I thought I'd start a thread for people to discuss the WAKSA meeting on the 27th January.

My first thoughts were how great it was to see so many people there. I honestly thought that maybe half a dozen would turn up, but by the numbers there it clearly shows that we do feel strongly about our sport and we are concerned about what could potentially happen if we don't start helping ourselves.

Some good suggestions were put forward, but IMHO I don't think any real decisions were made that will change the perception of kite surfing to the councils/press/general public.

I totally agree that as a community the first thing we have to do is change our own attitudes; as new people coming into the sport are going to follow by example. The number of WAKSA members who blatantly break the rules set out by WAKSA is shocking and this needs to change.

To get press/council on our sides I don't think that going to them and saying that 'Kiters are now going to tell each other off' is going to cut much mustard! There needs to be much more positive measures put in place.

The suggestion of having a notice/information board at each location is a great idea. This board can have details about the area, the risks, the best place to launch and in what direction. It can also have general information about kite surfing on it, such as 'What is kite surfing?', 'How to spot if someone is in trouble'. This kind of information would educate members of the public and make them aware about what is going on. There can also be WAKSA details on the board so people can see that we are a professionally run sport and there is point of contact should people require more info or wish to complain. This would then hopefully direct complaints straight to WAKSA rather than through the press/council.

As for 'dobbing people in' I think there needs to be a much more formal method. I would suggest that we try and have Kite Marshals at each spot over the weekend/during the week (maybe have a roster of when it is each persons turn). They should be easily identifiable (maybe have a bib?) and will be there as a community liaison officer. They will ensure that people are kiting safely, sticking to the rules, help with launching/landing and answering questions from the public. This would take the burden off the rangers, which in turn saves councils time and money. Plus, kiters are probably less likely to break rules if they know that someone is watching them and they will be reported to either WAKSA or the rangers.

By combining the marshals and the information boards it could be possible that out of WAKSA funds we supply a wind meter to each location so that the current wind speed and direction can be written on the board regularly. This would help people assess the conditions better, choose the right size kite or even not go out. This could be presented to the press that following the Rockingham accident (which is believed to have been caused by incorrect kit selection) WAKSA are now providing kiters with real-time information to ensure something like that accident doesn't happen again.

And why not a have a space on the board where people sign in/out when they go out? Writing their WAKSA membership number and kite on the board so that the marshal can see who is out there and ensure that everyone does return safely.

As a community I'm sure we can build up our funds and maybe start having rescue launches at spots as well.

These are my opinions and I believe they would give a much better impression of kite surfing to the press, the councils and the general public.

Be interesting to hear what people think.

Happy, safe kiting!

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At the same meeting, 3 local kiters from each problem kite area, Cotteloe, Peli Point and Scabs were assigned the task of looking at what WASKA could do further at each kite site, to improve our kite public image. Matty, Malcolm and myself are meeting at Cott phone box on Friday arvo, to LOOK at the issues. (Matty and Malcolm live across the road from the phone box and I live a couple minutes away) We have been given a week by WASKA to come back to them with a few thoughts. If anybody has a light bulb go off in there head and wants to share it, talk to Matt, Malcolm or I and we can relay it to WASKA.

We all agreed at the meeting that we need to improve our wareness of other beach and water users.
1.ALL KITERs should stay 30 metres from any beach or water user.
2. If some one is using the beach, launch your kite at least 30m away from them.
3. Get help when launching your kite(I will start doing this)
4. Don't walk over dunes at Cott, use the walk way(Me again)

One of the first constructive tasks we will be looking at is to help restore the damaged dune area at Cott phone box.


Jonathan

I wasnt at the meeting last night. So dont know if this was mentioned or not

Another thing that 4WD clubs and other fringe Councile attention getting clubs do is to:

1) Adopt a beach and keep it clean.
2) Participate as a group in clean up Aussi day.
3) Tree planting days as mentioned by above.
4) Improve facilities thru Working days.

Dont know how applicable this is to kiters, personally i would hate to see signs go up at the beaches and have an over requlated sport with bib wearing beach marshels. Though matty and johnathan would look nice in a little hot pink number

If you read DPI rules http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/imarine/rec_boating There is nothing that really defines either kite surfing or windsurfing ( i havent read it all). Two things jump out and thats the keep 45m from shore if water sking on the river and the 200m 8 knot exclusion zone (this may only apply to motor boats) that applies all the way up the coast from freo to burns beach.

Keeping 30m from the beach will stop all piss poor attemps at wave riding in Perth Metro area...

