Heads UP - Don't Launch In The Wrong Spot

[ricki]

If you can't stay upwind while kiting and make offshore through the waves, DON'T try to ride to the south of an out of bounds area in SE Florida today. Launches at Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano, Boca and Delray all have this situation. The SE wind will just blow you into the lifeguarded area and cause problems for all of us. Go someplace where you can drift north and ideally without all the larger waves. The waves make things harder on newer kiters trying to get offshore and may force them to stay inside in calmer conditions where they may not be allowed.



A view of Ft. Lauderdale. IF you can't or don't want to ride out beyond 150 yards of shore inside that tight corridor and all those waves, then DON'T Launch here. Strong SE wind today and good sized waves will make getting out difficult for newer guys and forcing those that can to ride in waves. Similar conditions exist at launches in Pompano, Boca, Delray, etc. today. Guys ignoring this are putting YOUR access at risk, believe it. So, please speak with them with your buds to help them go at things right. The police may be called and in some areas like Ft. Lauderdale, we will all lose. With the kite community getting involved in this, we can work through the problem, so please step up to preserve your access.

[ricki]

A common problem and it goes back years, is everyone may go to the same kite spot. Why, well there are other kiters there. The trouble is, it may be too advanced for new or ill equipped kiters to ride there without sliding into out of bounds areas. Also, some guys don't want to ride in waves the required distance offshore, well then go somewhere else! Wind direction, speed and wave height can further impact the ease of kiting without causing problems in these more advanced spots. It changes in short. Seek local, reliable information for safe, suitable spots to work on skill development at while not threatening access.

Wherever you are, you need to avoid complaints using common sense and courtesy. There have been isolated problems even in the places I'm about to mention where you may be able to ride closer to shore due to guys running kites too close to bystanders. Solution in these less populated areas, just wait until they walk out of the area, only fly trainer kites on shore not full sized kitesurfing kites, walk downwind of them with a kite up, don't launch close to and upwind of bystanders, common sense stuff in short.

You can head south of the Harbor Beach Marriott. It is close to Ft. Lauderdale's "kite beach" at about 1/4 mile south of the city parking lot there. You need to walk down there but once you arrive you should be ok to practice. There are lots of affluent people in the area, so have fun but don't piss people off. This has happened elsewhere and it just puts unnecessary pressure on access. Stay away from Port Everglades btw, current, large ships, jettys, enough said.

Another area is in Lauderdale By-The-Sea. You need to get off the beach here, no flying a full sized kite on the beach but I "understand" these days things have been working better with fewer threats to access. The launch area is immediately north of Pine Avenue and well to the east of the dune vegetation.

Everyone interested in kiting down here should take adequate, quality pro instruction. Don't try to cheap out, reason I do ... and I can handle it. There have been way too much pressure on access for too long to permit us to continue this sort of thing in populated, threatened areas. Find the best instructor you can, interview them to make sure you will get your money and time's worth first. Some thoughts along those lines appear at: http://fksa.org/forumdisplay.php?f=45