what's up with hobbie?

[OttoNP]

I'm talking about the beach... The sign references Miami-DADE, indicating they are the ones prohibiting kiteboarding there. I agree that kiting community should try to work with the city, county, whoever, but once it gets to the point where they actually institute a ban I think that is when action needs to be taken to show that the responsible kiters will not go silently in the night. Self-policing only works if the community is small and tight, I have seen it on forums again and again. As more and more people get involved, it breaks down because other than peer pressure we have no legal authority to enfore the rules.

You say "I don't ride at Miami Beach much, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't tolerate anyone teaching at this beach" I'm curious what you would do to stop it?

I do speak up when I see others do dangerous things, break the rules, etc... Most of the time they did not know and my telling them helps, but some of them don't care and continue on. Short of refusing to launch them, I'm not going to start cutting lines or starting fights, which is what it would take to stop some of these idiots. I have seen people refused a lunch just self launch themselves, the truth of the matter is the problem kiters are usually quite good at kiting. At some point, for the people that don't listen that are the problem, the authorities, that are funded by us as tax payers need to get involved.

Do drivers of boats, cars, planes, self police? No, because at some point is it just not possible anymore and that is the state of affairs at many kiteboarding spots. My suggestion is that the kiteboarding community take a stand that we will try to self police, but an outright ban is out of the question, and if self policing does not work the city/county needs to do their job.

[kent]

Otto,

Peer pressure does work to some extent. In truth, this problem really has less to do with those that don't know the rules, and has more to do with showing off. To discourage lessons being taught in areas that are no acceptable, informing arriving students that the location is really not suitable for learning goes a long way. This has worked successfully in other areas for sure.

There is no beach on the Cswy. The sign is from the parks because they manage "permitted" activities (which kiteboarding is not), but the authority is under the D.O.T. The only reason that it took so long to enforce is that the rules come from the county, but enforcement is under the jurisdiction of the city. (Rick can probably speak to this more that I can.)

Additionally, how on earth do you propose that we would all ride "better"? I agree that if the marks were exclusion zones that prohibited all other activities other than wading and swimming we may have a foot to stand on, but the marks are "no motor" zones.

Why would our local government want to take on enforcement of this activity? They don't make a penny from it and it exposes them to potential liability? Our taxes only go so far and our actions thus far make us pretty unattractive.

A bit more friendly enforcement from local riders would have gone a long way toward education. It doesn't have to be as aggressive as surf breaks around the country, but it does have to exist at some level. I'm not sure that we really want to rely solely on our government deciding how and when to enforce safe riding guidelines.

Thus far, most of our local community acts like kiteboarding is a rite. We would all best be served if we recognize that it is actually a privilege.

If I thought that we could sell ourselves to management and prove that we would only use the cswy as a launching and landing zone to ride well offshore, I'd be right there with you. I just don't know how we could commit this to the authorities. I'm all open to good ideas that won't jeopardize our access to other locations and that won't focus the spot light on our sport any further.

[kent]

ps. boats, planes, and cars all pay license fees adn receive certifications to some level to participate. Until we have our government provide permits to ride, we may be out of luck.

In short, I'm totally on your side as I used the cswy in all wind directions due to the fact that I use a raceboard 90% of the time. It's tragic that this ban had to happen, however I recognize the fact that it wasn't going to end well for us if we continued on the same path as we were on.

[OttoNP]

I think everyone here is on the same side and wants to preserve access, I'm just saying that perhaps taking the stance that kiteboarding is in fact a right and demanding that first and foremost access must be maintained could be a possible strategy with city/county. I want to eliminate a "ban" from the list of possiblilies a city/county is considering. I'm not sure how best to do that, there is typical writing officials, etc... as well as more drastic courses with lawsuits, etc...

[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.