Shane

just read the boating guide, i am a speed reader trust me, and it says all vessel shall not be a nusance to other water user's and also metions 45m from shore, people etc. Not the 30 mentioned above.

shane

Kite where you like is what we all want.
I'm also not into semi-kite police, but if there are beach users, swimmers, walkers, snorklers, etc , we kiters stay 30m away from them. So if a dude decides to start swimming at the phone box, we avoid them up or down wind by 30m. Not real hard to do just takes a little mind adjustment. We may walk up beach 30m to launch, or tack up wind 40 or 50 metere and blast a few forward rolls over the beach, so the swimmer or beach user is totally unstressed by us kiting so close to them. The beach user will still get a blast watching the kiting and we will still be able to kite at Cott.

Jonathan

30m was used as a good starting point.

The motto as mentioned last nite should be heavily promoted -

"Kiters Give Way"

Those words just hit the nail right on the head for me.

I re-read my post shunter, I sell real estate, so the English language is not a major talent. What I meant to say was.
1. Stay 30m from Beach SWIMMERS and beach users.

quote:

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Originally posted by jkeys

I re-read my post shunter, I sell real estate, so the English language is not a major talent. What I meant to say was.
1. Stay 30m from Beach SWIMMERS and beach users.

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No worries mate you are a product of the new zealand eduaction system so we can forgive you (and me)

I wasnt having a go at you, I thought DPI-marine rules where 30m as well. Its a good place to start keeping away from beach users will go a long way.

what about flashing lights for your kites and a badge. Or just sit on the bank at cott with a slug gun and shoot down the kites that come in to close, F#@% how many shots will it take to bring down youngie...

How many people lobbed up to the meeting at the Cott?

quote:

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Originally posted by jkeys

Kite where you like is what we all want.
I'm also not into semi-kite police....

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I'm sure that is what everyone would like, but the reality is people are already being watched by a ranger down in Cotts whose only objective is to catch kiters doing things they shouldn't. Surely it would be better that we are watched by people from our own community who are interested in keeping kiting, rather than by people who would be quite happy if it was banned?

quote:

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Originally posted by jkeys
if there are beach users, swimmers, walkers, snorklers, etc , we kiters stay 30m away from them. So if a dude decides to start swimming at the phone box, we avoid them up or down wind by 30m. Not real hard to do just takes a little mind adjustment. We may walk up beach 30m to launch, or tack up wind 40 or 50 metere and blast a few forward rolls over the beach, so the swimmer or beach user is totally unstressed by us kiting so close to them. The beach user will still get a blast watching the kiting and we will still be able to kite at Cott.

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I totally agree with this and it would solve many problems, but how do we tell this to people who are here on holiday or traveling? They will just rock up to a spot, see people kiting and not beware of 'our' local rules.

BTW I'm not trying to be negative about any suggestions, I'm just posing questions that we may get asked by WAKSA/rangers/councils.

As John Geyer sujested at the meeting last night..........Ah excuse me.....etc etc etc

quote:

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Originally posted by jkeys

As John Geyer sujested at the meeting last night..........Ah excuse me.....etc etc etc

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How many people lobbed up to the meeting at the Cott?

40-50 or so. i saw about a dozen or so peli regulars, most of the rest waved their hands as kiting cott and scarborough regularly

quote:

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Originally posted by laurie


How many people lobbed up to the meeting at the Cott?

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58 in total, that is a bloody good turn out.

Ian

Hi kiters

I too was at the meeting on the 27th...it was without a doubt one of the best meetings too date...with respect to seeing some action on the beach, in other words was the meeting a success...how about this..on Saturday while kiting at Cott (the place we all go too not the swimming beach) I saw a beach goer head for the water for a swim right in the middle of the kite action..I was happily amazed to see kites simple avoid him by at least 30m...Kites simple stayed off shore while he went for a swim...very cool to see...and I'd like to think that was due to the meeting content..well done guys.

Also, the general level of cooperation on the beach was way up and kiters were launching in much safer positions than previously seen at that site...again well done fellow kiters...I guess this proves we can do it if we all kick our own butts as it were.

On the down side there were a coupld of kiters persisting in sailing too close to other kiters...by this I mean when sailing towards the shore dont sail 10m behind another kite. This leaves the inshore kite nowhere to go when he/she wants to turn offshore...

re: woodies

does anyone know how to say "excuse me..." in german? some of these dudes could do with a briefing on the local rules, eg., no jumping within 30m of downwind kiter etc. etc.

