We could all apply this law too but it's not going to happen

www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/soa1966189/s4.html

Any person who—
(a) burns rubbish shavings or other materials in a public place;
(b) leaves inflammable materials or matter in or on a public shed or place or in an open space near a building without first obtaining the permission of the local authority;
(c) opens a drain or sewer in or removes the surface of a footpath or road without first obtaining the permission of the local authority;
(d) in a public place—
(i) flies a kite; or
(ii) plays at a game—

to the annoyance of any person;

shall be guilty of an offence.

Roly said..
If a kite or wind surfer is between 400 metres and two nautical miles from shore they now require a lifejacket and can chose to carry either red and orange flares or an Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) or Personal Locator Beacon (PLB). Between two and five nautical miles operators must carry a lifejacket and EPIRB or PLB and further offshore they must also carry parachute flares.

Laurence Adams Coordinator Safety Education | Operations Division | Department of Transport , Tel: (08) 94357580 Fax: (08) 93398699 Mob: 0417943324 Email: Laurence.Adams@transport.wa.gov.au | Web: www.transport.wa.gov.au

I guess we all need to start emailing laurence with our opinion on the use of this equipement especially in the surf. The email is above folks start typing away.

FYI....measured using Google Earth

Main break at Lancelin = 800m offshore
Main break at Geraldton (Pt Moore) = 640m offshore
Sunset = 230m offshore
Main break at Marg's = 215m offshore
Oakagee = 200m offshore (approx)

With out starting or fuelling a windsurfer v kitesurfer thread. I am intrigued that DPI has grouped the two disciplines under the same umbrella. I would be interested to know how many rescues were required by both disciplines. Windsurfing to the best of my knowledge ( I am happy to be corrected constructively.) has required very few rescues offshore or had any serious injuries or deaths, where a pfd of some kind as well as a flare and epirb would have changed the outcome.

Has any one for DPI ever donned a PFD and tried to swim through a couple of waves or swim after their windsurf kit in one in any kind of a breeze, Dont think so.

Rant Done.

If the government ever tried to enforce this stupid law, one way to make it extremely difficult to enforce would be for everyone to buy similar coloured sails. At >400m offshore, the officer on the beach trying to hand out fines is going to have a hard time identifying BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT who was outside the 400m mark. Even more so if there are some of those colored sails inside the 400m mark.

Dip916 said..
If the government ever tried to enforce this stupid law, one way to make it extremely difficult to enforce would be for everyone to buy similar coloured sails. At >400m offshore, the officer on the beach trying to hand out fines is going to have a hard time identifying BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT who was outside the 400m mark. Even more so if there are some of those colored sails inside the 400m mark.

Doesn't everyone in WA have red sails already?

Oh lastly, can u still hook into a waist harness with a lifejacket on ?

Sounds like the usual set of regulations designed to protect the government if something goes wrong. In this case they can publicly blame the windsurfer and absolve themselves of responsibility. I wonder what they would have said to the Polynesians and other island folk who travelled around the Pacific in outrigger canoes?

Seems like there is discussion at a number of levels around the use of life jackets for water based recreational sports at the moment. This popped up in my Twitter feed today:


Seems like the 2014 National Drowning summit has just concluded: www.watersafety.com.au/Events/2014Summit.aspx

I wonder if there is a role for the AWA to get in touch and see if this is going to impact & guide legislation in other states? From memory i remember a thread last season about a guy fining people in SA, and now we're seeing WA being impacted. Perhaps a national voice is needed??

Officer on the beach, ROFL,

Maybe they can stop the car break ins , illegal camping, littering etc. while they're at it.

John340 said..
For those who beleive its not possible to comply:
- Windsurfers and Kiters who engage in any form of organised racing already wear manditory flotation devices. So it is possible.
- It is also possible that EPIRBs be stored in the back of floatation devices.

In the end we make our own calls re compliance and live or die by the consequences

The concern is in a large part coming from wavesailers... not those racing or participating in flatwater activities, where the risk of being thrashed by a wave while wearing a life jacket is minimal.

PLB or epirbs are also not cheap, and would cop and absolute thrashing whilst wavesailing for a season, quite likely to the point that they wouldnt work when required.

wouldnt surprise me if the next new law to be implemented would be lifejackets to be required while surfing.

Curious as to how the islands and lancelin work, with the "offshore" distances. Regardless of this being law or not, its pretty much impossible to police, much like a bunch of other new laws (this is not the forum to discuss other wastes of tax payer money)

Maybe, the government will be able to use its new fandangled data retention laws to find all those posting on forums about how the didnt wear lifejackets to issue us with the fines :P

Nanny State...

John340 said..
For those who beleive its not possible to comply:
- Windsurfers and Kiters who engage in any form of organised racing already wear manditory flotation devices. So it is possible.
- It is also possible that EPIRBs be stored in the back of floatation devices.
For the practically minded:
- It is reasonable to assume that windsurfers can self rescue as long as they still have their board, they are not injured and are not too far from shore - say less than 1km.
- The same could not be said for Kiters
- I think the 400m threashold is set to ensure that the windsurfer or kiter can swim to shore if required
In the end we make our own calls re compliance and live or die by the consequences

For a start racers don't wear type 1 PFD's with the big pillow behind the head, that's what they are talking about. You simply couldn't.

The 400m threshold was not set for us, it has alwasy been the case that any vessel more than 400m offshore needs type 1 PFD and so on. Just that now it looks like they wish to no longer ignore us ignoring the rule. Which is just plain retarded.

Let's say i'm 400m out at gnaraloo, mast, board separate I set off the EPIRB. I don't think anyone is coming for quite a while, in most cases rather than set off an EPIRB or flare I would just dump the rig and paddle in if my life depended on it, rather than sit in sharky waters waiting for a rescue. Even corro's would be a couple of hr wait till someone showed up from Gero.