Had a nice session at Miami yesterday. Afterwards ,standing on the beach shooting the breeze with another kiter, Rob, a lifeguard from Nobbys Beach drove up and asked us if we knew the two kiters, one with a blue kite and the other with a white kite who sailed straight through the flags at Nobbys. They were obviously doing a downwinder. I saw them appear from the other side of North Burleigh hill but I did not see the riders. Now this is the sort of incident that can get kiting banned on our open beaches. Surely doing a downwinder kiters can stay out the back when passing the flagged areas but apparently these guys did not..
I am with you there Sambo,
Lifeguards have every right not to want kite surfers between the flags. It is not hard to avoid the flaged area doing a down winder.......if you try.
As usual the actions of a the ignorant few, affect us all.
On the positive side, the lifeguard at Nobby's tower was very helpful a while back, lending me his lifeguard board, and giving me directions from the tower, to help recover my kite board (about 500 meters offshore).
Lets all do the right thing be each other, and get on with some fun, safe kite surfing.
Border Rider
Under Queensland Maritime Safety law we're classified as a vessel.
It's illegal for a vessel to enter the flagged areas.
If there where QMS officers there they'd be fined but QMS officers are rarely seen. It's basically all up to vessels on an honour basis to comply.
Just because you aren't pulled up on it don't think lifesavers aren't reporting incidents to QMS as they occur.
Unfortunately a lot of kiters are unaware of this and worse still some are too young or too dumb and think it doesn't apply to them. They seem to have no long term vision for the consequence of their repeat offence.
Fortunately the Lifesavers see most of us staying clear of the flags and doing the right thing.....so far.
Pretty simple rules in Queensland.
200 meters either side of the flags and 400 meters to seaward.
Those are the marine regulations and seem pretty fair to me.
Fitzy Gold Coast OZ
