Kite gear not allowed in Egypt

[Shai99]

Hi,
I'm an Israeli kiter and have spent most of my kiting days in Sinai, Egypt.
Recently the officials at the taba Border - connecting Israel and Sinai desert - have forbidden getting kite gear (mostly boards and harness, but when they see them they actively look for a kite as well) into Sinai.
I was wondering if anyone here traveled to sharm a sheich or hurghada, and did you encounter any trouble getting your gear in at the airport?
The current situation is very frustrating for the Israeli kite community, since this is a really popular spot for us, and I wonder if it's a restriction strictly for the taba Border. Any info from fellow traveling kiters, who have been there since June this year, will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

[leeuwen]

I hope not.
I am flying to Hurghada on Friday.

[Toby]

That will hurt tourism.

I had trouble once at Cairo airport...they thought it is a parachute.
After discussions and showing videos they understood and let me pass.

Best would be to go to the Egyptian embassy in your country and tell your story.
Get a paper from them that explains what you do.

Keep us informed please!

[grigorib]

That will hurt tourism.

I had trouble once at Cairo airport...they thought it is a parachute.
After discussions and showing videos they understood....

Toby, they knew you’re riding 18m and there are people flying smaller size paragliders

[Toby]

they didn't know the sizes..they have no clue.

[Shai99]

That will hurt tourism.

I had trouble once at Cairo airport...they thought it is a parachute.
After discussions and showing videos they understood and let me pass.

Best would be to go to the Egyptian embassy in your country and tell your story.
Get a paper from them that explains what you do.

Keep us informed please!

I had that "parachute" issue with them before and did the same(explaining and showing them vids etc.) and they did let me pass with it. But now(since mid may 2019) it's a more strict order regarding surfing gear.
Didn't mean to alarm you guys, AFAIK this is only for the Taba entrance to Egypt and you shouldn't have a problem at other entry points to Sinai, just trying to find out if it's indeed only for the Israeli border, so we know what to say when we contact the embassy.
We did reach out to them and the reply was that those are the orders they got from Cairo and nothing we can do about it.
Would love to hear from guys who were there recently with their own kite and board.

[Kamikuza]

I had a grumpy old fart volunteer park manager-type try to kick me out of a park for flying a 5m foil kite. He insisted it was a paraglider and I invited him to jump off the hill just over there with it.

[Toby]

sorry to hear Shai. I wonder why they would order that. It will hurt tourism, since basically not many go to Sinai anymore? Just strange.

[Shai99]

Thanks Toby,
Actually last year about 350,000 Israelis visited Sinai and I assume this year the number will be close to double that. But since the kiters are a very small portion of it, they wouldn't really feel the difference...
It has happened before that people got held up with kite gear, but now it's really strict and basicly nobody managed to get a kiteboard trough in the last three months.

[Toby]

plain stupid what they do.

we should all boycott Egypt until they allow it again!

Please start a petition! And we collect signatures from around the world to against it...only thing that could help if they fear we all stop coming...