Thanks for the local info.

Can you just clarify something for me though.

The WAKSA location guide states the following:

"Local Council Law states (except during winter) there is no kiting south of the railway footbridge.

The preferred launching and landing area is North of the railway footbridge and South of the dog beach."

I thought the overpass you pictured was the railway footbridge?
Or is the railway footbridge the one down near Port Beach?
If its the former then the WAKSA website is contradicting you.

Cheers again for the info.

So do you want people to rig up and kite south of the overpass despite local council laws? (In the hope this will get them changed.)
Or have they changed already and WAKSA needs to update its details?
Maybe I'm a bit slow, but I'm still a bit confused about "the right thing to do."
(And if I am, then others might be too.)
Thanks.

27 kiters on the water at Leighton this afternoon - not bad for the start of the season...

Again, good questions Pharro...

The number one right thing to do is for kiters to not rig, launch or land in the dog exercise area. This might have been mentioned once or twice already???

As far as we have been advised, there aren't any council by laws restricting launch/landing (the WAKSA site might just be a bit out of date) but if someone can point us in the direction of the said 'by law(s)' it would be appreciated. In our discussions with Fremantle SLSC, there was no mention of any council by laws restricting kiters.
b
On this basis, we are 'encouraging' kiters to keep to the southern stretch of the beach - but obviously north of the flagged area at the club. Pharro, if you PM us with your email we can forward you the document we've put to the Club & the Council.

Hi
Thanks for all the effort.
I have a request which is a bit OT.

With these changes we will require to move to the other parking spot between the bridge and the club which have more capacity for our cars and less visibility from the road.
It will invite a lot of thieves there.
Can we all chip in or share the cost of a security camera in the parking spot?
Is there anything we can do to protect our cars?

Cheers
Idiot

You are lucky
Two years ago when I was packing my kite a dog tagged me as part of his property by peeing on my back!

Miss Jessie said...

Any chance you can do a pic like that for the entire cost, i.e. cott, swanny, city beach, scarbs etc... esp cott, i herd a rumour the council has confiscated some kites in the past!!
I know the general areas, but a clear pic would be aws, esp for nebies. (prob should include rocky, and wind shodow trouble points too)
Recon this would be a massive help to everyone as more people join the obsession and places get crowded.
Cheers Jessie

I was involved with creating the picture, and would be happy to create something similar to what you have proposed. I'll speak with WAKSA to see if they are interested.
Cheers,
Michael.

getfunky said...

Good move LK.

Not wanting to cloud the issue but is it still ok to rig SOUTH of the clubhouse also? I haven't kited Leighton much for a couple of years but remember back in the uncrowded days some kiters would rig approx 100-150 m the south side of the club - pretty much near the very bottom of your pic.

I don't think it's even possible.
They put some sort of fencing there to support the vegetation there.
There is not enough space to rig there anymore

Gents..and ladies,

I am sure juddy can clear up what has been discussed regarding cameras at leighton to this point, but i just had a quick thought (amazing i know!) which may be dismissed as a very average one, but here goes. Is there such thing as a coin operated camera? councils manage to coin operate every other bloody thing on their streets. What if they had a carpark camera setup..or two...or ten that were coin operated. I know what your thinking, "then those bastards will take our gear, and the pole with the coins and the camera on it"...hey at least they'll have coin for the train home! but if you got out of your car before a sesh, put $2 into the meter which runs camera for an hour or two (for arguments sake) then for $2 you would have piece of mind, and hopefully your gear upon return from the water. This is a small price to pay i think you'd agree, and chances are one of the other friendly kiters has put a buck or two in aswell, ie when theres wind, and kitesurfers, the cameras are rolling.

This could also generate coin for the council (lets see them turn that one down) while decreasing crime, keeping all beach users happy, and keeping those little thieving pricks out of work in work....whatever.

Thoughts?

Idiot said...

Hi
Thanks for all the effort.
I have a request which is a bit OT.

With these changes we will require to move to the other parking spot between the bridge and the club which have more capacity for our cars and less visibility from the road.
It will invite a lot of thieves there.
Can we all chip in or share the cost of a security camera in the parking spot?
Is there anything we can do to protect our cars?

Cheers
Idiot

I'm confused - I thought the green area was *pretty much* where hordes of us have been kiting for yonks. If it was illegal, wouldn't someone have been busted by now? Its not exactly like 50 colourful kites on a summers afternoon are hard to spot....

Ta for the clarification! Will pay closer attention to signs next time I'm down there

To clear this up, I took some photos this morning.

This is the sign at near the clubhouse at Leighton. There is a similar sign at the carpark directly opposite Dingo flour mill.





This is the sign at the next beach access immediately north of the "Dingoes carpark"
These signs are the same all the way to the railway overpass and the start of the dog beach. This pretty much matches the green area shown on the kite rigging area, except there is a grey area between dingoes and the next sign. So, perhaps the green area is larger than currently signed, but there is no truth to the statement that one cannot kite south of the overpass.

In LK's discussions with Freo SLSC, they were quite happy for the green area to extend from Dingoes to the dog beach area.

Kitecrazzy: LK is affiliated with WAKSA and has their backing. The Leighton Kiters login represents the views of the group and is separate from Juddy's individual login. Sorry if you feel this is a "****y" post, but we value beach user's safety and our access to this beach. Hence, we are taking a proactive approach to protect this.
Cheers,
Michael.

good work "whatthe" glad to see my memory is not totally crap like the rest of my body although I may have been a little way off on the size of the "no go" area

This is a complete joke though!