After a pleasant sail in warm and gusty conditions at the Causeway today we called it quits in the late afternoon and prepared to de-rig on the still green grass area near the car park. Nice lady from Parks & Wildlife called by and advised us that from October 1st until March 31st windsurfing and kiting will be banned from the area. Apparently we are unsetting the bird life. I hadn't heard of this before so I presume no contact with our organisation or the kiters has been made by Parks?
We need to consider this as it seems to me that the Causeway has become a popular spot for the speed folk in N to NW winds at this time of the year. It is also good for general learning, flat water & B&J although plenty of B and not much J really.
I dont know how we can be affecting the bird life but they may be deaf due to the airport 1km away or perhaps dodging horses in the water is wearing them out. It must be water based as the lady did not mention bans on dogs or other activities on the hard stuff.
Is this an issue for Windsurf Tas to take up. Apparently we would need to do this with head guy at Parks 7 Mile branch?

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Sail_Latte said...
will be banned from the area.

Did the Nice Lady say just what "the area" encompassed?
Big thumbs up by the way for letting us know.

What a load of crap. A chopper landed at 5 Mile yesterday where we rig up.
I asked them what the best way to winch a board and rig up was for their next Derwent River rescue

so they got that kitesurfer off the powerlines then

The fun police are at it again. They stopped us from sailing at moulting lagoon a few years ago. Hope this is not the case for your location...

What a load of sh#t, i've never seen a bird there [}:)] i'm just going to sail there anyway

On the windy days I never see small sea birds on the water much they tend to huddle up in the dunes and stay out of it. I hope we are not getting grouped with kites that sail into much shallower water in lighter winds?

And that would mean I have to wait 6 months to try and beat Jez spot record[}:)]

This lovely young lass obviously used her good looks to win you over pete ,I would suggest that you ignore people like her ,she needs to feel important somehow, cause she was to dumb to get in to the police force, jez has the right idea .sounds like jet ski And dolphins, crap crap crap, able tasman And jobs, parks and wild life needs a good spanking from mr spanker say no more.

Ufortunately you cant just ignore the signs, they will fine us , about $200 plus bucks. They did that at Marion when we ignored their signage!
Without consultation with anyone this is ridiculous!, the birds/windsurfers and Ralphs Bay go very well together!
Someone needs to speak to the head office at seven mile and ALSO take it up with a minister ( as Allan Short Suggested).
It is a lot easier to stop before the signs go up. i have posted this topic on the tksa site.

We need to duscuss with Parks but my reading of what the 'senior just my age' nice lady said was that it was the sailing on the water that was the problem. Just how it is a problem is not so clear to me as I have not seen groups of birds hanging around at all.
Be mindful that other spots are also under threat. Lagoon which has gone quiet and Mortimer which is under review by council (and maybe Parks).

Pete did the parks person approach you in at 5 mile at the bbq area or up on the causeway inside the boom gate?

Jez - we were in the 5 Mile park area. Incidentally she was quite surprised when I told her that windsurfers had been sailing there for years - maybe using the 5 Mile area has drawn their attention to us??

Minority groups never get noticed, thats the problem.. Justv like the boat ramp at cremorne lagoon, Ralphs Bay. etc, etc.
The 'nice las' was probably still in nappies when Houston cracked his first gybe there.
I bet that helicopter scares a few birds ****less!

Sounds like more Parks madness, when I got the same treatment a few times for sailing on Moulting Lagoon at Coles Bay they just seem to like there own self importance power trip thing as there were no birds to be seen anywhere.
Evidently unless there is a documented penalty (according to our learned windsurfing gurus) they can't just make one up and fine you or confiscate your gear.

Good work on the heads up. Am more than happy to assist with whatever needs doing to avert this. Can't see how a kiter or sailor could do more damage than the horses and dogs that go there.

