My experience has been the same...although i havent really met that many of you in person..
Someone lifted my brand new harness from eb a few months ago, i posted on here that same day...and although it was never returned steve(kite4life) gave me a spreader bar and plenty of others offered to lend me a harness without even knowing who i was... I never got that kind of treatment even after 20 years of s'fla surfing...!
Their is some super cool peeps in the tampa/st pete area for sure....