First of all i know people have to earn a living.
Storm Front conditions.
Went down to melville on sunday to have a kite on the onshore.[ first time in years]
Only to see two instructors in a green van teaching students within 2 kite line lengths of the shore in gusty on shore conditions.
i would have though this was stupidity at its best. as i was packing up after about 1.5 HOURS there were trying to get a bloke up on his board and i was thinking two bad swoops and he is on the road.
We all talk about safety but i though this was just out there and who controls them.
that would be soul kitesurfing . Contact them and make a complaint . I did with SOS and john wasn't even aware of what his instructors were doing
soulkiteaustralia.com/
You can teach certain basics of kite control, body drag, relaunch, self-rescue, etc. in on shore winds provided you have the possibility of getting a very safe distance from the shore in shallow waters and using smaller (underpowered) kite sizes and short lines. In a lot of on-shore winds spots, this becomes a challenge as the water gets deeper the further you get from the shore so you are forced to stay closer to the shore.
The problem is of course when comes the time to learn to ride...you have to give the student a kite big enough to get him going + longer lines, and of course you start to create much more distance between the instructor and the student. Like any beginners they eventually end up crashing and send the kite too hard and can easily cover 50meters downwind in a matter of seconds. Which is even more dangerous in very gusty front conditions like that day on Sunday, gust were getting up to 30 knots!
It's not just the safety during the lesson that concerns me the most but more importantly the way these students are being trained. What kind of message are we sending them showing them to ride in on-shore frontal winds? That's it all OK ? So how safe do we expect those students to become AFTER their lessons, when they buy their own gear and go kiting on their own?
Students like the ones you saw are all being promised riding on the board in within 5 hours regardless of their prior experience or pace of progression, and that's from established schools with permits...When you make a promise like this one, you have to put pressure on your instructors to deliver and students have that specific expectation that in 5 hours they will be ON a board...
From my experience, the only way to get an average progressing student (about 60% of students) with no prior training or board sport experience up on a board in within only 5 hours is to:
-Teach in shallow waters with constant hands-on assistance and constant proximity to the instructor.
-Skip much of the theory (like talking about types of winds, directions, weather etc.)
-nearly all water relaunches are done while standing up
-Self-rescue (if it's even done) is done next to the instructor (often with a lot of help from the instructor), standing up the entire time. Other times it's only a demonstration from the instructor...Students don't get a chance to practice alone or in deeper waters, which is what self-rescue is all about!
The end result is these ''babysitted'' students are under-trained to kite by themselves after the lessons, especially to go in deeper waters (where every kiter end up going eventually). The sad thing is most of them don't even know they are under-trained.
Most school's goal is simply to ''teach you to kiteboard''... In my opinion any school's goal should rather be to ''teach you to become a kiteboarder (i.e. one that can practice the sport safely and independently''. There is a big difference between both these goals and there is a lot to do to change that...
The other option for every body, schools, and 'established' kiters (who seem to know what they are doing regarding 'safe' kiting) would be to remember rule # 1 about Melville - DON'T kite there when it's onshore/westerlies....
The problem I see is not that instructors cannot handle the conditions and situations (they are trained professionals and have other safety training as well) or that they "should know better". The issue is what the student does afterwards on their own that worries me.
Most likely, the student will go back to the same spot they were taught and practice there, when this may not be the most ideal in terms of safety to the student or solo kiter.
All beginners have to go deeper into the water, as deep as possible until the water is just above their waist. And if that point is not more than at least 150mtrs away from the shore, then do not kite there.
Instructors - please I beg of you to tell this to your students, for everyone's sake.
Thanks
On shore at Melville, why do it? It's a **** place to kite and extra sketch when it's westerly.
First wintery Cottesloe session yesterday and in the space of about 10 minutes, saw the following:
There was a dude on an RRD self launching about 10m up wind of us as we were packing up. Idiot.
People standing on the beach in cross-on in stormy weather doing the old kooky 'am i powered' jumping thing on the beach. Idiot.
Guy on a cab walked upwind of everyone, there was two people packing up who could've landed him, instead does a ****house self land up wind of about 5 other kiters all waiting for a land. Idiot.
Pointed out to a couple of people that perhaps not the smartest move. Didn't even phase them. Can't say we didn't try.
Won't be missed in the gene pool. 
