Long story short: yesterday a dog tore a hole in my kite. I was told by other kiters that the guy walks his dogs at St Kilda on a regular basis so I thought I warn you as the owner himself said: the dog has been chasing kites for years.

Add to this the dog is unleashed and does not listen to his owner and I reckon more kites could be prone to this.

Description:
Dog, some old pitbull looking dog that does not respond to his owners calls. The dogs name is Holly or Polly. You ll hear the name when the guy is desperately trying to get his dog to stop chasing kites. Let that be the alarm bell.

Owner: 45 ish, small and skinny with tatoos and rings in both nipples. the best way to describe him would be a "free spirit" that looks a bit like a vintage rocker. No offense intended.

The guy was friendly enough and offered me his mobile number after having suggested I flew the kite WITH the hole.. That was quickly put to bed.

ericmb said...


Description:


Owner: 45 ish, small and skinny with tatoos and rings in both nipples. the best way to describe him would be a "free spirit" that looks a bit like a vintage rocker. No offense intended.

Well.....That describes about 50% of St Kilda's limp wristed population.

Was the kite in the air ie: moving... or on the beach when it was bitten?
What I am getting at is this a " chase instinct " or does the thing just hate kites.

Either way the owner should cover your loss........

Lucky it wasnt these three ! they were more interested in tasting wetsuit than kite

matto said...

One of the key problems with the new Marine regulations around the bay is that they have designated the only beach around for kiting - as the same beach as the only "Off-the-leash" dog beach in the area.

As pointed out - these two activities do not really mix. Does KBV have any views on this?

The dog off leash doesn't negate the owners liability for any damage whilst the dog is off the leash.

kitesurfjim said...


Ok report him and he'll be fined. but he'll still do it again.

agree thats not the best approach, as once he is irritated he will have loads of 'reportable kiter activity' to submit. we dont want to start a childish game of dobbing until no one has any toys left.

ah... the joys of urban kiting.

harry potter said...

[[PHOTO - see above with orig posting ]]
Lucky it wasnt these three ! they were more interested in tasting wetsuit than kite

Tut tut - Looks like the Brighton dog beach not St Kilda - however the whole kiteable area around he dog beach is part of (and enclodes by) the Brighton harbour so 5-knots applies (regardless of the fact that the kiter in the pic is "probably" not outside of the 5-knot zone anyway!!!!!!!)

Just a Bob Hawke was caught out not wearing a seatbelt in a "harmless publicity shot, we too have to be careful about not being seen to be doing the wrong thing.

interesting point - we are considered a public menace when the public are about - but on ****ty cold blustery days when we are still there we get no criticism - go figure.....

Maybe the public is a Kiting Menace....