apparently someone landing their kite in a playground is a conversation point over tea and scones in Cott and the lifeguards in Scarbz are getting ticked at kiters coming within 200m of their beach.

do we need signs up at popular spots to remind tourists, new comers and all of us really - where you and can't kite, landing and safety tips, right of way e.g, give way to those coming out, or on a wave??

tourists and weekend warriors etc are not scouring seabreeze or asking locals to find these things out, perhaps we should make it easier for them

agree re signs. WAKSA should do these along with COS.
The way it is getting we are going to lose areas to kite because of blow ins or those without knowledge.

I was doing a downwinder last week and one of the "SLINGSHOT" boys, that being someone touring Australia in a massive bus to promote the brand and sport riding bindings was doing tricks right by the shore and sliding up onto the sand then back out to do another, yes very cool. One time he came in right between the flags at scarborough, thats right up on the sand right between the flags in front of the clubbie's trailer with the beach inspector also sitting in his car watching (he was not happy).
Poor form, very poor form. But i am guessing he will say "well i didnt know..."
or not care and move to the next town.

All our riders are aware that you need to be 200m out to pass behind the flags. Although I will send a reminder out.

We are usually the last on the beach helping everyone launch their own kites first.

With a demo tour the size of ours, and the amount of kites we loan out each day, we definitely have safety as a huge priority, and always try to encourage and practice safe kiting methods.

Can the signs be made to float and face out to sea? That way the downwinders can read it too?

Signs aren't the answer unfortunately, if I kite a particular spot regularly I'll see the signs and learn the local rules, if I'm one of the hundreds doing a downwinder no amount of signs in car parks and footpaths are going to help.

Weta said...
Signs wont do any good if the person doesn't have half a brain like the absolute TOOL flying his kite up on the grass last night at the phone box..............

What kind of a brain dead moron would be stupid enough to do that three ****** days after the news paper article on Monday!!

Did some one give him a boot up the a$s for his trouble?

Pussies just need to man up and start confronting kooks at the beach. Grab a mate to lend support if you're gutless. This **** happens way too much and if you leave it to forums, nothing will change. Stop being mr floppy before it's too late. You'll kick yourself later because you did nothing

If the Cott incident happened at the little playground near the carpark at Beach St (is this "phone box"?), there's a pretty simple fix - put a little blue fence up across the southern end of the playground. There's one around the playground opposite the Cott General Store, so it's nothing too radical.

Often see windsurfers rigging up their sails on the grass next to the playground to then walk them down the old boat ramp (which I think is fine) - can see how a piece of gear might get picked up and blown by the breeze towards the playground. Having a fence there would stop that happening.

Could even mount rules/etiquette signs on the outside of the fence.

Weta said...

Nathe said..

Rads said...
Pussies just need to man up and start confronting kooks at the beach. Grab a mate to lend support if you're gutless. This **** happens way too much and if you leave it to forums, nothing will change. Stop being mr floppy before it's too late. You'll kick yourself later because you did nothing

Well said.. I do this on occasions when guys are acting like out right peanuts. They get hurt feelings and people tell me I'm agro but I'm not. It's my local, my home and I'm not letting some blow in or wanna be local wreck it for me on the waterways that I grew up on. Have some common sense and show some respect. Forums have giving to many pussies courage on the keyboard but no spine in the real world

Really guys.................yeah I'm definitely a keyboard warrior, way too scared to tell someone when they are F'N up.

I was driving when I saw the Tool at the phonebox, I stopped next to him and saw another guy was having a word.

Wasn't having a go at you .. It's the general population now to political correct to give it to people . But if you are offended to bad

Agree we should all step up and try to stop this happening via few words on the beach.

I did hang around for a bit but had to go as my lift was there on this occasion, but i dont think you were aiming straight at me, more as a general comment.

Anyhow, with more numbers it is becoming a regular thing, lets hope we can all pull our frothiness into lines and keep the clubbies and beach patrol happy.

