Kitemare At Scarbs

I have had 4 good collisions with Kites over the years.

3 of them with the same guy - coincidence ?

Sick of this guys Bull**** so i am going public.


Collision 1 - couple years ago
Lancelin South passage in an incident so woefully comical that it was almost hard to be pissed off.

I am Coming in on a wave from miles out, wave is about 5 m from breaking, kiter comes out through the break and turns 180 onto the wave placing himself very close downwind of me as i am bearing away down the line.

This is a big no no in surf etiquette. As big a red card as you can get.

My sail is now resting on him and i can't sheet out- result - powered up sail and offending kiter driven under water. He crashes his kite and goes under for a while. Drinks some water. What a dick i am thinking but got his just rewards. Totally put himself in this situation.

A move like this can only come from complete ignorance of surf rotation and right of way rules - so you cant be too mad. Must be a fresh newbie

Collision 2

3 minutes later the guy jumps rails and fins out at me - into my sail screaming that i tried to kill him. Totally lost his cool and is near hysterical. I am telling him to calm down.
Again hard to be too mad and as this guy is just learning and misguided with aggression - possible mental health issue suspected. Result small tear in my sail , small ding on board - could have been worse. Lots of staring and waving at me for the rest of the session. At the time i remember thinking we need to instigate a surf licensing system for these clowns.Some sort of compulsory signage like the surfers have maybe.

Collision 3

Yesterday - Scarbs -first run out - i tack about 400m out to sea.

i am stationary (as we tend to be when the wind is a little lighter) and this guy lines me up and jumps low and fast straight at me - and there is the same view again - fins and rails out - impacting my sail and mast hard knocking me off my board. I get the red mist and start to swim after him - then realise its the same guy!! He has followed me out , lined me up and in a fully premeditated act jumped at me. This is not some sort of near miss in the break situation -He must have been planning it the whole way out. I abuse him as you do. He indicates that this will continue to happen in future.

Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out i have a high profile in being outspoken about the kite / windsurf conflict that seems to be happening at Scarbs regarding a small section of beach that windsurfers use and are getting frustrated with. I can only assume that this mad act was partly to due to some misinterpretation to my role in trying to get a semblance of organisation going on at the beach.

So now a Police report has been made - with the goal of documenting some past behaviour - as they say - past behaviour is a good indication of future behaviour. I do some work with Police ancillary services and am known as a person of reliable character.

So we now have a pattern of behaviour on Police record.
And what this guy is doing can be classed as criminal behaviour.

- i have a family to provide for and a small business to run and don't need to have to worry about a maniac trying to hospitalise me by jumping fins and rails out at me whenever he gets the opportunity or imagines that he is protecting his slice of beach or whatever it is that goes through this guys head.

Put simply - the next time this happens - and i have a feeling it may as he indicated that this wouldnt be the last time- there had better not be any witnesses as its going to go very VERY badly for this guy.Not sure what your WAKSA public liability covers but i suspect with a track record like this it may be null and void.

While i don't want to id him here - lets just say he doesn't ride and inflatable.And it isnt the kiting legend that is Ian Young - a top bloke in my book.

Moving forward i am willing to forgive this clown- as i'd like to just enjoy some after work windsurfing. But to protect myself in future - the report is sitting there- for insurance.

So right now i reckon cool heads need to prevail - we arent rock starts or world champs trying to win heats - just after work crew letting off some steam in a very fun and healthy way.

So While most kiters are cool the bell curve unfortunately prevails. Same with the windsurfing population.

The talk amongst the windsurf crew at Scarbs was that if anything - the situation with kites buzzing through has gotten worse - with a few now seeing it as a ?bit of sport ? to buzz through the windsurfers. Ahh - got to love that Aussie sense of humour and larrikinism.

Collision 4

And what was the 4th incident you may ask? Well in an effort to lighten the tone here and have some fun (after all what we are doing is supposed to be fun- right?)

it was self a inflicted kite / windsurf video accident gone wrong - ohh we laughed! (once we realised we hadn't killed each other)

For those of you that havent seen it - here it is.

Find it hard someone can be angry at you Matt. Not only do you sit both sides of the fence, are very skilled and you are a humble man on the water. Happy to help if needed.

All the nutters obviously live in WA. This is a daily event. What the hell are you all taking??

Wow! I thought this guy just loved to kite like a witless idiot and now it turns out it is not the laughter of a court jester we have heard, but that of a psychopathic loon. I am starting to thing 'Wolf Creek 3' needs a storyline and this guy is in the starring role. I am thinking Jack Nicholson in The Shining', laughing as he peers around the door with an axe, or the sneer of Anthony Hopkins in 'the Silence of the Lambs' . He certainly does the revenge thing better than Hannibal "Revenge is a dish best served cold" Lecter . Two years!!!!!!! I think not even Hannibal waited that long. I am not for a moment suggesting he had anything to exert revenge for by the way, at least nowhere except in his own sick little mind.

