Many issues to consider here...Draw the analogy between young punks hooning and kiters irresponsible behaviour which could be seen as a similar behaviour...Hooning...

The coppers have the ability to impound vehicles so why noy kite gear...the question will be asked who does the impounding..?????

Council workers roam the streets giving people tickets for illegal parking and having dogs off leash over weekends, so why not impounding idiots kites or issuing warnings at least....If impounding a kite sounds too hard what about the board at least????

If the idiot in question does not conform the police are called....the kiter will quickly leave the area and hopefully learn a lesson.

Why not give SLS a little more authority to police the beaches. I also seen some negative comments earlier in the thread regarding these people...Many of us it appears are ready to slag them until we need them....The kiter I seen rescued 400 metres off shore last weekend at Cotton Tree (who had lost board and kite bought to shore by another kiter) would think fairly highly of them Im sure..

What I think we lose sight of sometimes is that the lowest common denominator is going to be protected by the authorities in some way and in this case it is the casual beach user/Mothers with Children/Old couple with dog..

The absolute minimum for this sport is for EVERY single kiter being required to obtain and display 3rd party insurance tags on their harness....I see the comment earlier in this thread that the insurance is pathetic but it is all we have at this point so it must be mandatory....Just as third party is for motor vehicles. If your activity has the abililty to injure or kill someone then you must be insured.

If you think through it there are ways that are not so complicated that would discourage the idiots from the sport. Those who are dedicated to the cause will be prepared to jump through a couple of hoops to participate....I know I certainly would.

If the sport needs to be regulated to protect the rights of all stakeholders including mine to use the beach then Im all for it..

grillsy said...

Many issues to consider here...Draw the analogy between young punks hooning and kiters irresponsible behaviour which could be seen as a similar behaviour...Hooning...

The coppers have the ability to impound vehicles so why noy kite gear...the question will be asked who does the impounding..?????

Council workers roam the streets giving people tickets for illegal parking and having dogs off leash over weekends, so why not impounding idiots kites or issuing warnings at least....If impounding a kite sounds too hard what about the board at least????

If the idiot in question does not conform the police are called....the kiter will quickly leave the area and hopefully learn a lesson.

Why not give SLS a little more authority to police the beaches. I also seen some negative comments earlier in the thread regarding these people...Many of us it appears are ready to slag them until we need them....The kiter I seen rescued 400 metres off shore last weekend at Cotton Tree (who had lost board and kite bought to shore by another kiter) would think fairly highly of them Im sure..

What I think we lose sight of sometimes is that the lowest common denominator is going to be protected by the authorities in some way and in this case it is the casual beach user/Mothers with Children/Old couple with dog..

The absolute minimum for this sport is for EVERY single kiter being required to obtain and display 3rd party insurance tags on their harness....I see the comment earlier in this thread that the insurance is pathetic but it is all we have at this point so it must be mandatory....Just as third party is for motor vehicles. If your activity has the abililty to injure or kill someone then you must be insured.

If you think through it there are ways that are not so complicated that would discourage the idiots from the sport. Those who are dedicated to the cause will be prepared to jump through a couple of hoops to participate....I know I certainly would.

If the sport needs to be regulated to protect the rights of all stakeholders including mine to use the beach then Im all for it..

Good point mate.
The thing with fining is: Do you also fine beginners that accidently make mistakes because they aren't fully in control? or just the tools that don't care about other people but know exactly what they are doing. Most people that make mistakes really do not intend to. Which is different to driving a car. With a car you mainly choose to brake the law by for instance speeding or going through a red light. With kiting there is a whole different line between being a d!ckhead and making a mistake because you're new.

Well, the floodgates are certainly open on this thread.

Thank you (sincerely) for the varied contributions to the discussion. The comments I've made & will make are my personal thoughts & don't represent an official WAKSA position.

I do however think it's vital that issues about the future of kiting in/around metro Perth are discussed by all kiters to ensure our sport continues in a practical manner in metro Perth.

IMO, we, as kiters, have to start looking longer term, not just at what happens the next windy weekend. Is it better for kiters to take the initiative and drive these issues, or do we bury our heads in the sand & wait for the **** to hit the fan???

One issue I'd really like to respond to is the various comments & suggestions along the line of "Why doesn't WAKSA do this...." or "why hasn't WAKSA done that..." - we are a bunch of volunteers with families, careers, mortgages & an ocassional desire to go kiting ourselves.

Our time put into the Association is secondary to all those other more important things in life. As the popularity of the sport grows, there is more time required to do "those things", but in the mix of dealing with 'some of those things', we can't do everything we need or want to.

