i put this letter on my web site
 

Serious problem for all kiteboarders

In the past three years kiteboarding has become a very popular sport in Florida and we have many new kiteboarders but at the same time authorities have been closing down beach after beach on the east coast of florida for kiteboarding , now this problem has come to the west coast of florida also.

One place that has come under the gun is Sarasota, the fka and local shops and schools have been working very hard not to let this happen, Fort Myers has also had one of its key spots for launching closed and another spot is now in danger of being closed down( if it hasn’t already)

Why are all the beaches being closed for kiteboarding?

The main reason is reckless kiteboarders who have no respect for rules or regulations and don’t give a dame, these guys are putting families in danger of being hurt and have no respect for rules whatever and kite wherever they please.

Please kite in the designated areas of your local cities and please respect other kiteboarders and the people on the beach after all the beach also belongs to them.

The other problem out there today is instructors, just because you are given an instructors diploma does not give you the right to teach anywhere you please, first of all we should all respect other schools, stores and other instructors and not teach in their area, we should make sure we are in a kiting spot and respect all the rules and regulations of that beach, we should always respect local authorities ( don’t argue with them) and the most important thing of all make sure you are teaching your student in the proper fashion.

Unfortunately some instructors are not doing their job, they are too busy trying to make money so they are giving half arsed lessons and selling cheap, improper gear, this is giving instructors a bad name , believe it or not some instructors really love kiteboarding and love to teach and have put everything they have into teaching with all their heart . Some of these guys have stores and have been doing this for years and the reason we will still have access to some beaches is because of these guys if we as a kiteboarding community don’t stick together and stop these guys we will have nowhere to kite, something has got to be done because we will all lose our kiting privileges Just because of a few people who don’t want to follow the rules

CONCERNED KITER

Lots of good points Enrique. The thing is at many of these conflicted launches we've had warnings for many years. Enough of us have discounted the warnings and ignored threatening riding practices of some or worse practiced poor riding habits ourselves. We need to lead by example and apply peer pressure the best we can to try to avoid more stupid, needless threats to access. Which spots were closed and under threat at Ft. Myers? If we can make this an important issue in the kiting community, both in the Industry and among riders at large, we may start to turn this mess around. If not, well there is always the prospect of more closures. When we start to care as a Community, this crap will start to set into the past.

Good points Enrique.
Please read the WBF post "Your Invitation" which is an open invitation for business owners to help develop a new, sensible approach to these problems through an industry neutral approach.

Looking forward to seeing you, Ricki, and other business owners in the WBF, we have lots of good things to discuss.;)

The WBF is the Watersports Business Forum and the link to the post is:
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?p=46138#post46138

Please note, you have to be logged in to see it. If you're not registered with Ricki as a WBF member, you won't see it at all.

It seems an important component of the current problem involves instructors. Guys that are teaching in poor locations among other beach goers and causing complaints. If folks are still going to teach starting lessons from the beach instead of from a boat, they need to be particularly sensitive to maintaining bystander, kiter safety and avoid complaints. A few complaints can be the start or even the finish of the process of closing an area to kiting.

In still other cases, ironically, it involves new kiters in need of proper quality professional training who have been injured in kiting accidents and/or scared bystanders through incidents. We can't handle that many of these type of avoidable problems.

Some in the Industry care which is only right and logical, while a good deal more seem indifferent to this problem. This makes no sense as lost access only hurts public perception and freedom to responsibly practice our sport and ultimately their income.

ASM has pursued one solution, to try to effectively maintain responsible riding practices at a specific venue and in that way trying to secure access there. Is this the only way these problems will be resolved? It would be great if the training organizations properly policed instructors and motivated an initiative to compel all instructors to acquire quality training and use good teaching practices. This seems to be lacking at this time. If people don't pull together then it falls on individuals to put systems together to secure things when and where they can for best effect.

The training orgs. aren't going to do anything about their instructors, because in a membership (fee-based) org. they rely on selling memberships to these instructors and their students. They are limited by their membership structure, and limited to, selling memberships that don't come with a vote.

FYI-I think EVERY instructor should have training and have nothing bad to say about IKO or PASA other than they are limited in their effectiveness and potential for growth.

My suggestion is that if you earn money in this business, you should be required to have a publicly accessible profile page where your customers can comment on your service. When a prospective student is searching for an instructor, they can read through others firsthand experiences with that business. This could work in favor, or against them, depending on how they treated their customers. It would immediately create more instructor and retailer responsibility because as we know, nobody likes being called out....;)
Apply this to team riders and manufacturers would have a place (their profile) to go and scout new (respectable) talent. You know, find out who the person is that is repping their brand and whether they are a respectful kiter or not. Would "Rider B" obtain another sponsorship if they knew he intentionally caused a ban? Not a chance in hell...
I like to call it the Court of Public Opinion- simple and effective!

Not sure why you removed "Rider B's" name from my post, but hey, it really helped prove my point- Creative stuff man!

I prefer what is right and logical.;)

I only deal with one liable complaint per day. Let's keep names out of it which is old an old request in that matter.