Welcome To California - No Kitesurfing

[John Doe]

Another one bites the dust. The fabulous folks at California State Parks have decided to expand their ban on kitesurfing by extending the "Snowy Plover" nesting area further north to Morro Bay.

While a lot of people may say, "oh, it's just a little stretch of beach" the reality is it's death by 1000 cuts. I have been involved in fighting to keep kiting access open in California for 18 years. It has been a slow creep, up from the south, and now it's on the previously untouched Central Coast. We lost another beach further north due the explosion of the seal population. Now it's the Plovers again. Sucks. I hate State Parks.

[elguapo]

well.
stop voting for hippies

[Toby]

Not only California...Germany has lots of those signs too.

[deniska]

yep.. all over the world.. New York too.. March 15th was cut off date at few spots because the piping plovers are coming back to nest...
I am cool with that.. but seriously, there are 747s flying over the same stretch of the beach.. are they sure that kites scare the endangered birds?
Not so far ago i almost knocked out a seagull with my lines - it made a flip in the air and went with it's routine..
They are oblivious to us and our kites up until they hit them

[tegirinenashi]

...there are 747s flying over the same stretch of the beach...

With "green new deal" there would be no 747s (or any fossil fuel propelled airplaines, for that matter).

[a99]

Going absolute nonsense with kite bans. Definitely lobbist are looking for kite community money for steps to freedom. Kites are so friendly, no loud sound in flying, also birds very quickly addopt that kite are not danger for them in sky, just some flying object as other birds. Drones are much much louder and more danger for birds.

[apollo4000]

You have my sympathies. Slightly off topic. Any cool kite stores in San Fran down to LA. Heading over for Easter and the PCH drive. Would be great to stick my head in the odd kite store and say hello to my American kite brethren and share stories, buy stuff. Cheers in advance.

[Toby]

Famous island Fehmarn, kite paradise in Germany, host of several world cups and home of Core Kites...part of the “bird flying route” for birds flying to and coming from for winter and summer...kite bans always on the table...thx to strong Hiss family (owner of Core) bans only in few spots because of birds, which is ok. But they wanted to ban kitesurfing completely.

But the island has hundreds of wind power generators....and it has been proven that they kill birds!
Never heard of any kiter killing one bird.

So much for “green” and “clean”energy.

Just a joke.

Also taking care of nature is absolutely ok, and in some areas bans are ok for me. But it should make sense and have a real reason that saves animals lives.

[TomW]

We have had same kind of debate and restrictions, but kite group lobbied and managed to get some leeway.
The regional authorities pointed to unscientific opinions of self-proclaimed bird experts that the kites disturbed the birds food foraging resulting in starvation. There were no studies carried out or any studies they could point to. The kite group pointed out that fact, and made similar unscientific claims based on observations, but the regional authorities struck down those claims as unscientific and observational / anecdotal...
Really, What was being debated wasn't the wellbeing of the birds ( neither group had any facts), but a conflict between two groups of people with different and conflicting interests. The bird watchers want to watch birds, without kites in their field of view ( pretending they are in 100% natural environment, while 4 lane highway is 50m away, and multiple wind power mills right in the middle of the area), and the kiters want to kite.
The birdwatchers mostly won because the people who work at the regional authority responsible are bird watchers, and members of those bird watching organisations...

[John Doe]

Really, What was being debated wasn't the wellbeing of the birds ( neither group had any facts), but a conflict between two groups of people with different and conflicting interests. The bird watchers want to watch birds, without kites in their field of view ( pretending they are in 100% natural environment, while 4 lane highway is 50m away, and multiple wind power mills right in the middle of the area), and the kiters want to kite.
The birdwatchers mostly won because the people who work at the regional authority responsible are bird watchers, and members of those bird watching organisations...

Well said Tom. This is really what it's all about. We've had restriction after restriction after restriction on: fishing, windsurfing, kitesurfing & general beach access, for decades in California. It's not based off facts or incidents, it's based off the perception that - there's no fish in the ocean, windsurfers scare surfers (they don't really bother them), kitesurfers scare beachgoers (haven't been any incidents, I've actually seen more people hit by umbrellas than kites by about 50 to 1, but you can still put an umbrella up anywhere).

It's really a wave of restrictions that will continue indefinitely. Again, no specific incidents, but because birds are "frightened". They've put in several No-Fishing areas, even though the fish population here is beyond booming. Multiple areas are offlimit due to seals birthing, even though the seal population has exploded & it's now a problem. The officials always credit themselves with the increase in fish population, yet they won't address areas where there has been declines even with No-Fishing areas due to environmental factors. According to State parks, when somethings good it's always to their credit, when something declines or we loose habitat it's someone else's fault. Never fails.