When picking up car after down winder, yellow Best stuck on top of light tower.
What's the story behind that one? 
not sure,but when i got down there it looked like the kite had only one line attached to the bar and the guy was having no luck getting it down, wind and waves were to good to worry about what happend, WHAT A SESSION !!!!!
Yeah silly bloke tried to walk past with his Air Rush kite straight up next to the lights and woops, gust of wind and it drifted onto it. Bugger......
I went and spoke to the guy and the beach patrol not long after it happened. I asked if he was a member of WAKSA, and he asked me what WAKSA was. I explained, and told him about the public liability insurance that is part of it. I then asked if he had lessons, he had not. I assumed from this that he had not bought his gear from a shop, and asked if he had bought it second hand. I was correct. I told him that kiting between the groynes at City Beach is not allowed, and he went on to tell me that he wouldn't have been if there was any room north of the northern groyne, and that he had set up between them because there was no room on the sand to the north. I heard from other people who had seen him out kiting that he was in amongst the swimmers between the groynes as well, but did not see this myself.
I did see a few more people between the groynes as well, and they weren't foreign tourists.
As for exactly what happened to get it there, he told me that he was walking past the light with the kite at 12, and must have accidentally steered it into it. Having had no professional instruction at all and no contact with any part of the kiteboarding industry, I'm not that surprised. He went on to explain some of his rationale, which I won't relate here, and I felt despair for the sport of kiteboarding.
Oh well seeing as he's not around just now, allow me....
Maybe we need some more light towers at popular spots to enforce the rules. "Kite where you're not 'sposed to and the tower will eat your kite..."
It is regrettable that this guy had to learn a hard lesson, and more worrying that he has had no contact with the kiteboarding industry. Not sure how you fix this.
Tower looks like the hinge in the middle type.
A good length of rope and a big shifter is all that is needed to get the kite to ground level.
Ask the council to send out their maintenance crew, they should have it down in 10 mins
i say leave it up there. its almost as good as a kooks head on a stake at the top of the dunes.
bah, that's repairable
You should see some of the kites that make it into the powerlines at Dolls sometimes.
Though I haven't seen one up there in a while, thank goodness
Unfortunately "common knowledge" went out some years ago along with "common sense"
haha this guy must be really dumb And really rich cos the kite is still there!!!! anyone heard of clling the council and asking them to lower the light and get it removed...
When the beach patrol was there and the unfortunate chap who owned the kite asked about it he was told that getting a council crew to lower the tower would be considerably expensive, and they would not be very keen to do it either. The fact that he had bought the kite second hand and not got lessons would indicate to me that he is not in fact rich, rather he might be a bit lean on funds. He was only a young chap, early 20s perhaps.
So if he is not rich is he dumb? For a start, that's not a very nice thing to say about someone, especially if you have not met them. As I said before, he has had no contact with the kiteboarding industry. So he either figured out himself how to rig his kite or a mate, or the person who sold him the gear, showed him. Either way, the one point of contact we can be sure he's had is the person who sold him the gear, so did that person stress the importance of lessons? Indeed, does that person even believe lessons are important? If he did, and he does, then perhaps the kite owner is not so clever. But it's still not nice to call him dumb on a public forum especially when he can't defend himself. I daresay he doesn't know about these forums to do so.
If you're saying he's dumb because he hasn't thought to lower the light tower, I can assure you that isn't the case. Speaking to the beach patrol, it sounds like it's neither easy nor cheap to do that.
I think he's learned a harsh lesson, and perhaps we can all learn from it as well. As we all know already, it's an uphill battle to promote safe and responsible kiting, and from this we can see that there is still more to go. As a community of responsible kiters perhaps we should try and pull our finger out a bit more. Perhaps the Scarborough users group could get a bit more organised, perhaps people could put a bit of effort in to help WAKSA in its never-ending work, perhaps everyone could just take a bit more responsibility on the beach and go chat to people who are doing things that could get them in some sort of strife.
Ive been trying to come up with ideas on how this bloke might be able to get his kite down without it costing him a fortune.
1. The Robin Hood Plan.
First I thought maybe a bow and arrow. Tie a long string to the arrow, and try to shoot it up over the line that is caught around the pole. Then tie a blade or a hookknife to the string and pull that up over the line and hope that it cuts.
2. Stunt Kite Dog Fight!!!
Go to Toyworld or somewhere and buy a cheap 2 line stunt kite... And get some big stanley trimmer blades and fix them solidly to the wing tips. Then fly it up there and try to slash the line to free the kite. (and hope to hell that dont carve up the kite)
Before you all start bagging me out and stating the obvious.... Yes that would be dangerous and irresponsible and yes it would most likely end in tears... So - make it your own personal challange to come up with a safer, less ridiculous method.
3. The Steve Fossett Balloon Bonanza
Get a some light gauge wire. Make a ring that you could attach around the light pole. Then go out and buy a heap of helium balloons (I reckon you'd need about 10). Attach the wire ring around the light pole which will act as a guide for the balloons to fly straight up the pole. Then attach a string to the balloons with hook knife dangling from it..... you get the idea?
Fly it up there and jiggle the string around until the dangling hook knife (hopefully eventually) falls into the correct position. Then pull down hard and cut the kite free!!!
Anyone got any other cunning plans that this guy could use to get his kite back?
Sorry about wading into this from another state but the tower in the photo is specifically designed to be quickly and easily lowered to maintain the light fittings.
It has a hinge in the middle and pivots on this hinge like a seesaw. It will have a fixing bolt near the base and loop to tie on a rope. The method is generally as follows
Tie on a suitable rope, 50m of good stuff
Remove the fixing bolt
Have two blokes hold the rope while a third pushes the bottom hinged section away from the fixed vertical section.
These poles are designed so the top is slightly heavier than the bottom so the top with the lights on should come down to ground level under the control of the rope.
If the rope fails or the blokes let go then the top will probably crash to the ground.
Remove the kite and reverse the procedure.
Link to a similar pole to show the designhttp://ingaleps.com/loweringsystem/genarrangedraw/Avenue%20Seesaw/HAL12FDO30/HAL12FDO30.pdf
I'm not advocating anyone other than the owners of the pole try to do this just pointing out that the "neither easy or cheap" excuse is not valid
If all else fails then tie a hook knife to the end of several lengths of PVC pipe and cut it down.
Oh well seeing as he's not around just now, allow me....
You know the times we've had together were very special. Dont let it end this way. 
Please dont walk away. I want you back. I love you Dave. DONT LEAVE ME THIS WAY ... DDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE..................
how is the love.... There have been a few posts randomly along the way throughout the forum complaining that this USED to be a friendly forum for ideas, help, blablabla and now it is all about personal insults, name calling, blalblablablbal...
above you will read that this is a forum full of LOVE... good to see boys and I hope the future works out well for ya!.
N Spruce I am sure if you go bush and do some farm labour you'll get a 3 moth or longer visa extension...
looks like someone slashed, stabbed and got in a rage with this kook kiters kite!
Good Job![}:)]
* Back to topic *
Not the first kite up there not the last, not the first guy (local or Eurotrash) to set up launch and kite between the groins... I just had a thought "We need an Organisation to govern Kiteboarding @ City Beach"
any ideas on the best way to govern Kiting at City Beach?
Similar incident in Caloundra recently.
Photo courtesy of Grumpy Sam.
Apparently the owner cut his lines and bailed. Leaving locals to watch as Energex cut it down.
Made the local paper. Great publicity!!!
DOH!
ill just shut up now eh.