'excuse me' in german is 'entschuldigung' pronounced 'ent-shool-dee-goon'

if people persist, i can give some other things to say also ;)

i knew having a german gf would come in handy one of these days :P

happy kiting
Deano

Stevecar I agree with you 99% better safety vibe at cott. Lots of space between kites , swimmers and beach walkers.
Saw a few real dodgy kiters yesterday. It was 18 to 25knots seabreeze graph. One kited up to 5m infront of swimmer, realised his mistake and drifted around the guy and speed off. Another guy got horribly overpowered next to the beach went sailing off down wind and power dived his kite over the heads to 2 50ish beach walkers, they ducked for the ground as he speed off. This happened 50m north of the phone box. One other guy slides 5-10m up the beach on his board not far from a couple of sun bathers. Also as stevecar said some major giveway issues were happening.
Everyone else on the water was cool. I've noticed that the girls are the safest kiters on the water by far.
In my opinion all of the dodgy kiting yesterday was by the less experienced kiters on the beach all GUYS. Ther were all going hard , but had slightly less experience than the other 15 kiters.
Maybe these less experienced kiters need to stay a little further out from the beach?
Any other views , suggestions, comments...

Jonathan

Very encouraging Jonathan, do you know if the kiters that were being 'good' were at the meeting or has the information been passed on to other kiters?

Not sure what to suggest about less experienced kiters. As a less experienced kiter myself I don't like to go too far out in case I do get into difficulty. But saying that I probably never come closer than 20m-30m to the beach.

90% were at meeting. We don'twant to point a finger, we all want to improve or sport , and as witnessed at Cott this week , we all are serious about this. We have all been through the kite learning curve, but we must remember 2 years ago no one kited on the ocean in a full sea breeze. IT was too hard core.(OK a few did) So turning up at Cott and seeing 10 -15 kiters out makes the place look really easy. All of the experienced kiters at Cott have, ended up on the beach, had kites hit the beach and been dragged at various levels around the beach. I personally have hit the beach many times. No one ever said to me to watch out for anyone. A bit of advice when we are kiting can only help. I think now we have to give advice to others as Cott can only get more crowded.

Jonathan

jkeys, I wasn't at the meeting but I was the one who drifted around the swimmer on sunday.

There is a difference between "kiting up to 5m in front of a swimmer" and not actually seeing the swimmer until the last minute. We were about 20m off the beach and I didn't see him until the last minute. I thought I was being responsible by drifting past him and making sure I didn't hit him. Anyway, I will stay further away from the beach in future, now that I have read some of the outcomes of the meeting.

Rohan

Just a note regarding Rohan's comments...

would it be a decent idea to communicate with a swimmer in that type of circumstance just to let them know what you're doing?? not to apologise, as that would lead them to assume that you've done something wrong, but perhaps 'excuse me... didn't see you there, didn't want to be this close to you and therefore this is what i'm going to be doing now so that no harm comes to you or i.... etc etc etc'

that way, the swimmer will know what you're doing, and also alert them to the fact that there is a bit of a danger if things don't go right, and will also display responsibility for their safety. good free publicity in my view...

whether it's intended or not, i'm sure everyone will agree that these instances are bound to happen from time to time. just because it happens doesn't mean that you wanted it to, however that also doesn't mean you can't take a bit more positive action.

it's definitely not a criticism, just a suggestion on something more that could be done...

Deano

Deano,

Good positive point. That is something that I should have done, but unfortunately didn't.

As you say these incidents can happen from time to time and its how we react at the time which will determine how the sport in general is perceived.

I also don't believe its constructive to say that someone is a "real dodgy kiter" if something like this does happen. Being a "real dodgy kiter" would imply some form of intent, which there certainly wasn't.

Rohan

Rohan , just used that as an example to get people thinking, I also kited into beach and saw a few bathers toooo close, and then thought lets get out of here Johnnnooo. You just got attached at the end of the dodgy KITER, as an example. If you watch kiting at Cott this week, we all can agree there has been a massive attitude change by all. Sorry dude.

Seems some people still don't care too much how close their kite comes to yours, or upwind high, downwind low etc. I got jammed more than a few times yesterday at Phonebox from some guy who thought the entire break was his. Tunnel vision sucks. Some room please!!!!
Oh, and some big windsurfer dude trampled down the dune like he'd done it for years.

There's my 2 cents.....

Clive

Jonathan, no problem. Will catch you on the water.
Cheers Rohan

Beer Bong,

Think I encountered the same guy yesterday. Then when I attempted to land my kite the guy just stood there staring into space even though I had the kite about 2 metres above his head. Fortuneately some other guy ran down and grabbed it.

Personally, I think phonebox sucks. If only we could use the wide open spaces of Leighton rather than have to jam up against each other at dog beach or phonebox

Bugger it, I'll describe his gear so he can hopefully realise the grief he's causing. Firstly I'll identify myself as bald head, old Airush Lifts and an old silver Underground with red belly. This dude wore sunnies, long blondish hair, red Underground board and a silver 8m North.
Agree with you Neil, it gets abit busy there these days.
Not being vindictive, just trying to keep Cot safe and fun. Click on my profile to see my details.

Clive