I still think signs and WAKSA emails and perhaps occasional hang outs at city beach to inform everyone really, just bit of chit chat to enforce everyone knows shat they should know and should be doing.
Ive been kiting along this stretch for over 10 years and would like ot be able to keep kiting local.

The surf clubs claim their safe swimming areas with their red on yellow flags. Everyone knows what they look like, most kiters and poleys know they are a no go area and most are happy to keep clear.

But, from the ocean, how hard can the flags be to spot? especially on a busy beach with cars, people, umbrellas, towels, buildings etc as a backdrop? It's effectively a game of Where's Wally as you punt down the coast and you don't know how many Wally's to look out for. It also doesn't help that they move them regularly depending on the conditions.

Maybe it's time for SLSWA to revise their flags, whether it be a much larger and higher flag or another method to assist in delineating their safe swimming area. The flags were introduced to assist people on the beach decide where is safe to swim and from the beach they are easy to spot with a blue on blue background of ocean and sky. When they were introduced 80 odd years they would never have considered having to use them to manage the risk of water sports that didn't even exist and they now want to keep away from approaching from the other side of the break.

It also doesn't help that that in a Perth metro Southerly that will flap invisible, behind their pole as you approach from the South on a downwinder. I reckon it's pretty easy to get well within 200 metres of the flags, even with the best of intentions.

That's a really good point Chris, they can be hard to see even when you are trying to spot them.
I wonder if a couple of orange boys could be included outside the break to identify the craft exclusion zone. Like what Horrocks has around the jetty and dive pontoon.

'Because that's how we've always done it" and "They're always in the same spot", doesn't actually cut it if they ever want to infringe or prosecute someone for encroaching within 200 metres. If the flags define the prohibited area, and they set-up and dismantle them daily, and move them if/when rips/strong currents form and they were never designed to be seen from out to sea then I'd be willing to bet even a self-represented fool could get off if they took it to court.

Plus I'd challenge any ranger that believes he is capable of giving some sore of expert opinion on what is 200 metres without a fixed object to reference from. Obviously skimming in the shallows 10-20 metres away is easy enough, but get over 80-100 metres and it would be easy to create enough doubt in court to get off.

I'm not advocating people kite inside the flagged exclusion zones but the system of using flags to define them is quite possibly fundamentally flawed.

Worst case scenario is someone punting down the coast, not familiar with every SLSC and their regular patrolled beaches, and with the best of intentions and keeping a proper watch still doesn't see the flags and encroaches within the 200 metres, then runs over a lone kid swimming on his own but inside the flagged area he didn't see and does serious injury or worse. There is a real risk the kiter may face a criminal charge of some sort or it could go to inquest in coroner's court. If the kiter was doing everything reasonable I think it would be highly unlikely they would be convicted but if they were to use the defence of "I did my best but I couldn't see the flags, they move them all the time, plus look how hard they are to spot", then the local shire and SLSWA might later cop some heat from litigation lawyers from the dead kid's family they weren't expecting...

Actually my eyes are pretty good but thanks for the help, and nor am I the sort to blame someone else when **** goes wrong or kite within the flags. I'm just looking at it from a different angle.

I even know where the surf clubs are along the metro coast but I'm not going to stand on the beach and make sure everyone doing a downwinder knows as well. Society has been dumbed down to the point of needing big signs and other measures to protect people from themselves, at this stage a few flags plonked in the sand isn't dumb enough for the lowest common denominator (or French Euro).

Wind wasn't very pretty yesterday. Saw some poor bloke hiking up West Coast highway near Hale Road. Cant remember if he had a board with him or not. Just saw kite wrapped in harness.

I T Nazi's also pulled my post showing the proposed council Kiting Launching & Landing zone????? WTF

Political Correctness overload IMHO

Bugger; how silly of me...............I forgot I now live in a society dictated to by Nanna's & Morons.