? What's the score, iko, bksa, bks, background,
An organisation in the teaching roll is as good as it's instructors, hope these guys have a better enforcement on their brand name,
The above kiting organisations although not perfect have a decent criteria , however I'd like to see more enforcement on who run these courses, a central location under quality supervision, not dished out to every tom dick n Harry kite shop/ school, as a commercial profiting venture,there appears to be a focus on profit not quality of instruction, however there's not reason it carnt exist

i bloody hope for all australian kiteboarders sake it dies before its first birthday

Why's that, you think that Australia can't do their own Instructors Course as well as Britain ? I guess there is always the IKO based out of the Bahamas ! HaHaBaHaHaHa !

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TotalBS said..
Why's that, you think that Australia can't do their own Instructors Course as well as Britain ? I guess there is always the IKO based out of the Bahamas ! HaHaBaHaHaHa !

Well said. IKO, etc are purely in it for the $$$. Safety? Yeah right....

A team of 4 senior instructors along with some representatives of KA and I think Yachting Australia have been involved with rewriting a school curriculum and a set of guidelines that schools will have to operate within.
KA has used a company that has previously legitimized several other sports so that government funding can be used for the sports development, this is a joined up thinking approach that means that local state organizations eg WAKSA have a framework and a toolbox to-

1. Support kiting at a local level
2. Preserve beach access for existing spots
3. Secure funding for comps events at a local level
4 develop kiting at a grass roots level, and introduce it to the next generation.

The part that was missing was the education. Several senior instructors across the main teaching methods IKO & BKSA have been meeting on a regular basis to put together a schools package so as a school owner you can get insurance for the school & instructors and have a structure to teach to.

The instructors will have to do a conversion course to the new system ( an update of IKO/BKSA and featuring modern kites and practices that have changed in the past 10 or so years and tailored to Australian conditions.

All very IKO, the dodgy operator pays his license fees and does what ever he wants, right?

No, there will be a team of senior instructors who will go out and inspect schools and teaching practices.

Businesses inspecting other businesses you say.

These will be independent non affiliated people who maybe had a school or instructed, who have since given up kiting in a business capacity but are happy to donate time to give back to the sport they love.

If you run a sausage factory school and do not invest in modern equipment, safety training for students, and quality instructors you lose accreditation, insurance and most likely the ability to teach on a permitted location as KA will be the main contact point for all councils.

Darren has been involved with this committee from the get go, along with Chris Sal from Kite Republic, Joe Millen from ARSA, and Sean Webb who has a BKSA background.

While it won't be perfect it's a massive step forward for both the sport and the level of instruction within Australia.

KA are in process of recruiting the instructor trainers and senior instructors to do inspections at the moment.

Instructor training for new starts will follow soon afterwards.
Toddy

reading your post is EXACTLY why we SHOULDNT be getting behind this bull****.

who the **** wants EVEN MORE ****ing bull**** rules and ****ing lit lawyers involved in our ****ing hobbie ??

this whole thing has NOTHING to do with kiteboarding or instructing and a hell of alot more to do with being the governing body over our sport.

how the **** can you seriously try justify makeing our country even more of a nanny state?!?!

40 years ago we were allowed to ****ing run off mountains with bamboo and garbage bags hopeing to fly have you SEEN the amount of bull**** we have to go thru to fly in australia now?!?! and you want to restrict even more of our freedom to just ****ing kitesurf.

your little IDEA of PRESERVEING beach access and sites is ****ing stupid mate. lets say you actually build momentum and you start to be recognised by councils as this organisation thats responsible for it. WHY WOULD WE WANT AN ORGANISATION RESPONSIBLE FOR IT!?!?!? are you going to have a ****ing high ranking offical on every ****ing stretch of sand in australia?!?! no your not your going to have half a dozen cronies who are THEN going to be responsible for ****ing sites NONE of you have even SEEN with your own eyes. and then we are going to be dependant on YOU to get the all clear.

why the **** would anyone want this???!

if you were an organisation whose primary roll was to get rid of all the bull**** THEN id be all for it. instead your just createing more and more rules and regulations and i ****ing know your trying to force membership and insurance on every god damn kitesurfer in country

if you want kiter insurance fine pay your $125 a year to KA (i did once it did nothing surprise! oh wasnt that fun the other day when they reset everyones passwords by accident?)

but do you want to be FORCED to ??!? sure they dont say there going to NOW but they will. want to kite this beach? you need to be a member! only members can kite on xxxx council land etc etc its for SAFETY

OHHHH YES there have been some accidents now you all need to wear a helmet and a pfd ooooooo what other decisions can i make for everyone? how about set hours yeah that sounds great no kiteing dureing 2-4pm sounds ****ing retarded right? but it CAN happen and has in other places and even in same places with other sports.

