Recently the City of Port Phillip raised concerns with KBV that they had received complaints about kiters coming too close to swimmers at Elwood Beach [Victoria]. They also advised that Life Saving Clubs have also raised concerns about swimmer safety when kiters are too close.
It was noted that the consequences of continuing irresponsible behavior could lead to restrictions to certain areas.
In follow up discussions with CoPP it was recognized that kiters very much need to be self regulating regarding their behavior due to the nature of the sport where it is very easy to set-up and ride from any beach.
Unlike West StKilda Beach which is a known kiting beach and where the Kite Schools and local regulars provide some “policing” of activities, Elwood beach is very much a swimmers beach and has a Life Saving Club. Because the kiting activity at Elwood’s main beach is relatively rare the Life Saving Club rightly attempts to monitor the safety of water activities. Kiting Schools are not present and therefore can’t assist with the monitoring process and nor do I think they should be.
Anyway this is just a reminder that a few “rogue” kiters, who by observation may be very skilled, if they cause concerns to swimmers particularly in patrolled areas run the risk of us all having restrictions imposed on where we can kite.
Also it was noted that a kiter was the centre of attention at the StKilda Festival site just in front of the Planet X Wake Rail event. The kiter was attempting tricks very close to shore and continuously flying his kite just over the heads of hundreds of spectators watching the Wake Rail event. This behavior was extremely dangerous as one slip or gear failure would have put many people at risk of serious injury not forgetting the consequences that kiters generally would be labeled as irresponsible “hoons” or whatever.
I have noted a number of earlier threads from other States but would especially welcome Victorian based comments as to how kiters may assist in keeping the rogue element under control and overcome any access restriction issues.
Good point, alot of downwinders are done between Brighton and St Kilda, try not to get too close to Elwood beach, loads of small kids and mothers groups head down that way.
