Hi folks,
I've been noticing a lot of kites going right into the shore through the Floreat kids beach whilst doing the downwinder stretch.
When the flags are up you are required to stay out as far as the white bouys (approx 150m) and at least 50m upwind of the flags. This is clearly being ignored.
Even when the flags are not up, but there are families and v.young kids obviously there in numbers, it is just plain dumb and selfish to ride through that meagre 50-100m section. Sure - when the flags are down - ride in to 50m or so from shore but FFS don't ride the pizz poor slop excuse for waves through there when punters and kids are in the water!
Last night I saw heaps riding right through that zone 5-10 mtrs from the sand. One peanut on a surfboard stacked at least 4-5 times right on the shore in the middle of the kids section with kite going every which way 10-15 mtrs from young kiddies. Little kite control and trying to do moves beyond the skill level with no safety margin. It's not like he was attempting to get back out but rather he kept trying to get straight straight back on and charge the 1/2 foot slop at each attempt with pathetic results. DUMB & SELFISH. And I am being kind with these terms.
If your doing the Floreat-Scarborough run you have 4kms of coast to play with, 10kms if your doing the Swanny run. Giving away a pizz poor 100m on the downwinders, to a single stretch with young kiddies, should not require prompting to anyone that doesn't think the sun eminates from their freckle.
Learn to share and consider the safety of others. Or wait to hear from the Floreat surf club/council etc. Your choice..
Er.. just to clarify for tourists etc.
The Floreat kids beach is approx 400m North of the Floreat/City Beach grassed area that most kiters rig up on.
The kids beach has a clubhouse and kids playground sitting up at the top of the dunes from the beach.
Give riding through there a miss and we should stay clear from agro from other users/council etc. You can feel all nice n fuzzy with yourself for not being a selfish w@nker also.
Just wondering if there is / will be a response from WAKSA - with this and a seperate incident posted about Leighton.
Some suggestions could be:
1. Wasn't the flyers available at the airport for tourists on safe kiting in WA / Perth? Is this still going or effective? Do the tourist offices have them or kiting info?
2. Are we engaging with water police and lifesavers to be more active in confronting these rogue /ignorant kiters?
Good question re flyers etc.
In fairness I think most of the offenders are not touros. I waived down a bloke and gestured for him to ride out from the beach at Flozzer last week (spoke to him on the beach prior and he was defintely "Yer - I am weckid into kitin yer") but think he thought I was just pizzed with him or sumpin?
The locals that pay no attention to the situation really are the clowns here tho.
BTW, If it was a cranking break there I could understand some temptation. but the slop in front of FKB is possibly the most average along that run. Dumb.
Maybe its time for a "Dob in a hoon kiter" option on the respective local bodies websites. :p
Saw a couple of muppets using South Beath in Freo on Sunday. Using a beach busy with families while the next beach up there was hardly anyone. It's no wonder the public get grumpy with kitesurfing.
Wished I had time to have a word with them.
Hoping this thread does a tad to improving awarness rather than dob in a plonker. Still - it may come to that.
Hey Moony, I thought kiting (and other windsports) was banned from South Beach? That is some bad form right there Sth beach is so crowded it's hard to even get into the water!
An indulgant bumpidy - just to catch the eye of touros and/or tossers before the chrissy break as FKB will no doubt be jammed with squids eager to try their new aquatic chrissy prezzies.
Avatops chrissy all.
Oky doky. At the risk of being the 300th post complaining about kiter etiquete and all round w@nker behaviour, the selfish tossers kiting through the kids zone has continued unabated from what I have seen.
Admitedly there are lots of beach fishos out there which has slightly reduced the access to the sloippy waves along the downwind run but FFS stay out of the 50 or so metres right in front of the club house or we will be coppin it in the long run!!
I have don't know if the culprits are locals or euros but I suspect it is 50/50 to be honest. Riding up to within a few metres of a startled looking family in shoulder high water and pulling a move or whipping around so that they cop a face full of spray is just a total d!ck move.[}:)] This should not need explaining to anyone capable of tying their own shoelaces!!
As I am also on the downy run it has made contacting these tools and chatting em pretty tricky but if it takes chasing them down on the water and abusing the cr@p outta them so that the message is understood then that's the go I guess.
I think you should call the water police and communicate your concerns as a "community minded kitesurfer." Perhaps they can put a guy on a Jet Ski there when downwinders are on (only needs to be for a few days in a row) to chase people down and let them know they are doing the wrong thing. Sounds stupid I know but if you do it yourself you run the risk of being written off as an "annoying busybody," plus you don't have the weight of authorata! behind you.
