what's up with hobbie?

[ricki]

The trouble is kiteboarding is not a right, far from it, it is a privilege. There is a tremendous amount of history and negotiation involved with trying to maintain kiting at Hobie. It goes back TEN years. The means of keeping the place open were presented then and many times since then. Kiters roundly ignored them. Also, everyone is not on the same side to preserve access. There were a few very experienced kiters who deliberately rode in a way that would take access away. They knew it, were warned, but ultimately they succeeded and we all lost. They didn't take the threat seriously or perhaps didn't really care either way?! Kent, Todd, myself and others have been negotiating with authorities for many years. Some reasonable accords were reached regarding Hobie, basically to stay outside the swim zone buoys and to curtail unlicensed, illegal instruction, we ignored this and so we were shut down. If peer pressure had been stronger and applied by far more kiters in the local community this might not have come to pass. It is in some areas, just not here.

[OttoNP]

Originally Posted by RickI

The trouble is kiteboarding is not a right, far from it, it is a privilege.

This is the sentiment that I think we should change. Kiteboarding, access to the wind and ocean, is an undeniable right for every human being. No one should be allowed to deny anyone access to the world's oceans or the air we breathe. I would accept that if a person endangers others, that person can be jailed, banned, fined, etc... but another person that does not can not be denied access. The government is charged by its people to manage natural resources. Banning a resource from use it not managing it!!! The approach is that we should be self policing to avoid government regulations or restrictions and if self policing fails then we have to succumb to some government involvement (rules, fines, etc...), but never ever an outright ban.

Once a ban is imposed I think more drastic measure should occur, including maybe a "kiting protest" where many people show up and kite responsible. Or, if you wanted less conflict, maybe you don't kite but get a bunch of kiters to show up and clean up the beach, and keep doing that publicly involving the media until you get access back. If that fails to restore access, then it seems like the industry or a group should file a lawsuit. These days lawsuits seem to have large effects on cities...

It seems like we are a bunch of kids asking to play on someone's elses playground when we should be acting like adults demanding our tax dollars are spent serving us.

[greg meintjes]

Reading about the ban and reasons behind bans, I was just looking at the last video posted in the section "photo of the day" Here is a question , would this be regarded as responsible behaviour , and if so why is this responsible and different from some of the riding actions that have caused problems at other locations around the country and world. The video is of riding etc over memorial day with ASM. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O28Wa...layer_embedded

Greg

"Kiteboarding, access to the wind and ocean, is an undeniable right..."

This is true, but the access to the land in order to access the water is a privilege. This is where they have control to limit access.

If you take a boat out and water launch you won't have a problem, but how realistic is that for most people?

The main problem down there seems to be a very limited number of launch areas so problems are localized.