city,s approval
 

On Monday the city of Key West gave us the go ahead to plan and remove one of the poles in our riding area.The pole that we are going to remove is the one that sits second from the East and is the one that most people agree will open up the largest area for us, this pole is also in the area where the water is a little deeper compared to some of the other areas, which makes it safer to ride and jump in. We will still have the other poles to contend with, so please pay attention to them but, one less obstacle means one less problem. To everyone that has given their help and support organising this ,thank you , it is appreciated, if anyone else that I and the other kiters did not manage to contact and would also like to be involved or help out, you can call me at (305) 407 6748

Greg

Way to go Greg! Excellent job, guys have been talking about yanking out a pole more years.

city,s approval
 

Thanks RickI, since we first started kiting here the most common wish from the locals and visitors was how to get rid of those poles, now that we have a much larger kiting community and the fact that the amount of kiters visiting the Keys is growing, the city has been very receptive to the few requests we have made. Once again I would like to thank everyone who has helped with this, as it could not have been done without your support.

Greg

Kudos Greg - That's the one that tried to eat my kite - and a lot of others, I'm sure. Maybe we could have a pagan pole burning party. Just don't invite the nudists. We should get them to save the sign, we'll all sign it and post it on the beach. Or at least get a picture with it. It would be something to post when they build the Tiki hut ----- in another 5 years!!!

I couldn't find anything good on the forecasts for the Memorial weekend holiday.

city,s approval
 

Thanks Frank, just looked at the forecast and there is no wind for a few days, when I met with the city I did ask if we could get a BBQ grill but they were not too enthusiastic about that idea due to the mess that is generated from the coals, we could ask them again at a later date, as for a tiki hut, who knows, but, the reason that the city has given us the go ahead to pull the pole ourselves is that the city does not have the budget set aside for this project. Nor do we, however one of the riders has a contact at a marine salvage company that has offered to do the job for us free of charge.
Let me know when you are flying down again.

They don't have the budgeted funds to take the pole out, but the one commissioners wife can run up a tab of a couple hundred thousand dollars on the city's credit card, and it looks like she's going to get away with it. Maybe we could ask her for a loan. As for the grill, I saw one of those solar grills in the sidewalk bazaar on one saturday outside of Paul's "Help Yourself". As long as the sun's out, the burgers are sizzlin', and no mess to contribute to the already "pristine" Smathers environment.

Do you think the city would mind if by mistake the marine company took out both those poles closest to the jetty? Why should they care if they're not going to pay for it.

city,s approval
 

Neil gave me a great portable grill for the beach and boat yesterday, so , let the "grillin" begin, We did ask for both poles to be removed, but they were adamnant about two poles coming out as they want to keep boats out of the swim area. Maybe if we had asked for three to be removed they might have compromised with two ?
Who knows, if kiteboarding gets as big and crowded as I think it is going to get in the future , we may be able to approach the city again, ,but as of now they have been really helpfull and I am just gratefull for the removal of that one pole that seems to move into our way all the time.

We might be able to get them to extend the rock jetty out a quarter of a mile to create more smooth water, place the powerlines under ground and widen the beach for us too, WOOWEE, i AM HAVING THOSE FANTASIES AGAIN...

Have a good weekend Frank, hope you get some wind up there, we have nothing down here,so I am going to Bogarts for happy hour, Kim is training to work there on Sundays.

buoys! buoys!!!!! Trade all the poles for buoys!

city,s approval
 

Hey Brad whats up ? The city does not have the money for that, and we are not organised enough to launch that much of a campaign, although most of the riders here are supportive , this is key west and a lot of them work 2 jobs just to survive here so do not have the time and others are content to just go with the flow, also, too much change and regulation could become a bad thing, we want to keep a nice relaxed atmosphere at the beach but make it safer , more fun and ensure that it remains a kite riding area. Although I make money through taking people out to the backcountry to teach and ride, Smathers is still my favourite spot and the locals hangout when the Eastwinds are blowing. Well since there is no wind today, I guess I will take the "OLD DARLENE" out to the sandbar to clean her bottom before heading out to happyhour.

"Old Darlene"
 

Shouldn't the name be "New Darlene?" Speaking of Darlene....

city,s approval
 

Nice pic , thanks for checking into that i phone app, I have been checking int SUP,s for you, the one that I e mailed you about is 11 ft, and everyonesaid You should get a 12 ft one, Westi who organises the key west paddle board classic said he would be happy to help you find one, he is a really stand up guy and won't steer you wrong, e mail him at
madwesty@yahoo.com or call him at (305) 797 1174 . I saw him today out on his board so give him a shout out.

The guy that developed the phone app for Blackberry e-mailed me back. He is currently working on the iPhone app. Says that the apple platform makes it a lot harder to develop.

Hey Greg,
If you're going to remove one of the poles, shouldn't it be the 3rd one since it will open up more useful riding space? The space between pole 1 and 2 has a jetty between them. Just my 2 cents.
~Nick

city,s approval
 

I appreciate the input , when we talking about which pole to remove everyone that I spoke to suggested the one that is in front of the launch area should be the one( this has been talked about for years) , some of the reasons we decided on this one are.

1 Opens up the launch area more ,which helps when it gets busy.
2 It is further away from the shallow area where we often get bathers
3 It will hopefully help keep the kiters from riding further down the beach near the bathers
4 this pole is in a deeper area ,so riders can do tricks wthout having to land in very shallow water, which is what is around the 3rd pole.

Ideally it would have been great to have both poles removed, and maybe as the riders increase and we get more organised as a group and all work together for the good of the sport, we will be able to go back to the city and ask if we can widen our riding are more by removing another pole. We as humans can not always agree on everything but as long as we can work together and get more riders involved I think we can have a great kiting area at Smathers.

Greg

city,s approval
 

I handed over the letter the city gave us giving us the go ahead to pull the pole to Mike who is dealing with the salvage guy, and, although we are not being charged for the work, myself and some of the other local riders are all going to donate 20 dollars each as a little show of appreciation, if any of the other locals who I or Mike have not contacted and also wish to be included, they can pm me or call me at (305) 4076748.

Thanks

Greg

Nice work Greg. Count me in for a donation.


Frank

cit,s approval
 

Thanks Frank, just saw that we might get some wind this weekend

Hey Greg,

Count the FKA in, how about $100.? Please PM me info on where to send it. Well done.

city,s approval
 

Thanks Rick, I will pm you the info, we are going to try and pull it this week if possible.

Try to get some pictures of this momentous event. R U still going to try and preserve the pole for beach seating?

city,s approval
 

I will definately try get pic's but I may be the one in the water with the chainsaw, and I am going to try to get the pole up against the fence for us to sit on, hope you had a good drive home Frank

City,s approval
 

We finally got the pole removed this morning ,and want to say thank you to everyone that helped.

Greg