Two windurfers have been hit by Kites recently and my wife was hit by a kite last year.

The 2 recent incidents happened at Avalon Beach and at Geeries.

This is not good.

I know there are responsible kiters out there, but the few ratbags, as well as the well meaning guys who just are quite in as much control as they think they are, are making it dangerous for other water users.

This third incident, has angered me greatly, and I intend to follow it through.
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Hardie

kiters are here to stay, work with them not against them.


I dont hate kiters. windsurfers and kiters enjoy the same thrill as us, the problem is that they dont want to compremise with us sometimes.

With windsurfers and kiters together there is a clash of space.
You can have as many windsurfers together as you like and there will be no trouble as you can have as many kitesurfers together as you like and there will be no trouble too.

when i go to the beach the first thing i try to do is to communicate with the kiters cause i know that they can be a real pain in the ass if they want to.that way they understand that Im not a prick towards them and a bit of sharing will assist both of us.

but if you sail out arrogantly looking at annoying kiters conflict will occur and accidents will occur.

2 Sundays ago I noticed that most kites where at Avalon and all polers at Geeries. Only 2 kiters sailed Geeries, being Ben and Pete who are both more than competent. I kited just upwind of Geeries where the sandy point is, and had some great waves all to myself. Spread out I say.

The reason for posting this is not to be controversial but to heighten awareness that these accidents are happening and people need to be even more careful than they already think they are. I don't think people are aware enough, of the space/distance they need to allow, to keep safety on the water. What ever you think is safe add another 10 or 20 metres.

I don't advocate any form of vigilantyism or violent conflict, that's all bullschit, only leads to escalation and retaliation, and I've spent enuff time in prisons to see and experience the consequences of going down that route.

We gotta relate, communicate, and educate.

I'm dealing with it in the most proactive manner possible, even though the title is a bit controversial, that's to get people's attention, and I geuss I'm still pissed off that my wife got smacked with a kite on the Peel Estuary by some f*#@wit who didn't even apologise.

"To the Culprit who hit my wife", Only you know who you are and the reasons for your behaviour, I want you to know it didn't go un-noticed!! You harm your Kiting brothers by your actions, and you put other's safety at risk!!

Hardie

May be people who can ride waves should ride them.
Respect the locals and don't hog the waves just because u think your better don't mean u can barge in and steal them thats just rude [}:)]windsurfer or kitesurfer.

G'day all, I'll put my two bobs worth in here on top of what Hardy has said.

From my side of things I see a lot of potential problems for both sailing fraternities at Avalon.

Back when I moved down to mandurah some 10 years ago you could only get to Avi piont by going down a boggy dirt track which had patches of razer sharp lime stone, nowadays with the bought poohard development it's now a piece of p.ss to get to the piont.

Last summer, thanks to the accessability and the wonders of modern comunications we ended up with Schidt loads of crew down at the piont.

The problem wasn't with the number of crew in the water, it's a big ocean lots of waves etc and no matter how many times I write my name in the water, I still can't claim it.

The problem is with people leaving gear laying around and how they behave inside the bay.

Inside the bay, from what one of our local number was advised by the relevant gov dept that this is a no go zone for powered craft, hey guys thats us lot!! We get a fair number of people swimming up and down the beach as well as kids in the water, what would a 8" fin at speed do to them?

Gear laying around, this is where I think we all have to be more considerate.

Last summer there were kitters leaving their kites rigged on the beach with their lines going accross the access to the beach making people have to walk over them to get to the beach, not very safe at all when you think that there is a possibility that the kit could take of by itself quite easily.

Us windsurfers when you look at us, weren't much better with our gear in the grassed rigging area (that huge patch of grass) going onto the pathways, also our gear on the beach just dragged out of reach of the water. The pathways and beach's are quite exstensively utilised in summer by local families who have to dodge our gear.

It must be remembered that this is a rather high priced suburb, People who live in high priced suburbs generally are the most vocal and effective complainers.

A few of us "locals" have discussed trying to take some ownership and look at getting some basic etiquette signs made up, The WAKSA have some good ideas and I think the Windsurfing assoc have some as well.

This is not to stop people from coming down but to protect this rippa spot from going the way of Cottesloe (read some of the Kitter threads)

I'd be more than happy if either of the associations want to contact me about this.


