, should not have to be extra careful
by going to more remote places etc. Kitesurfing IS potentially a fatal/dangerous sport and we have a COMMITMENT to those on the beach to be careful. The public are not aware they are not supposed to be between a kiter, his kite and his lines, they could be dragged between the lines of the kite if kite is lost control of. They just dont know these things, but we do, and we are responsible for helping ourselves by helping them to stay safe. That is what we are doing here, helping ourselves. How hard is this to understand?

For sure there will be the odd one out that will have to drive a bit further etc. but thats life, there will also be a beginner that will NOT have to driver far. I hear no complains about that.
So instances like these will swing both ways.

peace and MORE wind please..
Eric