Greatest threat to Access

[RickI]

In SE Florida is Riding inside swim zones ...

- In large measure cost us access to Hobie Beach and all of Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami

- Riding too close to shore has caused or is still causing access problems for MANY years in:

Pompano Beach
Ft. Lauderdale
Lauderdale By-The-Sea
Miami Beach
Hobie Beach/Rickenbacker Causeway (banned)
Virginia Key Beach (banned)
Crandon Park (restricted)
Matheson Hammock
Key West
Islamorada
Hollywood
Dania Beach
John U Lloyd State Park (banned)
Deerfield Beach
Boca Raton
Delray Beach (regulated by law)

It is EASY to avoid these problems. Stay outside out of bounds areas and motivate other kiters with your friends to do the same.

Where we've gotten people to stay offshore in the above list, these access hassles have largely faded away. There are places you can ride close to shore, popular kite launches at most of these places aren't among them. This is a heavily populated area, about 6.25 MILLION people within ten miles of the beach. Most kiters aren't wimps, they're watermen at ease in the water and offshore, so why not go there and get out of the shallows causing problems. Wear an impact vest and if your swimming skills are weak, build them up. How many more lost launches do we want? Your choice.

FKA, Inc.
transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

[Gebi]

Dude, I go to canada for a week and we manage to get Hobie Beach banned?! Daaammmmmnnnn?!!! Any talks to get it back and running but policed? Thanks for getting the word out as usual Rick.

[RickI]

We're trying but from all the history and rampant ongoing indifference at the launch, it is going to be a real hard push to try to restore access at Hobie/Rickenbacker.

I am concerned about all the other launches. It is EASY to protect access in most cases here. Stay the hell away from the beach and swim zones. Once we start promoting this effectively in the kiting community, a lot of threats will fall away.

[Toby]

there is a guy constantly riding in the swimmer's zone at Crandon Park.
Even the local people there, who are responsible for the access, seem to not care.
Sometimes they say something, but he doesn't care.
If they don't do something, Crandon will be gone as well soon...at one point someone needs to step up and take action. The locals should be stronger and ground such people.

[RickI]

True Toby, we could really do with getting off our butts on this. If you see someone potentially causing problems, go talk to him. That is a bunch of riders not just one poor bugger designated to try to protect everyone's access. Think of it as a way of saving gas by not having to drive as far to your next session.

[mikeysfl]

If you live in South Florida, I think now is a good time to invest in a boat.

[RickI]

Around 2000 to 2002 there were a lot of ban threats and some actual ones too down here. The sport was new both to riders and the public. There were incidents. Kiters got organized and avoided bans in some cases and reversed them in others. We changed, or tried to, how we did things while orienting authorities and the public to our sport.

We are largely dealing with similar problems today and similar solutions too. Get the hell away from swim areas, bystanders, stay offshore and have fun. If you want to ride the shore break, there are places you can do it with a fairly low threat to access. Need to avoid people while you're doing it but there are options. Locals should know where they are too. They usually aren't at the well known kite beaches, which are typically small, congested with nearby out of bounds areas in a lot of cases. Showing off in swim areas isn't an option, never was but particularly isn't now.

We can fix this, yet again, but we have to try and as a group. Several spots on the list above don't really have access issues anymore, we grew past it. We're a community, we need to act as one to secure our ability to ride. It isn't rocket science, just need to work at it.

[diablo943]

Rick,
I appreciate your efforts! A quick comment and suggestion...

I recently posted on KF a post about my upcoming trip to the Tulum Mexico area asking some questions. I received some good replies (KF is a great community) including a reply from member tulumkite who attached a "Beach Guidelines" to the thread. It included three basic rules to help safe interactions between kiters and the rest of the beach community. What an excellent way to efficiently and effectively establish clear guidelines for visiting kiters (and for the kite community at large)!

I have attached the "Beach Guidelines" flyer to this post...

Thanks,
Dave Grossman, Publisher
Drift Snowkite Magazine

[knuthansen]

I think posting signs on the beach should always be the first step, if it has not been done already. Apart from the example in this thread, there is not always ignorance involved when people kite inside some mysterious buoys.
Here in Australia we have no boating zones everywhere, which sometimes mean you are not allowed to kite there, but sometimes officials also tolerate it. So when someone is new to a spot, he would use other riders as a guideline.

@diablo943:
On that sign, it says to launch the kite pointing towards the water. In kite school they recommend this as well, but I can't see the logic behind it.
When you stuff up the launch, the kite is most likely drifting into the powerzone - e.g. if you hit a lull, have lines tangled, or the assistant messes up. The worst case would be a death spiral. So if you are standing with the back to some trees in a side onshore, the powerzone is directly in the trees, and you have no time to react.
Personally I always stand as close to the water as possible, or better in the water.

[diablo943]

knuthansen,
Although my highlighting the Beach Guidelines flyer was focused on the idea of locals managing their area with some preventative maintenance, the content of the flyer is important. Although I think it is important that each area doesn't rewrite the rules, I do think that there is some room for local specifics. A generalized Beach Guidelines document should be adopted and then tweaked as needed for each area.

Personally I too launch from within or as close to the water as possible with the thinking that if things go wrong quick at launch that I would prefer to be moving toward water than rocks/trees/cars/roads/etc. However as you point out in a side-on situation the meat of the trouble is most likely in the powerzone.

My solution is to practice using my safety systems frequently, to rehearse the safety procedures before launch and to think not about the epic session I am about to have, but keep my mind on being safe when I launch. Upon returning to the beach I frequently drop my kite and do a short swim in if I have much doubt about the landing situation. Not as sexy as a hot beach landing, but has kept me out of the hard, pointy overly populated parts of the beach so far.

Thanks,
Dave Grossman, Publisher
Drift Snowkite Magazine