There you go boys and girls I've just painted a dirty great big target on myself


Alby


Life is not a trial run

its prolly all been said before and it will all be said again..
there isn't really any point complaining about this crap..
although i believe that hardie has a valid point,
i just think everyone will get stired up. just ignore it
kitters are always going to bang into ****, each other, the water, the carparks. you name it, the guys who do it for the love of it are cool the guys who do it for the fasion are crap just like anything..

well kind of. it's pointless to worry and get pissed off..just concentrate on windsurfing and have a good time.. and afix a pop up blade on the top of your mast to cut their lines :) (thats a joke) (patent pending).

anyway to sumerise what i am trying to say is .. just ignore them and when something rude happens and they don't applogise just go and F#$*%&ck them up like you would with any other rude person

kind regards
curac

I LIKE WATER

Crikey Alby, a big mirror you did hoist in front of me. You are right when you prompt us to look through the eyes of others. Sometimes we think we do own the beach strip. Probably because we are there so much, often when the weather is less than perfect for other beach-goers.

Perhaps we can take it one further by not parking in the front row of the car park, but leaving these bays for the families. Some littlun' may be sitting in Mum and Dads car and get the bug from watching how much fun those windsurfers are having!!! Car parks like those at A****n are small these days and it can only help our image. I know I will also be rigging well out of the way from now on, wherever I sail.

Curac is onto it too! If a clumsey kitey strays into your vicinity, don't sheet in and rail the bastard, but give them the room and space you would expect them to give you. Often they are not fully in control of their gear and this is also probably the safest option!! Respect goes both ways - What would you do to some bloke that barges through your Missus at the Pub? Fair's fair.

Keep it real!!!!

Getting gone!!!
Seaton

Seaton,
Me thinks you taken de pees outa me.

I know you are a responsible citizen who allways displays his ACROD sticker

My line wasn't so much about rigging but about leaving the gear laying around unsupervised whilst we (me to) wander of, chat, get a drink whatever.

Yes as you said respect earns respect and we should allways respect fellow water users (another part of my thread). Myself I allways try to go upwind of kitters as they have a tendency to leave the water and drift downwind rather rapidly.

At the end of the day we aren't trying stop people from sailing Avi(whatever type). We are just trying to make it safer and thus try to aviod what is happening at Cot where they are limiting access and where trying to ban Kiters.





Alby


Life is not a trial run

quote:

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The windsurfer was on Starboard tack,
The kiter was going out thru the surf,
The windsurfer, was behind a wave and couldn't see the kiter.

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mmmm tricky .....
could have happened with 2 windsurfers or 2 kitesurfers though !!!

Well posted big al ! I have heard from a Gero local That if someone stuffs up with the rules the local kite and wind surfers get heavy with them and move them out of town.

a.k.a. KA202

quote:

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Originally posted by Big Al

Wouldn't a simple solution be to adopt a similar guidline to what the Geraldton windurfing club has put in place when sailing at Corronations? Basically it's kites launching at the northern end of the beach & windsurfers at the southern end with a minimum 40m gap.

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It's the perfect solution where the wave zone is big, but if the waves only break well in a small area, everybody wants to be in the same spot!!! Doesn't matter where they launch, they end up sailing/surfing/kiting, on top of each other.

decrepit

I don't think every time a little insident happens over a period of years or months should be taken seriously out of all of theses different towns spreaded miles apart.

There are a few understanding windsurfers but there are a minorty that are just argo and hate kites 4 no reason Ive kept away from windsurfers and gave them way but some times they just get argo[}:)] old mans symdrome.
Theres no need to have a panic attack every time u see one

Getting the govement involed is not so good right now may be once they calm down with the HSE matters they will be a lot more understanding they may very well ban both windsurfers and kitesurfers there both risks to swimmers either way.

quote:

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Originally posted by Big Al

Decrepit, I disagree with your comments. Most incidents or close calls happen at the inside transition areas

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Sorry Big Al, don't see what you disagree with, I certainly agree with every thing you've said here.
A seperate launching area is a great idea, but it's not the whole solution, I can't see it doing much good at Margarets for instance, doesn't matter where anybody launches, the problems will be in the impact zone. The same with the incident at Gearies, not that I'm comparing the 2 breaks of course.

decrepit