Sounds more like regulation than a ban to me. Or is that just wishful thinking.

Hi Guys,
With the merging of the councils we were expecting to have to go through the threat of bans all over again, their is an upside, Noosa Council basically forced us to really discover what our rights were in this. Heres some facts to make you feel a little better,
Marine Safety Queensland refused to support a ban of kite surfers in the river mouth due to NO REPORTED INCIDENTS and support from the boating community who generally did not find us threatening and with whom we now work closely to educate right of way rules.

Marine Safety WILL NOT hand over powers on the water to a council EVER!!! Also they have no way to police a ban, as the police arent interested, the council bylaws officers dont have the resources, the river ranger is too busy and has stated he will not support a ban etc.

hmmmmm. The more we dug and campained the more we realised our rights. This is not to say the council are giving up, they are no seeking to ban us because of the birds now and have acknowledged a totall ban is not possible, but after a meeting in which a council member tried using harsh language similiar to what you would call bribery and that was made aware to the councillors, Russell Green and Lew Brennen(who thankfully got elected)and support us, the council suddenly changed their tune.


To restrict us from the mouth or the frying pan they will need to restrict everyone. Several of the owners of hire boat companies (who have recently been taught how to kite) are never going to accept that and the general feel from the community is the bird issue is being used with no real evidence and therefore has no support to any restriction.

Saying all that dont let your gaurd down, we have a code which has been submitted and the council are looking for something to shut us down. So Kite safe and responsibly, and most importantly help each other out and if you see someone doing something stupid. FOR GODS SAKE HELP THEM WITH A SMILE! Make them aware we are on the thinnest of thin lines at the moment. Don't forget Bob Abbot wants us gone.

We are luckily sent any complaints from the public by a council member so we can monitor whats going on and as far as I know the last 3 months have been complaint free. Its a great start.

Mike
Noosa kiteboarding

schmik said...

mikeb said...




To restrict us from the mouth or the frying pan they will need to restrict everyone.

The more i think about stuff like this the more i am ashamed to be part of this society. Where are we going? We really could ban everything! Imagine a local field where we may kitebuggy or landboard, we are seen as dangerous. And what about the guys playing cricket? That ball could easily kill a child under 5.

Recently while riding a rivermouth / channel i was told to move on by a life saver so that i didn't annoy the fishermen. What is more dangerous? a kite surfer or a fisherman? We both have long lines and sharp pointy bits..........

WTF happened to Aus being a free country? WTF is this sh1t that the local authorities are trying to peddle to us as freedom. I sure as sh1t didn't vote for this kind of restriction and regulation.

Rant over...........

mike

I think your opinion would change if you had kids and some inconsiderate kiter decided to kite around them - and do jumps over them whist they were swimming...etc.
Im all for freedom - but I can understand why people would want us banned if we threaten their safetly - and especially the safety of children.
most of us are considerate and would never do this - but you do get dic.heads that spoil it for the rest of us.

bigmark100 said...


I think your opinion would change if you had kids and some inconsiderate kiter decided to kite around them - and do jumps over them whist they were swimming...etc.
Im all for freedom - but I can understand why people would want us banned if we threaten their safetly - and especially the safety of children.
most of us are considerate and would never do this - but you do get dic.heads that spoil it for the rest of us.

I do have kids and i want them to grow up in a world where they are allowed to do fun things. My point is that even a cricket game in a park can be dangerous to kids (that ball is damn hard and travels fast, i know i have been hit).... but should we ban it? It is our responsibility as parent to keep our kids safe. If danger approaches them then we have to get them out of the way. We can't expect others not to do dangerous things around them (like drive cars, cast lines and hooks, kiteboard).

In the channel, where no one would swim due to the very fast current, i would not want to swim among kiters or fishing lines but don't think that either activity should be restricted.

mike

TheMedic said...

Im curious how 19 people in 9 months needed hospital treatment from injuries caused by kiters.
Is it the same group of people? Is there not enough training for them there? Were they tourist wanting to give it a quick go?
Number seems a bit high eh.

I believe the article says kitesurfing accidents. I could pretty much garantee that I am one of these people. The number doesn't seem high if you take self injury into account, and the type of injury doesnt nessesarily mean the kiter was being reckless, for example my accident was caused by landing a routine frontroll on a freak wave. I wasn't near any other swimmer at a remote bit of beach between Marcoola and Yaroomba. I am sure there are loads of similar occurances .

Now I want to see the accidents admitted to hospital caused by motorbikes. What we do in our spare time and how we hurt OURSELVES should have nothing to do with a ban. I mean comeon what a stupid figure to go by, all sports have accidents causing hospital visits. Does this figure also include the hypercondriates that hurt there finger and go to hospital rather then the local GP to get it checked up?

As a one exception compromise to prevent a complete ban I would support a ban on setting up on the Noosa side of the river. Just means we would have to get a kayak, tinnie, 4wd or swim accross to rig up.

echostorm said...

TheMedic said...

Im curious how 19 people in 9 months needed hospital treatment from injuries caused by kiters.
Is it the same group of people? Is there not enough training for them there? Were they tourist wanting to give it a quick go?
Number seems a bit high eh.