I think I know who it is and will confirm with Matt. If it is who I think it is he has few friends in the kiting community. A few crew actually hate him but I think he may be understood. I recall that he did us all a favour a few years ago when he didn't show up at Brighton for a few months, after a stoush with an Angler, where he couldn't see what the other guys issue was. He was widely lambasted on this forum. I had thought him as a bit of a harmless idiot with an unfortunate penchant for crashing his board/kite/self on top of me. I could never figure out why he always had to jump his strapless board just upwind of me on his way out - every time with the same foreseeable consequences... board dropped, then kiter crashes and then kite crashes. Slow learner maybe, very slow. I thought it just his crazy way of being friendly. Now I am not so sure. Maybe that is all it was, a show off jump gone badly wrong and if so then he might need to explain himself and apologise profoundly, but I doubt Matt could have misconstrued why he was jumped upon. If this was an assault and it sound like it then it is just as, if not more, criminal than some star footballer exacting revenge on the mandibles of his ridiculers outside a night club. I think indeed some quiet words need to be spoken.

Matt's post bears a lot of resemblances to Ads' post a few weeks back on the kiting forum 'Dangerous Windsurfer at Brighton'. Have a read . It seems neither kiters nor windsurfers are immune to a few crazies in the ranks.

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cauncy said..

kkiter said..

All the nutters obviously live in WA. This is a daily event. What the hell are you all taking??

no mardi gras over here kkiter

We try to pretend it doesn't happen Cauncy, though it appears they're at least civil. The cops like to lay the boot in though. Maybe they're from WA!

Windsurfer is on the wave riding down the line. Kitesurfer should give way.

I remember kiting south passage a couple of years ago, and another kite chases me down and asks me to stop.

He was all freaked out and saying a windsurfer tried to drown him. He seemed to think he had done nothing wrong, and I tried to explain the 'system' to him. Sure enough he went back out and appeared to be battling to not get in the way.

I wonder if that was the same incident. Red sail at the time by any chance?

Wow what a crazy thread.

MikeN if you have issues with me or my behavior go ahead and list them here or bring them up with me in person.

Reflex I am really sorry I got in your way and you ran over my board? I didn't even realize it was you? I don't get how you can claim I ran into you? All I remember is yelling and screaming to stay out of the windsurf area. I was trying to transition jump with my board and the next thing I know a windsurfer has whizzed past me, clipped my board and fell off. He swam over all irate and yelling , I said sorry then , I forgot to check behind me. I consider myself lucky to not have been run over by his fins. But now I know it was you ? Whats the problem you have some sort of vendetta against me? Although your account of what happened at South Passage is wildly different than mine, I do remember almost drowning because you hit my body with your board at great speed, then while I was dazed you pushed your sail over the top of me with your body laying push up style on top, seemingly to increase effect? A wave then broke I was stuck with my bar and lines around the boom, underwater. It was an extremely scary situation one which I would like to avoid again. Actually now reminds me of when I was 5 swimming and some kids trapped me under an inflatable boat at a party, I nearly drowned then too, my dad dove in full suit and tie and saved me.

Niall it's nice to know you think so little off me, it's amazes me how aggressive and dangerous you can be on the water yet polite and cordial in person.

I really encourage you all to bring your complaints about me out here or in person if you so wish. I know I am not well liked, so what difference would it make.

I have rescued plenty of kiters probably dragged in atleast 50 odd, I consider it a pay it back kind of situation. Where I have have been rescued a few times myself, even by a windsurfer once. I even helped rescue a stranded guy at the Pointwalter off shore, my reward my board was stolen by a passing boaty. I have rescue a couple of windsurfers on separate occasions who were k's out with broken kit and offered to many help and check they were ok, the same I do for kiters. There are some really nice windsurfers, like the Brazillian guy that kites and windsurfs at South Brighton, and the American guy with an earing at Brighton and the guy who comes over from Victoria each Christmas at Scarborough. There is obviously just a few aggressive individuals who like to run over kiters or scare them with close passes.

after such a blatant takedown while and the veiled threats that followed

i knew this was a matter for the Police - there is no sense talking to this guy as he apparently has his own reality. Right now i am not looking to do anything other than protect myself from future incidents.

Mr Driftin -believe it or not after our history -i dont have a vendetta against you.

my best hope for you is that you can be rehabilitated and get to a point where you arent a danger to seemingly everyone on the water and you are finding great reward in expressing your "creativity" through Kiting.

