|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
I have visited Florida and other locations many times, every responsible kiter knows to check the local rules at any local spot. I can not think of a kiter I know that would not check the local rules before riding a spot. I knew months and months before I came to Fort Lauderdale not to ride in the swim buoys. I knew from common sense not to cut so close to swimmers that they get sprayed with the water off my board! Yet, on all my trips to Fort Lauderdale area I see locals doing both of these obvious things. Very few can claim ignorance on this issue in my opinion.
Actually, now that I think about it Fort Lauderdale is/was the worst spot in terms of kiters being respectful to the general public of any location I have ever kited out. When I was recently in the keys everyone seemed pretty respectful of the bystanders Here is the lists of places I have ridden off the top of my head, all spots were good except Fort Lauderdale...I will say that at Leo Carillo in CA, the lifeguards I talked to said some people were pretty bad, but not while I was there FL Curry Hammock State Park Fort Lauderdale Area HI Kailua Bay Various local spots around Kauai CA Leo Carillo / Nicholas Canyon NE Lake McConaughy OK Foss Lake MI Tawas Sterling State Part Lake St. Clair NC OBX Puerto Rico Varios local spots Mexico Rocky Point |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
In fairness, if you visited some other spots you might see similar behaviors sad to say. Hope not that commonly however.
Sometimes a few experienced riders who may be leading things, knowingly or otherwise, may be leading in poor directions for sustainability. Specifically, what sort of problem riding behaviors did you see there? It would be good to hear your perspective. It doesn't matter how much fun something may seem to be if it eventually stops you from being able to kite at all.
__________________
FKA, Inc. transcribed by: Rick Iossi |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
I think we should start throwing up videos on a wall of shame or something!
PS- Curious would the reason for the not so nice riders at Lauderdale be because of the school there, thought the school had problems when it was in Pompano ? |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Sad to say but there is no school there anymore and it did not move to Pompano......
__________________
Neil Hutchenson |
#5
|
||||
|
||||
Neil, I believe he is thinking about a school that was based in Pompano for a while and then moved to Lauderdale By-The-Sea. As far as I know, I don't think it ever worked out of Ft. Lauderdale.
__________________
FKA, Inc. transcribed by: Rick Iossi |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Here is the thread from previous trip 9-2008, I was also there in 11-2007:
http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=6939&page=2 I emailed Rick at that time, the details and some pictures of the worst offenders, you recognized them. Just people riding amonst the swimmers, a few getting sprayed and yelling at the riders. Though at one point someone crashed with their kite just upwind of some swimming children. It didn't look like he going to relaunch his kite in time so I started running to grab his kite (it was in the break at this point), but he managed to get it up in the air before it was too late. It has actually slightly north of fort lauderdale, lauderdale by the sea. Almost one year later, in 8-2009 there was a thread about a ban in lauderdale by the sea http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=8210&page=4 I emailed the mayor about it (don't worry, it was well written) with concerns of future visits by myself, since I choose her city based on kiteboarding destination. She called me to discuss the issue and seemed to appreciate the tourism aspect of it. I told her I would never visit her city again if they enacted any ban or registration, I would just go to Puerto Rico or some other kite friendly place. I suggested enforcement only against the people causing problems using existing rules (like endangerment), which she said she would look into. I used an example of a reckless surfer that rode into swimmers, treat it the same. I was pretty happy with the conversation at the end...but not sure what ended up happening there... |
#7
|
||||
|
||||
OttoNP was staying at the hotel west of Weenie Beach (aka Damons). This area is over six miles north of the normal riding launch in Ft. Lauderdale. Here are his comments from August 2008.
"He was skilled, rode a brown 13 Fuel kite, but jumped at least 2 swimmers and sprayed around 3 people. One of the persons he sprayed yelled at him. This occured Saturday, August 30th around 1-3 pm. He was out again Sunday and sprayed some other swimmers around 2 pm., also got yelled at by them There were some others that rode around swimmers, but didn't jump or spray anyone." Let's leave names out of this. We have had a lot of complaints out of Lauderdale By-The-Sea and have had lot of responsible kiters spending quite a bit of their time there to try to preserve access for years. Small wonder. .
__________________
FKA, Inc. transcribed by: Rick Iossi Last edited by ricki; 04-18-2010 at 07:52 PM. |
|
|