I believe the article says kitesurfing accidents. I could pretty much garantee that I am one of these people. The number doesn't seem high if you take self injury into account, and the type of injury doesnt nessesarily mean the kiter was being reckless, for example my accident was caused by landing a routine frontroll on a freak wave caused by backwash. I wasn't near any other swimmer at a remote bit of beach between Marcoola and Yaroomba. It was just a variable that was out of my control. I am sure there are loads of similar occurances . Now I want to see the accidents admitted to hospital caused by motorbikes. I mean comeon what a stupid figure to go by, all sports have accidents causing hospital visits. Does this also include the hypercondriates that hurt there finger and go to hospital rather then the local GP to get it checked up?

As a one exception compromise to prevent a complete ban I would support a ban on setting up on the Noosa side of the river. Just means we would have to get a kayak, tinnie, 4wd or swim accross to rig up.

Yes i completely agree with you, are they trying to ban us from hurting ourselves or hurt other people...

There are a lot of people, that get injured buy other sports, even surfing.

I think as long as you do the safe thing and not put other beach users at risk, they shouldn't care about you getting hurt....

I bet the 98% of the accidents kiting the only one that get injured is the kiteboarder or probably other kiteboarder. I'm not kiteboarding for a long time, only 1 and a half years, which is a LOT less that most of all the guys i kite with, but in all my kiting life i've never heard about an accident that hurt a swimmer.

We definitely have to be more responsible and look out for ourselves and other kiteboarders... and maybe the best thing to do is getting the kiteboard shops to talk with their customers and get them to do a few lessons before selling any gear to them, i don't want to step on anyone toes but i've seen quite a few dangerous calls with guys that got a set of gear and decided to learn by themselves. IMO these are the worst kind of kiters, and they are the ones that give us a bad name.

mikeb said...

Marine Safety WILL NOT hand over powers on the water to a council EVER!!! Also they have no way to police a ban, as the police arent interested, the council bylaws officers dont have the resources, the river ranger is too busy and has stated he will not support a ban etc.

Mike, I understand that Marine Safety won't hand over the powers on the water however do the councils have the power to ban us from the beaches? In my opinion this is where most of the complaints or potential incidents with the general public come from.

Have you guys had any dialogue with the council regarding areas where we are allowed to set up and land that are away from the public or areas that are demarcated as areas where kiters can set up and land?

PLAN - B. If any of you guys know anyone who works in the council, do your best to try and get them into kiting. Kind of like infiltrating their ranks. Like Mike said some of the boat operators getting into it.

Maximum said...

What about this ?

Isn't that the carpark at the main beach?
Looks ****in dumb to me, could be part of your problem up that way

Imax

This IS A BIG PART of the problem !

This guy has caused so much trouble up and down the coast .,its not funny !

I suspect he is the subject in the post about bans at Byron Bay.

Hey sunseeker,
Yes we have been in dialogue with the council regarding where we can set up etc, It was part of the code of conduct that has been submitted to the council and they are now looking at the finer points, we are seeking signs, pamphlets and clear zones of launching and landing. Will let you know as soon as it goes through to the next stage, but things are looking fairly positive. The only real sticking point at this stage is they dont want kiters inside the frying pan due to bird disturbance, but they realise that total restriction is just not going to be viable.

We had to fight for this and as I said before it hangs on a thread, so fingers crossed!!!

Neill said...

good plan sunseeker

i will pay $500 cash to the first person who can get bob abbott onto a kite and going upwind

equipment required;

34m2 kite

280x90 board

800kg kite lines

that is gold

Maximum said...

What about this ?

Isn't that the carpark at the main beach?
Looks ****in dumb to me, could be part of your problem up that way

Imax

Yep that is Byron and that guy is a big part of the problem and the reasons that the council has placed an interim ban on kiting. If the poser concerned is reading this - I want to say that I hope you can see your stupidity.

Maybe we all should raise money for an airfare to send the perpetrator to Brazil, where he'd fit in perfectly with the tanned and fit 'g' string wearing crowd, and could strut his stuff with his kooky skateboards and kites in front of the crowds on the beaches there?

yep, this might look like a laugh to kiters but what message does it send to the genral public who see this sort of *** at their local beach ??

Poor reletive

LOL

Your attitude stinks.

Why is that, Because i don't like the media or just that I believe in the freedom or people and equality?

poor relative said...

Because your point isn't articulated without arrogance and aggressiveness.
Neither of which will win friends or influence people.

Good point , but I'm talking in a forum to like minded kiters having a vent so what, Bloody hell why are some of you guys seemingly walking round with a big stick up your clacker?

I'm with you Flux, speak from the heart...it is ok and at least truthful.

The internet and the written word is weird, I'm all in to stream of consciousness and all that....it is just that on the net it can attract the wrong impressions from some. I never ever make an assumption of what kind of a person is behind the writing on the net. Most people have hearts of gold and are just venting.....we all do it, some more than others....good on you for venting in public, got to make you feel better....have a great day