It is a very fun thing to do. Obviously there is a mellow guy in there some where given your extensive rescue history.

Have a chat with your fellow kiting brothers , work with them on some of their frustrations- they are pretty much all very decent and entertaining characters. - and try and get to a good place. You'd be surprised what a carton of beer and good chat with the crew can achieve.Especially after a windy day when everyone is feeling awesome.

It would seem that there is a strongly corroborated pattern of behaviour here - you have to be strong enough to break it.

None of us are perfect and it can get hectic in the tight zone that is the Scarborough washing machine - i will admit that i have been guilty of making errors in judgment in the past - so lets all be safe and cool.

I hope we can all have a laugh about this down the track one day.

similar - stayed with a windsurfer out at reef (lancelin) that snapped mast and wanted me to stay with him as he paddled in. also stayed with a kiter at coros with snapped line/kite pulling him out to sea - would not let go for an hour downwind. Everyone know the rules and get along. I do wonder about spacial awareness of some tho - just knowing who is where, what could happen, buffer zones... doesnt quite sound like the windsurfer that went for flash austins head back in the day!

Thought I had a handle on who it was - not so sure now.
But if its the offender I thought it was he is also one of the most regular offenders I see flying in & out of the Scarbs flag zone. There are several regular offenders who definitely know they shouldnt & way too many others who either dont know or dont care. Its YOUR responsibility to know before you have to be told.

But forgetting this incident 2 things kiters MUST learn on the City to Trigg is ;
1) stay out of that small zone in front of the SLSC flag zone. Flags or no flags; swimmers or no swimmers.
You guys have no appreciation of how close kiting may be to loosing the amazing privilege of being able to kite in a central metro area. This just doesnt happen in most parts of the world. It will take just one complaint from anywhere and no-one - not even WAKSA - will be able to save this run so many of you rely on for your daily fix. If it happens to be the clubbies who finally get sick to death of you thoughtless, selfish kiters then there wont even be a fight for WAKSA to wage. We will be gone - forever.
2) common sense & courtesy
Give the poleys their 100M of 'native title' water. It makes absolutely no difference to your downwinder to give these guys the small slice of water they have been using long before kiters came along. Not just common sense but common courtesy. Its not as though you need that 100M poley tacking zone.
Live & let Live. Or better Enjoy & let Enjoy.
Why bring all the hassles everyday living makes impossible to avoid into the scene where we are all out there looking for a break from all that sort of shiit.

I just dont get it!

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puppetonastring said..

Give the poleys their 100M of 'native title' water.

'Native Title' .....lol. ^^^

Puppet's always giving away the real estate,

to the detriment of metro kitesurfers.

He did a nice old job on Mullaloo with WAKSA.

He gave away acres of water.

Dude, can't you see it ?

This whole thread is just another installment to bolster Refex's wetdream for an exclusion zone.

And who said Mr Driftin was doing a downwinder ? (and what if he was)

He probably launched his kite at Scarbs,

like those other kiting regulars, Nialls and MikeN.

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fingerbone said..

I don't know what happened to a good old punch up in the car park or on the shore...sort it out there and then...don't let it ruin your life....crap like this can play with ya head...win,loose or draw at least you get it off your chest.

Until you knock someone to the ground, they crack their head, and are dribbling down their front the rest of their now terrible lives...

Fark this reads like a Home and Away episode (without the hotties )

Driftn thanks so much for your version of that incident, it was gold. Him with his sail holding you down etc. So what, positions after crash is irrelevant.
What is relevant is that its impossible to get in that position unless you dropped in or didn't look around and realise a bloke was riding a wave.
It is not hard to watch for 10min and see where people are taking off, where they ride the wave to down the line etc - and do the same.
Sounds like what you did was akin to jumping on a racetrack in the middle of pit straight and didn't look. Now you say he attacked you. Pull the other one.

Predictable responses from Mr Slave.

Predictable talk about deliberately running down people - which is bullsh!t. Nobody wants strings around them in the break, good way to drown (after you get filleted as kite tries to relaunch) so nobody tries to hit kiters.

So you dont want to have a word to the bloke but have dobbed to the cops and then come on here and have a dummy spit,
I dont know you or the accused but what i do know is the way that you have gone about this is wrong,
very poor form,
Ive been kiting and surfing a bit and havbent come across any maniac psycho kiters, but have seen heaps of F*#ked up crazy surfers, windsurfers will continue to have holes blown through theior sails at cactus!near misses will and will continue to happen, Kooks will get dropped in on, Hope you feel safer now that youve had your hissy.
SAD DAY FOR THE METROSEXUALS!