Kite Report from St. Pete Beach

[Danimal8199]

Nice weather on Saturday morning and early afternoon before the storms came through on St. Pete beach.

Plenty of wind and lots of people in the water.

It was nice to see kiters tacking 10 feet from shore and flying their kites over the beach and over people in the water.

Don't know the guys but at least one was a best kite and the other a Turbo Diesel 2 perhaps.

Its even nicer when you walk down the beach to wave them away from shore, they see you, and basically get brushed off with other hand gestures.

Seems like some people are never going to learn etiquette and safety.

Now is not the time of year to try and surf 2-3 foot rollers 20 feet from shore.

One of the hardest things is that its hard to have a conversation about it at a busy beach, but its probably pointless to have that conversation with someone who will brush you off anyway.

It will probably take an unfortunate accident for people to realize the safety measures that need to be followed. Ask the people of south Florida.

Danny

[ricki]

We just lost access to Hobie Beach, after trying to lose it for almost 11 years. The main reason was guys riding too close to shore.

Make local riders aware of how bad a practice this is. If enough people know it and accept it, your problem riders will become fewer. It takes more than just your efforts alone at the beach, but from the kiting community in general. It is a lot easier to ignore one or two guys than a beach of several concerned, attentive local kiters. Peer pressure works but you have to have enough peers onboard and working to keep things going. Good luck!

[Danimal8199]

unfortunately no one seems to care. I think even the people that care about losing access are ignorant to some of their actions sometimes and the others just have a complete disregard for their fellow riders privilege to ride and passers by safety.

One day soon the Tampa area will have a ban and its unfortunate.

There haven't even been any responses to this thread and its not that people don't care, they just know that there is nothing that can be done to prevent the violating individuals from doing what they do, so why bother to chime in???

Danny

[admin]

IF you can get enough people onboard with a short list of things not to do, your problems should diminish. Having one or two people as kite cops isn't very effective and it is hard on those folks anyway. It leads to burnout. Peer pressure works, even in Tampa contrary to some beliefs.

To be effective though you have to get enough people to believe it and go out of their way to promote it. Driving to another launch is going out of your way right? Why not spare the hassle and just step up to the plate, with friends, not alone. Do it legally and tactfully, localism can get out of hand otherwise. A few people won't make it work though, you need to get the community onboard with it. Anyone with clear vision should be able to see this is in their self-interest. Not everyone sees that clearly of course but there should be quite a few that do. Avoid factionalism if you can, keep the main rules short and to the point. They should sell themselves.

133 views, you know people are reading and seeing this message.

I lived in tampa 2 years ago and from the 2 years that I did live there, the problem was already escalating exponentially, as I'm sure it has been that way since the sport has come around.

I agree with Rick. When I lived there, I had multiple issues with people riding unsafely. I tried to go to areas that weren't as crowded, yet eventually more and more riders came and the same issues came about. The best way to try to work on this situation would be to approach in a group and calmly talk to these people about the situation. Some may listen but most probably won't. The only thing you can hope for is that there will be people listening and the word will spread

Tampa is a sick spot, one of the best places I've ever ridden in, and I'd hate to see it go.

Good luck with all of this, I hope it works out for the best for you guys.

[Danimal8199]

One of the main challenges in this specific case is that I was on the beach with one other person that I knew. He was still on the water when I came in and the other 2 violators had launched a quarter mile up the beach and were still out on the water.

1) I had no support/group
2) I eventually had to leave

In an area like our gulf beaches where we have so much real estate its hard to cover/try to enforce non-official rules to a bunch of jackasses, yeah I said it.

Danny

[Jgreen76]

I saw a guy kiting at TI on that Sunday.... Launched his kite in the middle of

the crowded beach, on a perfect sunday afternoon(2ish, max crowd). People like that are going to get our sport banned from

the places we enjoy going to.

The jacka$$ kept by the shore the entire time, only to ride downwind and

walk it back. I was out surfing with a buddy of mine who doesn't kite, and

he asked me if everyone who kites just tries to show off in front of

crowds...I replied No, he's just a jacka$$.


I guess there is always going to be that one person. Unfortunately, it only

takes one person to screw it up for everyone else....

[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.