Great job Rick putting the presentation together. And I was really impressed with Paul's sincere, impassioned, and professional appeal.

Hope the waves and wind treated you well, Paul. See you in the near future.


Frank

Thanks Frank, yes Paul did a good job in his video. So did Greg in helping me work out the operating area boundaries and having a dialog with the naturists. Hope this goes to sleep now!

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Some of the folks that showed up at the Court annex

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album435/steps_P7210107.jpg
The courthouse steps. I can recall what I took for a gypsy lady dancing in the street for tips in front of this building years ago. We didn't have to do a soft shoe, board off or anything challenging like that, this time.


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What its all about
(CLICK PHOTO FOR full sized image)

Good job guys...on behalf of us middle/upper Keys Kiters, thanks you.

Well, myself and greg went to the meeting tonight. Alot of things i think we both learned and we had a good plan and it worked.

First might i say, that what ever goes on, you have to stick together and make a plan and look professional and make your point. Dont get personal or disrespectfull. Together means, different shops, launches, kite company's ect.

We were taken very seriously and the commissioner referred to the past meeting and the presentation that right put up and what greg had to say. They also changed there minds and saw us as a good group of people concerned about this area.

The other side was mounting a huge campaign and me and greg let them make all the moves and organized together. When i spoke tonight, i chose my words careful and highlighted there points i thought that where not valid in a positive wave. This was our plan.....well they really hit the commissioners with some nice stuff, but then with some bad stuff and threats. All the while, we never went negative and kept to our points.

All said and done, on of the commissioner went so far and to make it a vote to rule our spot out completely. They dismissed it from a vote and till they can have everyone decide on a place its a no go and they made points for us that the island is just a bit small.

Stick together and put personal shit aside, its works and you stick to the points as one group. Thanks for the team work greg, i think we solved this

viva kiteboarding in key west!!!

aloha

nice job guys!

thanks
 

Thanks Brad and Paul , last night went as good as it could have for us, Paul you did a really great job on the podium and I think you suprised some of the people at the meeting who expected the vote to go through with the way you held yourself and stuck to the facts ( a lot of other people rambled) .Paul showed respect and understanding when he adressed the comission, where as some of the other speakers (nudists) actually insulted some of the comissioners. We do all need to keep working together re all these issues as there are bound to be more in the future. Right now as far as a nude beach down here goes, it is up to the nudists to get the support they need to put it back on the agenda, so we need to be vigilant as I am sure they are not finished with the idea yet. But for now Smathers is safe.

Some of us may be in business" competition " against each other, but there is no reason it can not be fair and friendly competition, we all benefit and it makes it a damn site more fun when we are all on the beach kiting with no bad feelings going around. As Paul said ,don,t get pesonal or disrespectfull, we cannot always agree on everything , but that should not cause problems with fellow kiters and friends. Now all we really need is some really nuking winds to top off a succesfull week.

Greg

Well done guys. Hitting things as a team with a strong consensus of opinion supporting your cause among kiters is the the way to go. Discussing things in advance of the meeting, working out common ground and counters to points that might be raised was a smart approach. Thanks for the hard work and good results. Hope this sets as an issue for Key West kiters soon.