I popped some guys deflate valve on his 9m best at East Beach yesterday. He didn't have a harness on and was trying to hot launch right on the shore line at the eastern tip of the beach. He crashed a couple times and got dragged on the beach and all that good stuff. I've seen a bunch of pretty sketchy things this year both by instructors, riders, and self teaching kooks. As a community, people need to approach others who are obviously not following the local norms and inform them that a certified lesson needs to be taken or they need to stop trying immediately. Same goes for instructors, if an instructor is not significantly upwind or preferably downwind they should be approached as well. Myself included. And lastly east beach is huge and instructors do their best to teach away from the masses. Stop riding directly downwind and next to lessons. If the lesson is in the middle of the riding zone say something, but if they've made an effort to go out far, tack back and stay away.
Keep our scene cool, fun, and problem free. If you see something going down that looks bad stand up and say something, the tampa bay area undoubtedly has the most kiters in Florida now, and arguably the fewest regulations, police the beach and speak your mind and it will stay that way, sit back and let people make stupid decisions and we're all screwed. On a side note Mad props to people like Steve Saddler, the TBKA crew and mike hall for their beach cleanups and charity work, its great for everyone in the kite community and I hope to organize some equally beneficial events in the year to come!
Lastly if you feel like a road trip come out to our 1st collegiate stop this weekend, it will be in jax beach saturday and sunday, forecast looks killer!
