Crandon Park Today

[KiteRunner]

I went to Crandon Park today….I used to really like that spot, but today was a total disaster...(and not becasue of the wind...the wind was amazing and gusted above 30 knots)

I want to be clear that I am not trying to bash the place, or the people running it. Crandon is usually an awesome place to ride, and the folks at Miami Kiteboarding are always friendly and helpful.

So many people showed up today that didn’t really know what they were doing and caused the beach to become a very dangerous place…People overpowered launching their kites with complete disregard to the dangerous conditions and to other kiters…

One guy launched an obviously too big of a kite for his size and today’s conditions. He got lofted, got dragged on the sand and eventually someone grabbed his kite. Everyone told him he was overpowered, but he insisted and went back to launch again….

Another guy launch his kite right behind the life-guard stand, which of course is a stupid thing to do since the lifeguard stand blocks a portion of the wind-window and as soon as the kite went above it, it got overpowered and got slammed back down on the ground on another kiters head…fortunately, no one got hurt.

These were just a few incidents I saw today...

I just felt the need to share this and if anyone else has an opinion about this I would love to hear it…

[Toby]

you need to self police it...otherwise you will loose the spot.
If someone overpowered insists to go out, make sure he launches from the water.
If someone launches the kite behind the lifeguard tower, make them aware.

It is about helping and not just observing. We ALL need to have an eye on anything going on, on the water and on the beach. Only then we can react quickly and stop people from getting hurt and beaches to be closed.

[DrLightWind]

Same Sh!t at Matheson Hammock Park.
A rider used an oversize kite yesterday for the conditions and his lines were tangeled,
while he was trying to undo it, the kite landed on the parking lot and him too later on also.
Because he dindn't activate the safety feature the kite relaunched again spinning uncontrolled and lofted.
He had couple of broken ribs and bruises and the ambulance took him away,
so far what I know.

As usual, people don't follow instructions , somebody launched the kite for him and he ends up in the parking lot.
The worst part is that the Park Manager found out , and told, next time this happens they are going to close the park.
In other word, one more accident and we are done kitting there.

We had another stupid rider also who wanted to use a 15m
and wanted to beat up the guy who told everyone refuse to launch him.

DrLW

[Jimmy_James]

I was 20 yards too late when the first incident occured. The kiter was on the parking lot and evidently overpowered (12 meter) as he walked about 50+ feet away from the water with his kite at zenith (wind gusting in 30's ... I think). This kiter had no idea how to use his saftey release! As my friend and I started to run towards him, I noticed the kiter looking down--maybe trying to detach his safety leash from his harness--which left him with one hand on the bar. This hand was on the far end of the bar. His kite looped, he was lofted, and he did not release the bar. He took out a parking sign and hit a few other objects. Thankfully, he's okay. Not to be insensitive to this kiter, but the incident really brought a bad vibe for the day. Unfortunately, another kiter didn't take anything from the incident and , as already mentioned, he tried throwing up a 15 meter .

Toby's right-on about the self policing. I don't ride Matheson as frequent as some other spots, but I do see the same group of guys "policing" the area.

I hope the kiters at Matheson don't lose this spot, but a future accident is not unlikely. I hope I'm wrong.

[RickI]

Have a feeling we'll have more strong fronts this winter. Feels like an old fashioned winter at this point, lots of powerful fronts. Best thing we can do is talk to people. What works in the lighter wind months needs to be put aside for the lower wind days. Bow kites don't magically allow you access to all winds. Put this up on a local site just before the weekend and before winds ramped up to 20 to 25 kts. gusting to gale force for several days.

SMALL kites


Most don't want to be hurt, tricky part can be getting the means of avoidance across.

[JoshNoe]

Regarding the Matheson incident. Considering we're on the brink of losing this spot, maybe we should walk-out our kites rather than launching them from the "beach"? Almost all of the incidents there happen during launching or landing because there's such little room between where you launch and the parking lot.

I think it's a minor inconvenience to walk out our kites if it saves our spot. Thoughts?

[RickI]

Sounds like a good approach. Thought that was being promoted for some time. People would have to get into the habit of jumping up to help launch and land. Small price to keep the spot open though.

[RichardM]

I went to Crandon Park today….I used to really like that spot, but today was a total disaster...(and not becasue of the wind...the wind was amazing and gusted above 30 knots)

I want to be clear that I am not trying to bash the place, or the people running it. Crandon is usually an awesome place to ride, and the folks at Miami Kiteboarding are always friendly and helpful.

So many people showed up today that didn’t really know what they were doing and caused the beach to become a very dangerous place…People overpowered launching their kites with complete disregard to the dangerous conditions and to other kiters…

One guy launched an obviously too big of a kite for his size and today’s conditions. He got lofted, got dragged on the sand and eventually someone grabbed his kite. Everyone told him he was overpowered, but he insisted and went back to launch again….

Another guy launch his kite right behind the life-guard stand, which of course is a stupid thing to do since the lifeguard stand blocks a portion of the wind-window and as soon as the kite went above it, it got overpowered and got slammed back down on the ground on another kiters head…fortunately, no one got hurt.

These were just a few incidents I saw today...

I just felt the need to share this and if anyone else has an opinion about this I would love to hear it…

According to a thread in the Eastern Region forum of Ikitesurf.com, Crandon Park only allows kiters who have a level 3 IKO "certification" (or equivalent PASA "certification") and that it was only through the wonderful efforts of the IKO that kiting is allowed there at all.

Supposedly, access is restricted to no more than 25 kiters at a time even though all these kiters are supposedly "safe" and knowledgeable and theoretically should be able to cope with crowded venues.

The best part is that according to the iKitesurf thread, November 08 concluded another IKO instructor "certification" program and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that some (most ?) of the sketchy crap described was done by these "certified" graduates.

Note: KiteRunner may need to stay in the good graces of Miami Kiteborading (IKO school) since they effectively CONTROL ACCESS to this location.

Also note that EVERYONE that kites there MUST purchase the virtually worthless insurance offered by these orgs and MUST SIGN THEIR TOTALLY UNCONSCIONABLE, DANGEROUS AND NEFARIOUS WAIVERS in order to kite and that these waivers mean that no one kiting there can SUE ANYONE for virtually ANYTHING that happens to them, no matter how egregious the situation.

Richard M.
Malibu Kitesurfing - since 2002
(310) - 430 - KITE (5483)
http://www.MalibuKitesurfing.NET
kfRichard@MalibuKitesurfing.NET

[JumpinJoe]

I guess we can say Lower Florida got some good wind this week and we are getting some stories about the crap that happens. The mojority of Florida does not get this much heavy wind for this many days.

I will say though at our spot we seem to have some good people with good sense, You needed to have a kite smaller then normal for most people. Most of the kiters in our area have that kite and the ones that did not did NOT kite or used someone elses kite. There were people standing on the beach that said I do not have a kite small enough for the wind.

I guess we did our job over here!

[addicted~2it]

After reading this post 2 phrases come to mind.

"You can't fix stupid", and my personal favorite, "stupidity should be painful".
I was riding the East Coast & Keys all week, a 15m ???? What an idiot.