If you are visiting an area that you don't usually kite in, please check with locals about where to kite and where to set up.
At Caloundra, the lifeguards are getting frustrated with people setting up their gear upwind of the flags, and then kiting straight downwind through the flagged zone.
This is naughty and will eventually attract the wrong kind of attention! Please use common sense.
Hey,
Dave's right, you are not allowed within 50m up or downwind of the flags and 500 metres out from the beach. Although most clubbies don't enforce the 500m rule, it is within their right to do so.
Clubbies around Australia are pretty reasonable guys and girls who volunteer their time to keep others safe. They usually just get fed up with thoughtless, self centred kiters blatently disregarding the rules. This happens on so many of our beaches it's no wonder kiters get a bad name with the SLSC in many beaches.
If you are competent enough to stay out of the way, then do it! If you aren't competent enough, rig downwind or practice more before you venture out into the ocean beaches.
Give 'em a break! 
Safe kiting to all,
Flags are a no go zone.
Even if you see people around steer clear.
I was so embarassed the other day. I was going down in the surf, and i didnt see this person, and i crashed the kite next to him (not on purpose
). Grrrrr, i felt so stupid
.I hate nothing more than kiters who go to near people, and i was one of them. People are scarred ****less of them, cause all they hear are the horror stories. I went up to him and said sorry though
.
dave do you mean the flags at bulcock? that's such a stupid place to put flags anyway, the current rips out 5+ knots there and someone is going to get sucked straight out one day, thinking they're all safe because that's where the flags were just before they went in.
The main two places that the lifeguards are cranky about is Dicky Beach and Currimundi Lake.
All of Dicky Beach is a bathing reserve (not just the flags) and the actual lake and the flagged area at Currimundi are also bathing reserves.
It's mainly tourists who are setting up too close to the flags and are just too lazy to walk 200m up the beach.
We all know that the flags at Bulcock are crap but we have to live with it. We must stay out of the actual flagged area there too.
We also can't set up, launch or land anywhere west of the steps at Happy Valley carpark.
The Council's head lifeguard is very supportive of kiting and usually gives us a heads up when there's a problem. Last summer they were really happy with us. This season the number of kiters in the flags has already caused concern.
If Dicky's is a bathing zone, why can you surf there and what's the difference between flagged and bathing?
How on earth (apart from being lucky enough to read a single forum discussion like this one) are we supposed to know where and when we can/can't go kiting?
I often surf at Happy Valley, but would never have known about the "no kites west of the steps" rule.
Diz
Just west of the steps{hv }a blue sign states bathing zone but there is still kiting going here, which brings along maybe one more problem- from what dave says you cant kite in bathing zones (these signs have only been put up recenly). I think it is just the good grace of the clubies and council we can kite west of the steps at all, if you can not kite in bathing areas. Please explain!
You can kite west of the steps at Happy Valley, you just can't set your gear up or launch and land there. (at present there is no beach anyway).
We are supposed to stay 30m away from bathers and there is a 200m exclusion zone out from the flags.
It comes down to common sense. When the crowds are huge on Bulcock Beach, use your brain and stay away from swimmers.
Dicky Beach is a grey area. During a training session we conducted with them last year on behalf of AKSA, CCC lifeguards asked if we could avoid Dicky Beach and the inside of Currimundi Lake. The wind is usually crap there and the crowds are so big why would you bother.
CCC are very happy with local kiters and are very supportive of our sport. These reminders are really for visiting kiters and noobs. If you see someone setting up in the wrong place, tell them.
There is a map available of bathing reserves & flagged zones, with local beaches (and the wind you need to kite there). If you want a copy PM me. It's a draft at present, but once it is finalised I will email it to local kiters and copies will be available at the beach and on the Caloundra Kitesurfing Club website (coming soon).
Yep good thread
we have a couple of spots here in SA Normanville and Souh Coast Beaches where the surfing learners are and clubbies
Normie is easy to stay away from the flags and that's all we have to do.
Daz
An update here in Newcastle on that note is that when there has been no one swimming (genarally strong southerlies no one mad enough to go in water except for us )the lifeguards at dicko have'nt minded riders going near the flags .There is a train of thought that this sends noobs an unclear message ( the spot isn't really suited for noobs in southerlies ) and that it is best to stay out of the flags in any circumstances
