FKA Kiteboarding Forums - Some plan to purposely get kiteboarding banned in FLL

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- - Some plan to purposely get kiteboarding banned in FLL (http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=9472)

In fairness, if you visited some other spots you might see similar behaviors sad to say. Hope not that commonly however.
Sometimes a few experienced riders who may be leading things, knowingly or otherwise, may be leading in poor directions
for sustainability.

Specifically, what sort of problem riding behaviors did you see there? It would be good to hear your perspective.

It doesn't matter how much fun something may seem to be if it eventually stops you from being able to kite at all.

I think we should start throwing up videos on a wall of shame or something!;)

PS- Curious would the reason for the not so nice riders at Lauderdale be because of the school there, thought the school had problems when it was in Pompano ? :rolleyes:

Sad to say but there is no school there anymore and it did not move to Pompano......

Neil, I believe he is thinking about a school that was based in Pompano for a while and then moved to Lauderdale By-The-Sea. As far as I know, I don't think it ever worked out of Ft. Lauderdale.

Here is the thread from previous trip 9-2008, I was also there in 11-2007:

http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=6939&page=2

I emailed Rick at that time, the details and some pictures of the worst offenders, you recognized them. Just people riding amonst the swimmers, a few getting sprayed and yelling at the riders. Though at one point someone crashed with their kite just upwind of some swimming children. It didn't look like he going to relaunch his kite in time so I started running to grab his kite (it was in the break at this point), but he managed to get it up in the air before it was too late. It has actually slightly north of fort lauderdale, lauderdale by the sea.

Almost one year later, in 8-2009 there was a thread about a ban in lauderdale by the sea

http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=8210&page=4

I emailed the mayor about it (don't worry, it was well written) with concerns of future visits by myself, since I choose her city based on kiteboarding destination. She called me to discuss the issue and seemed to appreciate the tourism aspect of it. I told her I would never visit her city again if they enacted any ban or registration, I would just go to Puerto Rico or some other kite friendly place. I suggested enforcement only against the people causing problems using existing rules (like endangerment), which she said she would look into. I used an example of a reckless surfer that rode into swimmers, treat it the same. I was pretty happy with the conversation at the end...but not sure what ended up happening there...

OttoNP was staying at the hotel west of Weenie Beach (aka Damons). This area is over six miles north of the normal riding launch in Ft. Lauderdale. Here are his comments from August 2008.

"He was skilled, rode a brown 13 Fuel kite, but jumped at least 2 swimmers and sprayed around 3 people. One of the persons he sprayed yelled at him. This occured Saturday, August 30th around 1-3 pm. He was out again Sunday and sprayed some other swimmers around 2 pm., also got yelled at by them There were some others that rode around swimmers, but didn't jump or spray anyone."

Let's leave names out of this.

We have had a lot of complaints out of Lauderdale By-The-Sea and have had lot of responsible kiters spending quite a bit of their time there to try to preserve access for years. Small wonder.

.

when i was a kid and i did stuff like this ...

an older kid usually kicked my ass ... real good

i'm not suggesting, i'm just saying, back in the day it just seemed to work

kd

being a visitor here and watching the ettiqute and launching/landing techniques it is no suprise that this ban happened. I bet there will be more in the future. I walked a half mile to avoid launching around hundreds of people when others did not and "tried" to launch there kites crashing them on people more than once. wow! This is a tough problem to deal with. good luck!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickI (Post 44773)

All these guys are experienced local riders, some have been at it for years. They know the rules, ANYONE who spends anytime around Ft. Lauderdale Beach knows you stay outside the buoys. I learned that in no uncertain terms decades back growing up there, nothing has changed in that regard either.

How long did it take for these guys, riding back and forth to cover the entire Ft. Lauderdale Public Beach, thirty minutes, more? In the photos, they were approaching within 50 ft. of the beach, the buoys are about 400 ft. offshore! Lifeguards were in fits, perhaps 20 of them at several hundred foot intervals, trying to get these guys out of the swim area. If a guard is repeatedly blowing his whistle, running down by the water and you are 800 ft. offshore, you can't miss it. At 50 to 200 ft., it is right in your face and something you can't ignore, unless you choose to.

What is the greatest problem we've had at Ft. Lauderdale, for almost TEN YEARS, guys riding inside the buoys in the swim zone. Thanks to a lot of hard work, it has become more rare. This is common knowledge and why lots of us spent a great deal of time in Commission meetings for years trying to preserve access here. Multiply that by a few hundred times, and that is what Neil has invested in trying to keep the sport alive here. No way, this should be trashed for the misguided efforts of a very few riders.

I just want to clarify. Are you talking about the white boys shaped like a cylinder that have an orange oval decal on them?? Those buoys signify how far swimmers can go?

Usually, the lifeguards like swimmers to stay closer shore, even less in higher waves. The buoys are an indication for watercraft to stay out of the swim zone in the case of Ft. Lauderdale. Different areas may have different buoys or none at all. Kiters should know what the rules are before they rig up and potentially ride into trouble. This is common knowledge among local riders and anyone who isn't deaf or blind to the lifeguards.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album491/FLF_buoys.jpg