Cross posted from me in the Kiting WA forum...... I have been really disappointed with Dutchies the last 5 yrs I have been in the country I vist once or twice each summer and the stoke has gone.....
Please don't crucify the windsurfer til you have read it all.
I was very angry today re: an unsafe kiter or two at the above spot.... same as I was last summer when I visited Perth. Rather than start a flame war I will be polite and trust you blokes will be also....
These two incidents were 10sec apart:
(1) I was heading back in after 2hrs on the water. As I came in, I was a little downwind of the other WS'ers and I was at the upwind area of the kiters.... sort of on the border of the two groups. Lining up to come in where I have to due to rocks.... just south of the second set of stairs from the groyne, I picked up a 'wave' .... tiny but one of the very few for the day (!) and I headed upwind on it looking for the peak for a backside turn as it broke. A kiter turned onto it right in front of and upwind of me right where it would break 2sec later. Now before I get flamed here, this was 30-40m out from the beach and this was his outside turn so I fail to see why he did it right there, not 200-500m offshore like everyone else was. Bad manners but I can deal with it... fvc&ed up my little wave but too bad I've been dropped in on before. He didn't even ride the wave or turn on it, so bvggered it up for me for no reason...if it was his intention to ride the wave I could understand why he did it even though it broke all the R.O.W rules...
(2) so I didn't get my turn on this wave, but I used it to get upwind to where I would exit the water. As I rode upwind a kiter behind me and slightly upwind of me (overtaking I think) dropped his kite right close to the water so the lines were 5m front of me about 3-4m off the water...... and close.... and he abused me.
For what I have no idea. Maybe cos I was in their area for 20 sec as I struggled upwind in **** all breeze?
This was bl00dy stupid if he had the slightest prang or whatever, or if I accelerated we would have been wrapped up in lines etc.
I had done nothing to him, and really as we were both on same tack with me in front of him if he wished to overtake HE has to keep clear of ME.
Now without having a crack at kiters, I think the Dutchies crew need to be aware of a few things.
(1) WS'ers can't travel through 2" deep water like you guys. We have 2 gaps in the submerged rocks that we can use to enter and exit the water. If you haven't kited Dutchies for long look at where the windsurfers have to go and expect them to go there!!! I think d!ckhead number 2 thought I was cutting him off when all I was doing was holding the line that any WS'er would have had to keep.
Last summer I was abused by a kiter at the exact same spot as he tried to force me away from him .... he thought I was too close but I don't have eyes in the back of my head and I HAVE TO exit the water in the "keyway". That knobhead made his inside turn in the keyway every single run he did and wondered why WS'ers were always there. Duh!
(2) for god's sake realise that we are trying to ride waves there sometimes. All the kiters were going in and out and not riding waves today (cos there was none!!!) .... but when somebody gets on a rare wave don't turn on it right in front of them! Nobody expects your outside turn to be 40m from the beach.... and if you DO turn 40m from the beach they expect you are turning onto a wave to ride.... but this knob didn't even do that!!
I'm a TB myself n after reading that makes me bloody angry. i haven't been kiting for long only for about a year now, n a got a couple mates who windsurf n i pay total respect for them, i enjoy riding around with them. really people like that makes me sick, give kiters a bad name or a even worse name infact. plenty of wind, water + waves for everyone no need for sh!t like that.
hope your next sesh is a bit better mate..
Thanks mate it is nice to hear from good kiters. Perth seems to attract the fvksticks for some reason: the ones at Esperance (where I used to live) were tops and so are the guys at Greenhead. But Dutchies: always seems to be about 10 guys out and 2-3 of them are totally dangerous and seem to really have a hate for polies (they think we don't like them so they have to have a go at us first??? I dunno...)
Mark ,I sail there alot and the problem is only getting worse as the kite population grows,as been said before there are some good kiters who understand the small keyway we launch from and others i dont think really care .There is a sighn down there that only members of WA kite assocation can kite there.There is plenty of room for both so hope things improve
I only go there coz it takes half the time to drive there than to drive to scarbs... but yeh it is a pretty easy place to sail.
Hmm this is an issue, and I think it comes from a total neglect and willingness to learn wave some knowledge............... and also a total lack of respect.
I sailed Dutchies a few days ago and there was a Kiter setting up at the base of the stairs, lines everywhere........ WTF!!!
Some simple manners and thought power wouldn't go astray.
Peace Love and Happyness is my Dream.
More in the water the better now days with the men in grey suits swimming around.
Got into a bit of strife at Dutch in when my board got separated from by sail, Decided to swim after the board but soon found there was no way I could catch it, so swam back to sail to rescue it before it sank, knowing that the board would eventually make it to shore. A kiter picked up my board and took it to shore then came out and dragged me and my sail back to shore.
There can be good will and harmony between kiters and windsurfers ........
I'm an ex-Leighton windsurfer. I have now moved to Dutchies for solidarity - partly because the Leighton windsurfing alley has been completely over-run by kiters from the Port Beach side, and partly because we need to hold our ground with numbers where we can.
Fair enough to the kiters at Leighton I reckon - the windsurfer complement there has steadily shrunk the past two years and now its just one or two out at most. I suspect next summer we will see no windsurfers there at all.
If the windsurfer numbers don't keep up at Dutchies we will find kitesurfers pushing up the beach there too. The only way to discourage them is with a wall of 'poles'. They dislike that methinks.
That said, its power to the numbers - and the numbers are not on windsurfing's side at the moment. A little bit of friction at the margin is thus likely, but we need to manage it sensibly and proportionately, particularly where gumbie learners are involved (I certainly fall into that category).
So hey, live and let live - life is but change, as the grasshopper said.
best mate I ever had
I thought the Kiters usually went downwind of Dutchies? Havn't been there for a ages though ... except to practice not-falling-off my SUP.
I've gone back to Leighton - I sort of prefer it there for some reason (and its 3 minutes less in the car).
Had a very pleasant sail the other day - just me an about 12 kiters. Smiles all around.