but the moneys going to the bahamas its going to a tax haven boohooohooo there getting rich and not us!! WE WANT TO GET RICH!! go manufacture some australian back scratches see if china gives a ****

now all the crazy tinfoil hat **** aside


the australian kitesurfing licence wont be recognized ANYWHERE in the world. not for first few years minimum if at all. so if you want to teach abroad you need IKO anyways. not only that. THATS WHERE ALL THE JOBS ARE ADVERTISED! yeah did anyone know that half the whole ****ing point of the "iko" is to CONNECT and NETWORK every school so it can source an endless stream of instructors to employ hire etc
whats the australian one need to do? post an add on seabreeze you allready have every instructor there. do you see many of these posts from schools?!?!? nope...why?!?!? because they would rather hire foreigners who work for half the price and often have just as much experience if not more.

if you are an australian and your doing this course your just shooting yourself in the foot. i think 1/4? of the people who do a kitesurf instructor course ACTUALLY does it as a job afterwards ... and most of those again only do it for a season or 2 or if your aussie most likely just something to do on weekends. reasons for this are varied but youll basicly make twice as much money on minimum wage working a normal fulltime roster at maccas or woolies.
where being an instructor comes in handy is working ANYWHERE in world with great conditions etc etc you can do 2 months here 3 months there travel the world chaeing the wind probably still be a bit hungry but its doable.

your not going to be able to do that with your aussie licence. not without the JOB BOARD not without the international recognition and not without any experience which you probably aint going to get.

your getting fleeced.

if IKO is so money hungry and nefarious why **** would you RECREATE there ponzi pyramid scheme here at home? how much WORK are you really going to do? you talk about sending out instructors to double check the standards are upto scratch?!?! can anyone say ****ing kickback?!? you really dont think theres not going to be some beers and couple underbelly sangas getting tossed about with that great idea? ive seen schools in oz with students and storms brewing overhead talking school owners here with anvil heads 15 minutes away. THEY LAUGH about it why?!?! because they allready have got the council to NOT ALLOW ANY COMPETITION they just throw the local council a fee for high use high impact on nature whatever flavour of month is and hay presto not enuff room for any other operators (even tho there is ****loads more room especially when there only paying for 20sqm in fees)

anyways the whole thing is terrible from every angle go make a buck somewhere else fellas i dont need anymore ****ing organisations telling me what to do and demanding money off me this countrys enough of a joke as it is.

to lighten the rant a bit for any poor prick that actually read all this gibberish **** enjoy this gay clip that shows what it USE to be like before everyone tried to make a ****ing doller off your hobby .be

Well, I'm mostly kiting metro beaches, which are the same places that I take my kids to play. I have no problem with the concept of regulating a dangerous sport for the benefit of others, and the sort of people who aren't willing to do the training and follow some basic rules are the same people who are trolling through the swim flags and trying to self launch in 8 knots on a crowded beach and wrapping their kite around sunbathers.

If KA is going to take the lead on promoting safe, controlled kiting then more power to them and I'm happy paying my annual membership.

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jackforbes said..
Well, I'm mostly kiting metro beaches, which are the same places that I take my kids to play. I have no problem with the concept of regulating a dangerous sport for the benefit of others, and the sort of people who aren't willing to do the training and follow some basic rules are the same people who are trolling through the swim flags and trying to self launch in 8 knots on a crowded beach and wrapping their kite around sunbathers.

If KA is going to take the lead on promoting safe, controlled kiting then more power to them and I'm happy paying my annual membership.

and how are they going to do this? with a staff of what 8? are you actually hearing what your saying? OH THEYLL NEED MORE FUNDING TO DO IT! think about it youve been here before, we have ALL been here before.


you know today mate i had couple kooks one from britain ****ing on 12m's bloody trying there best to kill themselves at lake weyba in gusts of something like 27 knots at times i was being lifted on a 9m at a chubby 80kg. what did i do? (weybas a driftlaunch only sorta joint) ran over saw them trying there best to renact whatever happened down road other day grabbed there kites they thanked me and they went in. happy days took what 5 minutes? my misses gave me **** for catching kites and offered to make me a special tip jar to collect donations cause im allways being this ****stick that trys to help people who look kooky and lost.

i didnt actually charge anyone for this....i didnt do it for money...or anything other then oh **** here we go again another injury better help out.

you can very easily do this to if you want.

if you dont give a **** then dont.

but we dont need some ****wits showing up once a year to collect money off of us for doing nothing other then ****ing up whatever system we have thats suitable or works for a local spot.

the surfers dont have it. we dont need it.

if everyone just pulls there finger out and helps the startled looking kooks for there first couple runs at any location then theyll be fine and grateful and even carry it on for the next lot once they have the spot dialed. theres no ****ing organisation involved in that. and it is the ONLY insurance of any safety there ever will be. its willing eyes and ears on site/location thats it.

KA needs to stick it up there jumper

Hey Kozzie, Get Virgin to sponsor it and we have nothing to worry about.

The IKO was dodgy from the get go.
and Actionsportswa's post has just named most of the figures involved in propagating The IKO scam all these years in Australia.

Power corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.

this proposed new school system as described just transposes the financial end point from the Caribbean into the hands of the Aussie Iko clique that most profited from the IKO scam. Now they don't have to forward anything to the Caribbean.

this of course is my own opinion. But I firmly believe there should be some form of standardised teaching system but it needs to be both effective as a teaching method, Safe, and totally free of the political baggage of the IKO.