Hard Lessons Learned

[Steve-O]

Terrortorialism at it's finest.

[bayflite]

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[linhster]

Is it about getting the last word in or actually about kiteboarding?

bayflite, do you like to pick at old wounds and make it bleed again?

I think we know where you stand on the SZ. You WIN.... (you must like to hear that)! I hope your board never pass those buoy (in front of a camera).

I will try to drive at 55 mph (with no one else on the highway), but the empty road can tempting..

[Mike T]

Bayflite
What's your agenda? Swim Zones, Races or Promoting the Sport of Kiteboarding in a Professional manner or an online fight with Steve-O and using Chris and his mom as a pawn for your agenda?
Personaly I think you owe them both a Public Apoligy for slinging BS on this forum.
If you have a problem with someone then go approach them and put it all on the table and work it out. That's what professionals do!
This should be about promoting the sport and keeping things safe so anyone that wants to organize a race or even just ride in a big group in the future can do so without serious restrictions or jumping thru twenty thousand hoops to do it! Look whats going on down south (hobie Beach)! Bayflite, this is'nt a professional way to do it!
Working together is the only way to keep access to our beaches open to all boarding water sports. As Hobie Beach and other restricted beaches in other states has proven it doesn't take much to ruined it for everyone! Just my two cents! Mike

[walleye]

You did a great job of introducing me to kitesurfing with an emphasis on safety. I lived on this bay for 30 years and I love kitesurfing on it. Thank you for being a terrific ambassador to our T.B. area!

[uchuche]

Wow.

Steve starts a thread about confronting people to protect the sport.

Bayflite asks about safety and if permits are required (in many cases they are not, and in some they are).

He is promptly shut down and labeled as a trouble maker, or a hater.

Interestingly enough, it starts with a post to the forum, which itself mentions how useless it is to confront issues on the forum.

So if this is the case, why a thread started to begin with?

Great example of how confronting people can fail, in a thread about how important it is to confront people, no less.

Having said all that, if you are going to talk you also need to be willing to listen.

[Steve-O]

Perception is reality.

[Danimal8199]

You can never mitigate all risks, other than never kiteboarding at all it is impossible. Even at east beach there will always be someone jogging down and around the loop that could at any minute be in harms way. I feel like there is way more risk in driving to the beach to kiteboard than the actual sport and way more likely that you could get sued. At the end of the day the question to ask is, was a reasonable effort made to operate your kite/contest/event in a safe manner. I'm pretty sure people around the state/country/world will still be holding events despite some of these threads. Thankfully the event organizers listened and updated the rules to reflect the concern about riding inside of all bouys.

For what reason do you want Steve-O to pull permits and insurance? Why would the organizers need that? Isn't it the kiters responisibility to have their own insurance in case anything happens?

[uchuche]

I don't know which event or location they are discussing, but in many cases permits ARE required for an event. Ft. Desoto is one place where a permit is absolutely required for an -organized- public event. 20 guys showing up for a friendly race, no PA, no entry fees, no advertisers, etc are obviously not going to need a permit.

However, a permit may be needed at the starting, ending, or just the "party" location (if there is one), if there are advertisers, entree fees being collected, tents being set up, entertainment, equipment sales, or money changing hands, or a large group gathering, etc.

It really depends on the situation.

If there were an accident during such an event, the organizers would likely be held responsible. Waivers mean absolutely nothing, they should expect to get sued if someone's kid drowns when hit by a board during the race.

Entree fees or memberships are usually collected to help cover the cost of insurance, which offers some liability protection from these situations.