The Association can always do with more committed people involved on the committee to ensure "those things" get done - I would urge those of you with ideas, suggestions, & a desire to make an impact in the sport & for the sport to get involved...

Now, back to the debate...flame suit still on...

Juddy, what is your view on starting specific kiting clubs at certain beaches like some of the guys have been saying? Is this a possibility from Waksa's perspective? or is there a lot of things involved with that?

It seems like a popular idea

fat, try hard, wannabe ,gumbies wearing, lycra (it's right up there with budgie smugglers, yuk) riding their bikes in packs giving all other bike riders a bad rap don't need licences to make you want to vomit

What next??
A license to go fishing???
Oh wait,,,,that already has happend in nsw

So if I want to drive down the beach(car license), go for a fish(fishing license) then when the wind comes up have a kite(kite license). Its turning into a very expensive day.

Im gunna have to buy a bigger wallet to fit all these little plastic cards in.

^^^^Îf you saw the way I kite,
you would think I was disabled

Rather than speeding into a registration system, I'd hope that we can all take a measured approach to the issues at hand.
Once we go down the registration road, there's no turning back and I see it as something that should only be implemented as a last resort.

In my short time kiting, I have noticed a lot more people self teaching themselves and their mates on the beaches.

I'm not sure if this increase in the self learning correlates to an increase in accidents/incidents or if it's just the population explosion in the kiting scene that is attributable to the increase; everyone makes mistakes and with an increase in kiters there is the natural tendancy for incidents to increase.

Formal lessons or no fomal lessons, I saw four incidents in three days this week happen at Pinnaroo that really shouldn't have, not all ended in tears, but they could have and ALL of them happened due to the BASICS NOT BEING FOLLOWED.

As someone else said earlier, once you've had three or so lessons, you're still not a competent kiter, but you should have the basic knowledge to safely progress on what you have learned in your lessons, by yourself.

You can't force people to have lessons, I think most people should have at least one lesson, there really is no substitute for having an experienced kiter, prefereably experienced in teaching kiting, give you a lesson or two, if only to fully learn the safety aspects of kiting.

Bear in mind, talented kiter does not necessarily equal talented teacher- just cause you can do, doesn't mean you can teach.

Of course there are those who blatantly do the wrong thing, such as kiting through the flags etc and this sort of behaviour should not be taken lightly - more on this later.

Also, bear in mind that forum threads complaining about the wrong doings of the few kiters on any given day is distilling this information out from the large majority of kiters who do the right things, possibly making the issues seem more potent than they really are.

The central core of this issue is the potential loss of beach access due to the knowingly or unknowingly wrong things being done by some kiters.

So who has the most to lose?

Those of us who call a particular beach our 'kiting home'.

So what should we do?

I agree with the call for local clubs, there is such a large population of kiters regularly using a particular beach or beaches, that we should not have trouble creating these clubs.
We are the ones with the most to lose if our local beach gets a kiting ban, so we should all be banding together out of a common interest.


I have read so much on these forums about how great the community spirit is in kiting and how it is one of the many appealing sides to the sport, yet a lot of talk now is seeming to indicate a want to pass the buck onto WAKSA, AKSA, the Surf Lifesavers etc to keep our beaches open and regulate the idiots.

They are our beaches guys, we are the ones who should be proactive in keeping idiot activities to a minimum.

How many of you have participated in a club sport?

If you are training for footy or whatever at the local park and some idiots were to come down and start pegging footballs at passing cars and taking marks amongst families walking with their kids etc, you wouldn't pass the buck onto the WAFL to educate and regulate, you'd get up and say something to these idiots.

The same should work with kiting.

Our local beach is our sporting ground, we should look after it the same.

I for one would like to form/join a local club, Pinnaroo is my local, it's where I had my lessons and progressed to my current (limited) stage, I find most people are approachable and I always try to have a chat with someone near me when I'm down there before I set up or when I pack down.

There have been a lot of good points made to having local clubs, but it may seem to some to be a huge undertaking to begin with, interclub competitions etc.

I'd propose to start it off at a simpler level.

1. A person or persons could put there hand/s up to be the club coordinator
2. Make it free to join- the club coordinator/s keeps a tally of the members
3. A simple flyer should be made stating the risks of bad kiting practice
4. The flyer should be circulated among members to print off and keep a dozen copies in their kite bags to give to everyone around them at the beach, put on windscreens etc, especially those that are perceived as not being fully knowledgable about safe kiting practice.
5. A symbol of club membership, be it a rashie, arm band etc should be adopted to that club memebers are easily identifiable on the beach, in conjunction with the flyers and other means making it known that any club member is approachable if you (a non memer) are unsure of local restrictions etc
It could even be the WAKSA tag, as I'm sure anyone who wears one would be approachable to ask questions of about local conditions.