Dogs=On lead and in control
Horses=On lead and in control
Kiters=On lead and no control ;)

back in the 80's there were heaps of birds at the beach, they even flocked to the windsurfing types... everyone was happy... then the kitesurfing type came a long, as we all know, kitesurfers don't cut the same attractive figure in a wetsuit. the ugliness that prevailed scared all the birds off and we had to ask them to wear their board shorts over their wetties to disguise their you know what...


to cut a long story short, birds became endangered at windsurfing beaches :(

i have no idea what this has to do with the wildlife tho

but really... how the hell is a windsurfer going to disturb a bird. i can understand how a dog might eat the eggs laid in and dunes, or a kitesurfer might inadvertently get dragged across the carpark, and over the dunes crushing the poor little eggies, but don't lump us in on this...

js8000 is right, they have apparently banned sailing on moulting lagoon, for the same reason. how a windsurfer is scarier to a duck than those waskaly duck shooters that sit in the hutches across moulting lagoon really is beyond me. I'm thinking we need to have the politicians review the science, before just willy nilly banning super-windsurfers...

funnily enough, in the 90's uptight old mister neil pryde removed the MoFo wave sail from his range because the name was too rude... but he has mellowed over the years! check out the 2013 slalom sail they have just released!

Kite surfer = supertrawler

Windsurfer = supertrawler

Horse = horse

The science is simple.

dont worry about the Dogs, windsurfers generally spend their time on the water and come in and out at a designated spot (eg near the car park...) and i aint never seen no eggs floating around in the water

Surfer= someone chasing natural energy
Wind=The movement of air
Kite=Man's manipulation of natural substances to create a thing that uses the movement of air to reach the clouds

Using this formula one can summise that a:
Windsurfer=someone full of air that wants to chase natural energy
Kitesurfer=A manipulated natural being who runs around with their head in the clouds talking about chasing natural energy.

Supertrawler= This takes a bit more work.
Lets start with Trawler or also called a Dragger(sound familier). Something that drags around a Trawl, of which is a material woven to form a net.

Super= The Urban dictionary lists super as meaning Good or Excellent.

So... Supertrawler=Something that is excellent at dragging around a net material.


Now this is the alarming bit. As Kitersurfers are known for loving to dress in Drag(sound familier) and are regularly seen at parties wearing fish nets. Then you would have to agree that Kitesurfers sound like just another trawler(something dragging nets) and they are Super draggers. So, hense, Kiters are just another Supertrawler. And this is proven when we look at how the proponents of the Super trawler stuck their heads in the clouds.

Supertraweler=Kitesurfer

And...

A horse is a horse of course. And they are hang around in heards, a bit like windsurfers hanging around car parks.
Or...
Windsurfer hung out=horse

Only a windsurfer with a gps could extrapolate on my theory with such intellectual largesse. I like it!

On a serious note it would be crazy to ban kiting or windsurfing at 5 mile. I'm pretty sure the worst thing we do is walk through the mud a bit but I also didn't see too many terrorised birds while out there. Same goes for schoolies or any other place I've been around Tassie.

If this was the mainland and there were 50 people on the water every weekend then perhaps you'd look at it but with the numbers down here it's ludicrous.

What action do we need to take?

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Voitek said...
What action do we need to take?

We need to petition the education department and stop Buzzy teaching our children, who knows what he's telling them!

I just made a quick enquiry via a phone call to a ranger at 7 mile.
they have no plans to do anything about kiting or windsurfing at present for anywhere in that general vicinty.

They have been in consultation with dog-walkers and horse people and will be putting up some signage about those activities in coming months at 5 mile.

They don't currently have concerns about our acitivities effecting the birds but if they do in coming years they'll line up discussions.

so relax gang summer is coming!

Nice work Peat
You should be our President, ours seems to have retired from the sport and gone back to work

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buzzy said...
Nice work Peat
You should be our President, ours seems to have retired from the sport and gone back to work

You're full a sh.t Buz..........see you Thurs

Well that was a waste of server space