I think you may be missing the point of why riding at Gandy is not a good idea. Nobody is questioning anyone’s ability; I think you should consider the broader implications.
If you get in trouble at Gandy (like what happened to the first poster) you just don’t hurt yourself/your gear… There’s a good chance you’re going to cause damage to other people/property. With wind from any direction at Gandy if anything goes wrong your gear is in a busy road with the 60 mph cars. You’re not just hurting yourself or threatening people on the beach, you’re potentially causing some serious damage. If you put personal liability aside, the real problem is the implications to the kite boarding community.
I think Gandy beach is under the jurisdiction of Pinellas County. If a kiter looses their gear and causes an accident on Gandy Blvd the first thing the County will do (they HAVE to do for liability reasons) is close Gandy to kite boarding. The next thing they will probably do is look at every other place where we kite board that’s under their jurisdiction and take the same action (go through Rando’s list and pick them out). After that, if a launch is managed by another gov body they will probably take the same action. Think of the media attention because of a potentially multi-car accident on Gandy Blvd that was caused by a kite boarder. Any government agency that has any liability associated with kite boarding would have to take action (as a tax payer of the county/city I expect them to).
Rando has a good list and there’s some good things to consider at each launch, however, those issues are manageable and don’t have nearly the potential for damage like Gandy. I think that’s why WW posted the list of places not to ride, not to challenge your riding ability or list inconveniences to kite boarders, I think the intent is to point out places that have too much downside to the community if a problem happens.
I live in St Pete and work in downtown Tampa which means I drive by Gandy every day. I’m just starting out and I stick to beginner launches but I’m staying up-wind, etc and starting to look for new places and Gandy is very tempting. Honestly, the reason I don’t is I don’t want to take the chance of f-ing up my gear, but if I really thought about it I also don’t want to be the guy that gets EVERYTHING shut down. With the light wind on the weekends lately I was looking to go south Florida to get out and practice. Crandon seems perfect with shallow water, warm temps, shuttle services, etc. Then I saw all the rules, BS insurance you have to buy, certification, yearly passes, and limited number of riders. It makes you appreciate what we have here, it seems like it wouldn’t take a lot to loose it.
Nobody can stop you from riding there and doing what you want and I’m sure you can handle it, but maybe consider not posting it and letting people think it a good idea. Hopefully people will also read WW post and decide not to go there. I know this can happen anywhere, I just think the potential for really bad problems is so much greater at places like Gandy.
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