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Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

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POACHER
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Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby POACHER » Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:48 pm

Had a shitty run in with a guy yesterday while kiting. I don't care how nice, courteous, or good you are at playing goodwill ambassador for the sport, you just can't make everyone happy. Some people are just douche nozzles and like to be difficult. Yesterday's incident was rather unfortunate for our kitegroup as we've never had a run in with anyone up here while kiting.

Here's the recap:
Yesterday was blowing a nice 25 SW from 1 to 7pm. It was great. Myself and 3 of my friends were able to sherk our work for the day and go ride. Our spot for SW is a cool little finger/sand bar that sticks out about 50 yards from shore. On the northern side of the bar it's about 2 feet deep and awesome white sand that reaches out another 50 yards forming a nice area. It's really a cool place. We rig on the bar and ride out into the main lake. It's fun to come back behind the bar for smooth water for powered jumps and jibes. This place is also a nice swim/picnic area, but as mentioned, this is a pretty desolate place and there's not tons of room.
So we setup and rode for about 2 hours. Wind was cooperating and the temp was 94 degrees. It was turning out to be an awesome day. Three of us were in grabbing a quick beer and bite to eat while one of my friends was out trying my new 12m. So the three of us are sitting on the bar watching our friend ride and tacking back to the bar/ calm water where we were sitting. All of the sudden this fishing boat full of people comes up from the southern part of the bar and actually accelerates to cut off our friend riding in. We were kind of like wtf? Then the fishing boat pulls in the middle of the calm area and drops anchor. We look at each other and think well this is right where we are riding, we should ask him to move. So me and another guy approach the boat and calmly/politely ask the guy if he wouldn’t mind moving the boat to the north side of the bar or slightly west (by the other boats). The guy doesn’t even look at us. We then state, we don’t mind sharing the bar but it will just be safer for him, his family and us if there isn’t a boat downwind of where we are riding. Again no response. The guy was completely blowing us off. So we went back to the bar and just waited. The guy took his dog out for a quick swim while his family just waited in the boat. So after a half hour of him just wading around, he walks up to us and says “You know you guys don’t own this land, this is state land for everyone to use.”

We calmly replied “We’re fully aware of that. We weren’t asking you leave, we just didn’t want to have the boat parked there so not to create a hazard for us AND your family. We’re happy to share the spot if you guys want to swim and hang out, it’s just the boat that’s the issue.”

He replies “I shouldn’t have to move. You need to be able to control your equipment. We shouldn’t have to adjust to you guys, you guys have the entire lake to ride on. Why do you need to take up this entire spot?”

So obviously this guy is clueless as far as anything kiteboarding goes, so we try to explain that we needed the area to setup and to land. (the lake is 100% surrounded by forest)

He still wasn’t having any of it. He fires off “Well I was here last year and some guys were out here doing the same thing and they told us we have to move from a different spot on the lake so they could ride. You guys don’t own the lake!”

So now we’re kind of laughing a little. We are really the only kiters up here, this was total bullshit. We’re not hooligans by any means. (anymore) I’m 36, one guy 47 and the other two over 50. We’re not mouthy A-holes that would just tell someone they need to leave. Anything we were going to say wasn’t going to change anything so we just walked away. So the dude shakes his head and leaves.

Were we wrong in asking him to move his boat and family? I know this doesn’t mean much, but we were quite obviously there first. If we pulled up and there was people swimming, kayaking or snorkeling the spot, we wouldn’t just barge in and claim the spot. So this guy was obviously having a bad day or was getting hen pecked in the boat all day and needed to vent on someone.
Oh well………..we rode until almost dark and enjoyed a few beers afterward. I’m calling it a win.

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby kitecozumel » Thu Jul 21, 2011 5:21 pm

There is so many rules that you can pull on as kiters favor, but, we're not there to educate boaters that do not want to listen , nevertless reason.
How boaters like this get their licences?
A boat moving by wind has right of way over others motorized, this applies anywhere in the planet.
Jealousy and envy is a big factor, you guys were having FUN !!!! :thumb:

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby demo243 » Thu Jul 21, 2011 5:22 pm

Its just the way it is. Some people feel they own the place and accuse you of doing the same.

