anyone see..

[Kiteboarding Tampa Bay]

Disclaimer:
This post is not aimed at anyone in particular, period. I have a good relationship with most shops and instructors in the area and hope to keep it that way, sorry if I offend anyone. My personal opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of TBKA, K4L, or ASF members.

I think the local instructors all do a pretty good job when teaching. I am sure there's room for improvement for more respectful riding practices when they aren't teaching, myself included.
The intro class is the first thing I tell my students about when booking a lesson. It is a prerequisite to a water lesson and worked really well last season. Sure, most of the people that call me end up getting a lesson from another instructor, but at least they're getting lessons. I am fine with that. I also personally feel that (industry-wide), lessons and gear sales should be separated ,as it is an obvious conflict of interest. My interest is in building respect for the proper learning channels (certified instruction with a complete lesson plan) and the $elfish actions of a few are making these problems much more difficult than they should be.

Since this is a positive talk about instruction, we could discuss solutions for:
1. uncertified instructors
2. poor choice of teaching location
3. Gear sales before water training
4. Local Surf shops selling kite gear
5. roadside sales- (special discounts during hurricanes!)
6. Laying out acceptable guidelines/distances for both riding and teaching in our area. (then we can start issuing pats on the back)

BTW, kristrudo- whoever said that East Beach is an advanced location is spreading bad information. It is well known that EB is the best location we have for beginners. What makes it "advanced" for them is that no advertising or gear sales are permitted. We are committed to following the rules laid out by park officials

On less controversial note, local certified instructors can obtain Liability insurance through KTB for roughly the cost of a 3 hour lesson. This will soon be offered with several more options for certification/coverage.

TBKA and its parent organizations are actively working on everything mentioned that will get us back on the right track to preserve access and prevent accidents. Its time for us to really start working together to solve these recurring problems on our beaches.
A general membership meeting is in the works, I will post details soon.
More discussion of local topics at www.TBKA.org

Kite safe!
Steve S.