Important - new maui ban threat

[ricki]

Kiting, windsurfing, SUP'ing, outrigger paddling, kayaking, surfing and anything else that uses a "vessel" may soon be actively banned from launching or landing along a combined length of 3000 ft. along Kanaha State Park (Kitebeach) including an area adjoining Ka’a Point in Maui. A vessel exclusion zone has been on the books for the last 25 years but has never been enforced, until perhaps now.



The area of the vessel exclusion zone which may soon be enforced.
http://www.actionkiteboarding.net/


Largely due to the lobbying efforts of a parent and perhaps others disturbed about kiting activities likely including some poor isolated rider behaviors in the Kiddie Pond area, this may come to pass. Recall the one disaffected windsurfer who managed to get kiting banned for two years off the North Shore and skegged Flash Austin. In short, this is a real threat.

More background on the current threat at: http://mauinow.com/2013/05/10/swim-z...fety-concerns/


This is serious and should be of concern to any waterperson who has or wants to visit Maui at sometime in the future. Use zones can be created and enforced, there is no need for a blanket prohibition. First you need to get government's attention to take things to the point of starting negotiations hence this petition.


For now there is a petition campaign to be submitted to the Hawaiian State DIVISION OF BOATING AND OCEAN RECREATION (DOBOR) organized by Ocean Safety Alliance, https://www.facebook.com/oceansafetyalliance

Titled: "State DOBOR Hawaii: Please protect ocean access at Kanaha Beach. Change the outdated rules to reflect the current use."

and is located at: *** CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITION ***


It takes very little time to sign the petition, please help to keep this unique spot open to all these water interests now and into the future. Chris Levins of Adventure Sports Maui gave me a heads up on this, it is legitimate and a current threat to continued use of this area.


Thank you!

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[ricki]

Thanks everyone who has signed the petition so far. Please talk about this, email it to friends and post on your local forums. Looking back over history this small stretch of beach has great importance in the development, media and recreation of kiting, kiters and culture of our sport. Plus, lots of us like to ride there on vacation.

Until kiters and others organized and cleaned the area up, it was full of junk, objects to cut yourself on, overgrown and was a largely disused section of beach by the sewage treatment plant. That is how it was in 1999 when I first visited to kite. We made an important change here from which many in the community both on and off the island benefited.

A large enough response from kiters, windsurfers and other sportsmen worldwide should compel authorities to take this problem seriously and not just simply ban us with an unenforced quarter century old law for convenience.

Yes, during the early bans years back, there were two efforts largely ending kiting over a substantial section of the North Shore. It happened before so it can happen again, please help to stop a ban from happening. Please sign the petition and ask people you know to do so as well.

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[ricki]

More information just arrived regarding this situation specifically the areas that make up the approximate 3000 lft. swim areas in the form of a map. The ban on board sports will largely impact areas to the east of Ka'a Point or Pro Beach where kiting current occurs. As a result of the ban, other boardsports primarily windsurfers and SUP'ers and to a lesser degree, surfers and kayakers will be displaced to the west in the area currently occupied by kiters. This will decrease available space for all the sports and in particular kiters in the waters and wave breaks off here. Traditionally, windsurfers have been to the east of Ka'a Point roughly and kiters to the west. It will fall on the respective sports to sort out new space allocations in the remaining, much smaller area to the west of Ka'a Point and to the east of the sewage treatment plant. This is not a good situation for any of these sports. Also, given that poor kiting behavior on the part of a few kiters may have triggered this mess in the first place, it would be good to support the petition in bringing the administrative code up to date and inline with current uses. All board sports have stood together many times in the past in response to ban threats, often focusing on kiting. I think it would be good to continue that tradition of solidarity and sign the petition urging redrawing of use zones within the Park.

[ricki]

From Kiteforum, the signs enforcing the old swim zone delineations went up today in Maui.

Originally Posted by haiku

Hi. This happend a few hours ago.......Today was a beautiful but windless day. I saw only one swimmer in the area.
No comment !
Aloha from Maui





http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.p...2581&start=170

Now we need to see if the DLNR can be compelled to redraw the boundaries in line with current site use and to avoid excess crowding in existing riding areas.

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