Hmmm, Niall's description of the incident clears it up a bit.

I am interested if there is any info on the extent of the damage to the swimmer and how he is doing.

If the

fin totally thrashed his face

as described in the first post I would think it would take more than

several stitches to put it back together

.

a bit of poetic licence or just a poor description?

One of my favourite quotes goes something like, "When you enter the ocean you leave civilisation and enter the food chain."

Most beaches on our over-populated coast line have flagged swimming areas. People need to learn to use these areas if they are not competent enough to share the waves with whatever other craft is out there. I am sure no harm was intended and as such it was an accident. There are so many tools on this forum that want to blame people and "inform the authorities" and have people "formally charged" everytime there is an accident. Accidents happen all the time. It sounds like the kiter involved did all he could to assist after the incident.... what more can you ask?

Sorry to hear you have to go Sprucey... maybe the immigration people saw your avatar.

Thanks for the clarification nialls....sort of supports my rant on the other thread.

"I don't think there is reason to "panic." Personally I have not read or seen all that much about kiter "nuisance" given the exponential growth of the sport here in WA. With my own eyes today I saw at least 50 kites out, and that was at Woodies alone. I imagine the coast was full of them, all in good winds too There must be 1000 kites in Perth metro at the moment.....so the randon 1/1000 accident is going to happen regardless.

For the tremendous wind we have had so far this season and the large number of kiters in Perth, it seems that not much has really gone down. Kites in trees, houses and on lamp posts happen. However, given the large increase in the numbers doing the sport I recon things have been moderate given the conditions here in the kiting capital of OZ."

Despite some of my rants in the past, I do believe deep down that our polis are dealing with things much more significant and "risky" to our society which demand priority. Overall I think that kiters are great people with a "boy-girl scout" mentality. Kiting is the best thing to happen in WA and I do think our polis are not so stupid as to not see this. Remember how many kiters are tourists too? Better have kiting than to give Aussie's money for domestic holidays I say.

However, I do feel that regulation may come sooner rather than later because someone has the chance to make a buck and thus have a job."

I would have to disagree with you BWD about not discussing kiting incidents on an internet forum............freedom of speak and "expression" is good. Having personal bitching on the internet is bad and has always been. Keep the personal out of it and everything is welcome, especially useful information and good banter......keep it real fellas.

RobR said...

Kiters of Australia need to understand just who is holding back the sport and supporting proper behavioural reform .

AS mentioned earlier there are d!ckheads (edit: or unlucky people) in every part of society.
NO national organisation can be held responsible for the actions an individual does when partaking in there chosen form of recreation.

Proper behavior is an individual thing and nobody else should be responsible period.
It is a real shame that some individuals have grown up with a F/U attitude to any thought of conforming to what the majority of us consider proper & decent.

As the demand for some authoritative body to take action with whatever bad is happening in our community the individuals responsibilities seems to be diminishing at the same time.

Hello

Here is my 7 second thought...

If there were some signs (ok, more signs, signs everywhere...) at the entrance of beaches that are frequented by several water users (in particular swimmers, beach goers, kiters), would the results could be:
1 - good effect on the attitude of the kiters, including beginners, overseas visitors and experienced kiters with short memories, by reminding some common sense rules (example: avoid populated areas for launching, no kiting around swimmers and between flags, etc...
2 - good effect on the parties that might have some good reason to despise kitesurfers (ex: families, swimmers, fisherman, surfers, ...) : if the signs are signed by WAKSA for instance, that would show that kitesurfers are proactive in auto regulating them. Also, signs could help any party (kiter or other beach user) to remind the "right path" to a deviant kiter by pointing at the sign.

I imagine that signs requires significant money and efforts to implement, but could signs help?

Cheers
Fred

I thinks signs can be a good way to start. Like fvers said I think it would give some of us a bit of backing when we are trying to enforce a bit of good etiquette at our local spot. Right now we get alot of "Who do you think you are telling me what to do" attitude.

Kitehard said...

Nah,

it's our right to ride any where we want. The swimmer was probably getting in the way of a sick cutback. Maybe we should blame it on some kook, that'll mae it all better.

It's nothing, seriously, we'll never get banned, I'll never let anyone tell me where and how I can and can't kite.

Gees, we don't need regulation, all tthis talk about bans and regulation is going to cause it to get shut down, just ride the way you want and STFU Kitehard. We can look after ourselves

Wont be long now .......

WTF ?????

Thanks niall for what should be a conclusion to this topic.....

Apart from personal comments such as........." Gstar, i hope I never see that face outside my bedroom window at midnight on a dark and storny night....Eeeeeek!"