Most people are pretty nice though. We have some smaller launches and I have had people come to the beach and set right up in front of my gear making it very hard for me to come in and self land. If I can catch them before they set up they are usually pretty nice about moving a bit either direction on the beach.

It gets annoying though when people set up right in front of your stuff or when you laying out lines and what not. The problem is kiting is so forieng to most people that they dont understand it. We get people who hang out right where we launch and land just because they are messmerized by it. You did the right thing by asking politely if they could just move their boat a little bit. He was the one being rude and arrogant.

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby POACHER » Thu Jul 21, 2011 5:33 pm

Yeah the guy was a tool that was completely clueless. I read on here about how beaches and areas are closing all over the place because of kiters. This was our first confrontation and I wanted to represent correctly. This guy just wasn't having it. So sorry kiteworld.....public relations FAIL. :cool2:

Well not really......2 other boats came by before him, one pulled up, quickly realized that we were using the area and moved out of the way to watch. The other boat had a really nice couple from Arizona. They beached their boat on the south side of the bar, setup lawn chairs in the shallows, cracked a few beers and watched us ride for almost 2 hours. We talked to them and answered all of their questions about kiting. It was cool.

The lady asked me if this was my first time kiting. :rollgrin:

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby waynepjh » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:09 pm

Not many people like to be asked to move they may have planned to go to that exact spot well in advance and then show up and are asked to move. That would piss off a lot of people. Most nice people would have no problem moving. This guy could of gotten really mad and told the rangers or whoever else that you asked him to move. Rangers don't like that very much. That is the start of a conflict which could close that area to kiting. Tread lightly! If it was me I would have no problem moving but I am a kiter and understand. Good luck!

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby Toby » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:22 pm

you did everything right, including staying calm.
You can only ask politely and explain why this would be great if he moves.
But you will quickly feel if that person is a jerk or not...smart people understand and will be happy to move. Stupid wannabees will cause trouble and raise hell.
There are that many nice people on earth, and that many idiots.
At least you still had a great time, so never mind that guy and waist your positive thoughts and memory on him!

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby superstoke » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:22 pm

Unfortunately the world is full of assholes and it only takes one to f*** things up.

Not to change to subject too much but I sincerely believe that kiters are in general too thinly spinned and don't stick up for their rights enough. Negotiations with authorities always start out with the premise that it would be so wonderful if we could just have 30 m of beach that otherwise goes unused. We need to think bigger and stronger and call the assholes for what they are (but using more mature language obviously). We want the whole beach and we will negotiate down to half of it. That's how negotiations work. As kiters we always start out with less then what we should have and end up with even less then that.

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby superstoke » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:25 pm

waynepjh wrote:Not many people like to be asked to move they may have planned to go to that exact spot well in advance and then show up and are asked to move. That would piss off a lot of people. Most nice people would have no problem moving. This guy could of gotten really mad and told the rangers or whoever else that you asked him to move. Rangers don't like that very much. That is the start of a conflict which could close that area to kiting. Tread lightly! If it was me I would have no problem moving but I am a kiter and understand. Good luck!
This is exactly the sissy attitude I'm talking about. It's like we are the ones that come up with the idea of bans. We shouldn't be the ones putting the idea on the table.

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby CaptainArgh » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:33 pm

that guy sounds like a complete douche. he was obviously looking for confrontation from the beginning because he sped up to the spot and ignored your communications. so, no, you didn't do anything wrong there. some people would say you should yield to everyone and everyone's interests should go ahead of the kiters....sure, maybe. but sometimes you just run into a douchebag and can't win.

the only thing i would have done differently is not mention the safety aspect to him. that is your responsibility, not his. you can only request that he move, and if he doesn't, than we have to widen our boundary so we're not putting him and his family at risk. by mentioning safety just gives him ammunition to complain to someone else. you are basically telling him that it is dangerous near you which validates him reporting to someone else that you put his safety at risk.

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Re: Conflict with beach user.....you can't please everyone.

Postby Pike » Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:40 pm

well known story at our beach;

friend laying out his lines on the beach. man walking dog walks up to the lines and just stands there. Friend ask if evrything is alright, man orders friend to move his lines so he can carry on walking..

just where do you go from there?...


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