[ricki]

I am trying to advise some guys in the midwest on how to try to restore access to a small lake, one of their primary spots. Once it is gone, it can be real hard to get it back. I hope they succeed but they may not. Coming too close to others likely was a factor in this ban, just like at Hobie, and a dozen other places that come to mind.

IF we build it into our culture, into our self-expectations, instructors into their students, that certain behaviors are UNACCEPTABLE we'll start to turn a corner on this. Shops should push this too for that matter, it is hard to sell stuff if people don't have readily available places to use it. Once the community gets onboard with the belief, then they have to act in numbers with what should be diminishing quantities of problem kiters.

Currently, newbies don't know in some cases, even reasonably experienced newer kiters may not know, then there are the well experienced guys who don't care or think they have an exception just for them for the basic rules.

Some launches in the USA don't have these problems. The community doesn't tolerate certain behaviors and goes out of its way to say hello to new kiters and manage problem riders too. There is no good reason it shouldn't be made to work here but we have to try as a group. Solo kite cops are not that effective nor is it fair to dump the responsibility on them alone. It is our problem to solve if we're up to it.