If you read "Freakonomics" they explain the best way to change a person's behaviour is to offer the appropriate (dis)incentive. If the water police pulled up a few guys, and said "next time we catch you doing this we confiscate your kite," watch how fast people start to avoid the area.
Chances are the people who are riding through the kiddies area don't read Seabreeze anyway, so your repeated raising of the issue on the Forum is probably not reaching the intended audience.
Only thing that works is a spaaaaaaaaaanking, fines would be a good start. Too bad gov. authorities don't think outside the box like you LiL
Probably right about the tools not reading the thread point.
Will avathinkabout contacting the authoritas, but you just never know if you are going to get a sensible copper or someone who is a bit too gung ho and next thing we are all in the shizen.
Hey GF and others,
Doing nothing but complaining about ar$holes doing the wrongy, is as bad as contributing to the problem yourself.
Getting the law involved is not the answer. You need to word the dudes up!
This is an internal matter, peeps need to start taking action to protect the beaches we enjoy.
It's gonna be a painful recollection when you look back after having lost the right to kite certain spots and wish you'd said something before it all got out of hand.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Cheers,
KH
Being a local surfer at floreat and city beach who is now into kiting, I can tell you now its only a matter of time before you lose your present launch area unless you can get together and communicate with the Town of Cambridge and stop the renegade kiters. 95% of kiters do the right thing , the remaining 5% of tossers, show boaters are definately going to lose it for all. Keep clear of the groyne, surfers, swimmers, unless there is no one there. Swimmers at present are trying to take it over as our population grows. It took the local City Beach boardriders 20 years to be accepted by the local council and surf clubs . Then its still a bit fragile. If you want to lose it do nothing , otherwise act against anyone any infringing . Remember if you are not upper Intermediate or Advanced kiter do not launch there.
Any chance of some some sort of signage waksa to let people know about the kiddie beach no go zone? Me and my buddies didnt know about this rule till I read this forum...? 
WAKSA have a good brochure which can be distributed. Like Foosh, I'm willing to help out by perhaps putting WAKSA flyers under windscreens. At least this gets some communication out from da "locals." Like Andrash mentioned earlier........there are just so many new faces, it's exhausting...........but still so many options and space to kite here; let us do what we and WAKSA can do to limit avoidable screw ups.
KH is spot on about it being up to each and one of us to do the right thing and then all is good.
I have experience with signs at Melville. Basically it is up to the Local City Council to make and put up the signs. At Melville we met many times with locals and 3 gov. depts. until it was finally decided to put up signs. However, to my pleasant surprise, the signs that went up warned pedestrians to be on the look out for kites. The sign that we thought the city was going to make which explained all the does and don'ts at Melville would have been too big and too complicated, and who would enforce the new "rules" anyway. So I think the gov. made a sound decision which covered all bases from their perspective.
^^
Danke volle mal for the reply Gruezi! Feels like a meeting coming on!
I think we need to make sure the correct signage goes up.
(and not in the launch / land zone )
I reckon if we manage to coordinate several of the local council / kiting areas we could get a bulk discount (?) on producing some signage. Maybe some three / four way funding with sponsorship?
It may be for next season tho... but you know... it's hardly going to get less crowded is it?
What is the situation like on the East Coast - I have never kited there? I'm assuming that is gets quite busy there, is there appropriate signage? Are the local councils amenable to kiting?
Definately some good suggestions above. KH - you are right and the point of this thread was not to b!tch and fek all else. Have been talking/emailing to a few folks to see what can be done.
Leighton and Mullaz groups have been pretty spot on for their areas so it is about time the Flozzer/Scabs area got it together also.
Feeling a bit of a hypocrit though as I couldn't even get to the 2 BUG meetings last year. However, I have a bit more flexibility than normal in the next few weeks if we can get a meeting sorted?
Definately some good suggestions above. KH - you are right and the point of this thread was not to b!tch and fek all else. Have been talking/emailing to a few folks to see what can be done.
Leighton and Mullaz groups have been pretty spot on for their areas so it is about time the Flozzer/Scabs area got it together also.
Feeling a bit of a hypocrit though as I couldn't even get to the 2 BUG meetings last year. However, I have a bit more flexibility than normal in the next few weeks if we can get a meeting sorted?