There is strength in numbers and if there are many, identifiable, club members doing the right thing, then that attitude HAS to permeate through to the rest of the kiting community.

Local clubs could even have fundraisers to get signage erected at their local beaches to inform people to look out for club members and to 'ask before kiting'.
This would cover visitors to the area too, be they Euros, interstaters etc

I put my hand up to be involved to help organise a Pinnaroo club.
PMs welcome.


P.S.- I know there are few kiting clubs- Scarborough, Mullaloo etc, it would be good to hear the views of these clubs and how they could suggest through their experience how things could be done.

waveslave said...

Juddy said...

Registered WA kiter meaning:

1) establishing minimum standards with respect to what is taught via kite instruction;
2) an individual having achieved some standard of kiting competency on the water;
3) individual having to show/demonstrate that standard of competency;
4) possible formal licence;
5) required to have a registration number on a kite - for when someone fk's up....

STFU about stupid kite licenses and rego numbers. ^^^
And WAKSA, quit telling the whole goddamn world about WA kitespots.
lol.

Sometimes your worth a read
sometimes your just a twat

I Think you should all stop winging

Whats next !!!! Will we have to pay to use the wind ,radio the control tower request permission to use the air space .................It's up to us as kite rs to police it like it says in the code of conduct grab a few other kite rs and approach the idiot in numbers .

lotofwind said...

I live on a corner,,,,,see about 30 cars a day put their foot down and slide sideways around the corner,,,they have licenses,pay rego and insurance but it still dosent stop them from being d!cks.

I think once you start licencing/registration it may give who ever enforces them to make even more rules. Like, cant kite unless wearing a helmet,impact vest,lifejacket, ect.

But the road is still open for other users to safely go about their business

oceanfire said...

I'd propose to start it off at a simpler level.

1. A person or persons could put there hand/s up to be the club coordinator
2. Make it free to join- the club coordinator/s keeps a tally of the members
3. A simple flyer should be made stating the risks of bad kiting practice
4. The flyer should be circulated among members to print off and keep a dozen copies in their kite bags to give to everyone around them at the beach, put on windscreens etc, especially those that are perceived as not being fully knowledgable about safe kiting practice.
5. A symbol of club membership, be it a rashie, arm band etc should be adopted to that club memebers are easily identifiable on the beach, in conjunction with the flyers and other means making it known that any club member is approachable if you (a non memer) are unsure of local restrictions etc
It could even be the WAKSA tag, as I'm sure anyone who wears one would be approachable to ask questions of about local conditions.

That sounds like its exactly the way we could start this thing. From there it can easily progress into something bigger. It would be a good way to get the guidelines out and have people talking about the guidelines.

mrjamesness said...

No one wants a nanny state.Surf boards were'nt ever registered neither will my kite ever be.if that ever went a head id just drive a little further where there is little chance of anyone interfering with my joyeous frolick in the waves.i already practice a policy of staying well away from crowded beaches.


Australia is a big island find a quite spot.


NOT THAT HARD PEOPLE

In Perth it can sometimes actually be fairly hard to find a quiet spot unless you actually go far out of the city. If only I had the time to just go to Lancelin every day/weekend

the gibbo said...

Neptune said...

oceanfire said...

I'd propose to start it off at a simpler level.

1. A person or persons could put there hand/s up to be the club coordinator
2. Make it free to join- the club coordinator/s keeps a tally of the members
3. A simple flyer should be made stating the risks of bad kiting practice
4. The flyer should be circulated among members to print off and keep a dozen copies in their kite bags to give to everyone around them at the beach, put on windscreens etc, especially those that are perceived as not being fully knowledgable about safe kiting practice.
5. A symbol of club membership, be it a rashie, arm band etc should be adopted to that club memebers are easily identifiable on the beach, in conjunction with the flyers and other means making it known that any club member is approachable if you (a non memer) are unsure of local restrictions etc
It could even be the WAKSA tag, as I'm sure anyone who wears one would be approachable to ask questions of about local conditions.

That sounds like its exactly the way we could start this thing. From there it can easily progress into something bigger. It would be a good way to get the guidelines out and have people talking about the guidelines.

I think you are pretty much on the money Oceanfire/neptune(good flyers already exist having been produced by WAKSA recently)
The only thing i would like to add is more BIG signage, can someone tell me why this does not exist already ?

I am happy to help out on a local level for Woodies area but i have limited time to give and i think the area self regulates itself pretty well already, am i wrong ?

Yeah you're right about Woodies but still I guess it won't hurt. These clubs might eventually actually start competing or something.