Dumb move of the day - Sunday at EB

[poop miller]

I am a new rider who took lessons. I was flying the green North rebel on sunday. I am not 100% sure how kiting etiquette goes so feel free to call me out if you see me doing something stupid. I rather hear it from someone who knows what they are talking about than get hurt or get someone else hurt.

[toby wilson]

Kiting etiquette rule #1:

Don't walk down the mangrove path at the backside to take a poop, you might regret it.

[TritonKiteboarding]

Just call me scott. Don't want to argue.

[TritonKiteboarding]

you responded to the last post in seconds, i'm sitting by my phone and don't have your number, but would like to talk, mine is their laid out, please contact me

[TritonKiteboarding]

or just erase your posts

... if it's waves these people wanted (whoever it was), the waves are BETTER 100yards out at John's Pass right where the rollers are coming into shallow water from the deep channel. They are generally head high with big steep faces and no surfers are gonna go out there because of the current.

Riding knee high shore break isn't any fun.

Of course no chicks watching in the channel but I am not looking for attention from beach goers so I don't care about that part anyway.

Based on Scott's post, sounds like if you're not riding in the swim areas and stuff it doesn't really matter what you are doing, so you would have nothing to be concerned about.

[TritonKiteboarding]

Fully understood there is always a possibility for unseen circumstances like tough to see swimmers, surfers, and bathers. I do my best to mediate between reckless riders and the safe techniques, i was riding about half way in between swim zone and shore yesterday slowly and without doing freestyle. I don't believe riders should ride near shore and i know there are better places for waves. I'll take the weight of it on my shoulders and make it a mission of mine to ensure our access is preserved and our (meaning greater tampa area) reckless/ potentially dangerous riders are called out. Simply put i will do it to their face and continue trying to help our community as i have been since I became a part of it 3 years ago.

Just wanted to say... I don't care about people riding near shore, just where they do it.

We all cruise the shoreline once in awhile, it's no lie and I'm no angel either. But cruising the shore line at big beach or shell island for example is different than doing it at PAG, T.I., or sunset. Basically if there are kids or people anywhere near the shoreline or in the water I stay the hell away from them. Bans aside, the last thing I need is a lawsuit or the lifelong feeling of guilt when my lines drown an 8yr old. I also don't want a group beat down when I tangle with a surfer. There is no stoke to share when you wrap your lines around their neck. I can't tell you how many times I've broken a line on a botched jump or kite loop and had to swim in, lines dragging, kite tumbling through the surf and been crapping my pants as I am approaching a bunch of young swimmers. Wrapping my lines as fast as I can hoping to god the kite doesn't launch and start looping before I can wrap 20 feet of one line.

When I was young I didn't give a crap about anything ... kids were a nuisance. I drove fast and didn't give a f@#$.

Then a friend of mine hit and killed an 8yr old when he was driving too fast. He had to face the parents, and the kid had a brother and sister. He still has trouble dealing with it. That was 20 years ago.

So hey use good judgment and be accountable for your actions.

Sounds like we are all working on this.

Originally Posted by TritonKiteboarding

Fully understood there is always a possibility for unseen circumstances like tough to see swimmers, surfers, and bathers. I do my best to mediate between reckless riders and the safe techniques, i was riding about half way in between swim zone and shore yesterday slowly and without doing freestyle. I don't believe riders should ride near shore and i know there are better places for waves. I'll take the weight of it on my shoulders and make it a mission of mine to ensure our access is preserved and our (meaning greater tampa area) reckless/ potentially dangerous riders are called out. Simply put i will do it to their face and continue trying to help our community as i have been since I became a part of it 3 years ago.

Riding in the swim zone is the #1 thing that is going to get us in trouble at the beaches. Maybe not today, but the day that a kite goes down and tangles with a young swimmer.

I must have missed this post earlier but sounds like Matt is agreeing again to keep his crew outside the swim zone from here on out? Is that right? If so, good call Matt. Everyone else should follow by example.

No one protecting our spots or not shredding near people should have had any cause for concern. It definitely was not my intent to FF anyone. That's exactly why I made the post as a forewarning and asked two other locals to speak with the riders in question (and express my intent) about just consistently staying a safe distance from shore. It was not my intent to catch someone off guard. Just the opposite. I think it's pretty obvious.

I am only concerned with people riding close to bathers, etc. A strictly enforced swim zone or no launching at all is what the police will end up doing, and wasn't my intent. My concern has always been about riding too close to people. For some reason, some people think that 20 feet is cool and that they are always in control. Well, it is pretty obvious that doing that can lead to bans and we actually had a ban in Ft. DeSoto due to riding in a swim zone.

After reading Neil's post and other's posts on the subject, it seemed a video tape of behavior was possibly the most impartial and "honest" way to handle self-policing. Video doesn't lie. Neil, Rick and others seemed pretty fired up about self policing and I obviously don't want to lose spots. So to me, the video seemed like the most impartial way to show behavior. It's really the only alternative to he said/he said, unless you want to listen to one guy lie and watch the other turn blue in the face.

While talking to people about this today, I realized that every time a real issue about safety or self-policing comes to the forefront here locally, people usually draw lines in the sand based on friendships, not based on issues. Either that or more likely, they just sit back, watch, and say nothing. This means it usually gets pretty twisted and nothing ever gets done. So, what's the point? We never even got a sign up at EB and we actually agreed on that one, so it's hard to believe any good is going to come out of attempting to change someone's behavior.