[greg meintjes]

The front page of the newspaper , had kiteboarding on it again today, but this time it was concerning the fisherman in the upper keys, who do not want us and portray us in a bad light. I am also aware that we have had a few complaints re kiters anchoring in sea grass so they can kite and although this may have happened, I think that a lot of the problems arise out of jelousy due to the growing number of kiters coming down. Now more than ever we need to get organised, I know the guys in the upper keys were starting a Fl Keys kiteboarding association, we need to help them get this off the ground and get organised. As much as we would like to keep this all quiet and under the radar, we are mainstream and need to act like professionals to portray our sport in a positive and beneficial light.

No matter who goes in the ocean, wether it is a bather walking on the seagrass or someone wearing the wrong type of sunscreen, we can all have a detrimental effect. We need to try and give back, so when the season starts at the end of September /October, KEY WEST KITEBOARDING is going to have a KITE NITE where we will have some equipment to raffle off with the proceeds going to the SEAGRASS foundation. We have been planning this for some time now ,but did not want to advertise it too prematurely. All of the kite companies in the Keys are welcome to participate if they wish, as this will help all of us.

We also need to do more to educate visitors who come down here with their own boats to go kiting about damaging the enviroment through negligence or ignorance.

When you talk at the ,meeting on Tuesday evening Rick, it would be great if you can mention that we are aware of some of these concerns and are working to minimise them and that kiting is one of the most enviromentaly friendly growing sports out their.

Brad ,Noel ,Paul, Kevin and anyone else , lets all get together so that we can ensure that the Keys remains a great kiteboarding destination.

Greg