Kiting Miami Beach and the Keys

[elguapo]

sorry,

i'm all for respecting the locals, etc...
but concerning the miami anomaly.... the local rider association failed the locals riders. and the failed kiteboarding as a whole.
miserably.
miami is maybe the single biggest fail in the sport of kiteboarding.
losers in general are unworthy of respect.

and frankly... the locals seem a bit too comfortable (and profiting) with those restrictions.
i've seen how politics is done there up close... nothing would surprise me.

personally...
(and i again..i said personally)

if i were going there for a day or 3....
i'd ignore the restrictions and kite as you wish.

what happens if you are lucky enough to actually be cited?
worst case...just dont go back to miami again. (or fight it...and challenge those byzantine rules)

miami is in usa.. but it is more banana republic than any other "banana republic" on the planet.

[beebad]

sorry,

i'm all for respecting the locals, etc...
but concerning the miami anomaly.... the local rider association failed the locals riders. and the failed kiteboarding as a whole.
miserably.
miami is maybe the single biggest fail in the sport of kiteboarding.
losers in general are unworthy of respect.

and frankly... the locals seem a bit too comfortable (and profiting) with those restrictions.
i've seen how politics is done there up close... nothing would surprise me.

personally...
(and i again..i said personally)

if i were going there for a day or 3....
i'd ignore the restrictions and kite as you wish.

what happens if you are lucky enough to actually be cited?
worst case...just dont go back to miami again. (or fight it...and challenge those byzantine rules)

miami is in usa.. but it is more banana republic than any other "banana republic" on the planet.

So is there a kite police there ready to write someone a ticket? I would really love to kite at that 70th street launch, but when we usually go is in the springtime and not during zoo season.....i just dont remember how congested the beach is during the holidays, as i use to live in Kendal— and if it were i would drift launch as usual or not go out at all. Where i live, we have to be very careful not to ever have a kite incident that could ruin it for everyone, and I am very careful about that straight away.

[RickI]

Riders screwed things up in Miami, locals and visiting kiters alike and for over 20 years. It is a place with limited public beaches and a population of over 2.5 Million residents and over 15 MILLION visitors per year. That is a lot of people chasing limited beach front with kiters being the small guys on the totem pole. Kiters had many chances to back off and follow very few simple rules, but enough chose not to so here we are. Numbers make Miami special but the same motives to lost access have been and are still in play in many other parts of the world.

Why not "Fight Self-Serving Stupidity, Follow Simple Rules" and work to keep kiting free of concessions. Otherwise, they are the only way you may be able to kite if you screw things up too hard and too long in a heavily populated, major tourist destination like Miami. I ride down there once or twice a year but out in Stitsville. I wouldn't be surprised if one or two concessions might charge substantially more in the future, shame that would be. We have been working to shrink the supply of access, foolishly, while demand stays strong. Still, lose the concessions and you lose access at this point.

[beebad]

Riders screwed things up in Miami, locals and visiting kiters alike and for over 20 years. It is a place with limited public beaches and a population of over 2.5 Million residents and over 15 MILLION visitors per year. That is a lot of people chasing limited beach front with kiters being the small guys on the totem pole. Kiters had many chances to back off and follow very few simple rules, but enough chose not to so here we are. Numbers make Miami special but the same motives to lost access have been and are still in play in many other parts of the world.

Why not "Fight Self-Serving Stupidity, Follow Simple Rules" and work to keep kiting free of concessions. Otherwise, they are the only way you may be able to kite if you screw things up too hard and too long in a heavily populated, major tourist destination like Miami. I ride down there once or twice a year but out in Stitsville. I wouldn't be surprised if one or two concessions might charge substantially more in the future, shame that would be. We have been working to shrink the supply of access, foolishly, while demand stays strong. Still, lose the concessions and you lose access at this point.

You write a lot, but i can’t follow specifically what you are trying to say...what are the rules that you keeping mentioning?

[RickI]

Be courteous to others on the beach and kite outside the swim zones. Usually that means beyond 100 yards from shore.

[beebad]

Be courteous to others on the beach and kite outside the swim zones. Usually that means beyond 100 yards from shore.

cool. Some of our launches are shared with beach goers and most mayhem occurs launching. For that reason, i 99% of the time walk out about 2 line lengths, dunk my kite, and when the lines get taunt, i verify there are no line issues, i position the kite on the edge of the wind window and gently self launch. I take most of the accident factor out of it in this way. Only reason i would like to kite in miami is there are usually never any waves to speak of when i have been to the beach and would like to kite in the ocean once. Thanks for your response.