At around 4pm Waitangi Day, this guy was flying a red Royal Era, going back and forth about twenty feet from shore, swooping his kite in a fairly erratic way over the beach on which there were quite a few families with small children and only just missing people. And he had the hide to get shirty when another kiter told him to go further out. If anyone knows the guy, shame him out, because people like him and the huge guy with the Naish Raven are going to get the sport banned.

keep ur hair on grandad, i was saw him an he wasnt close to swimmers or swooping his kite near people on the beach

You weren't watching very closely then.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

im not blind, he was all geezy, stop making a fuss over nothing

Yea Grandad keep your hair on. you must have got sun blind

Thanks, Berwick. You're obviously a very original thinker.

poor baby

Did you get that line from James or come up with it all by yourself?

no me and james got together and had a big meting about what i should say next

Sorry, you've lost me. What's a meting?

its ok mate, its ok...

Thanks for that, Blair. I feel much better now.

This sport is struggling with the raising numbers and clashes with other beach users at the moment. The sport must become better self regulated or the local/national bodies shall intervene for you and you may find that the more popular spots are not available to you any more. It is sad to read that when a fellow boarder raises an issue regarding the behaviour of another boarder that he is instantly rubbished, rather than his veiw of the behaviour respected and the issue sorted, as we recieved numerous complaints regarding this incident on Wednesday.

From a boarder and an enforcement point of view I see a small minority of boarders (not always newbies) causing a lot of harm to the sport in the public eye. The biggest clashes happen when the wind is light and the tide is high and plenty of users on the beach, thou even when conditions are good often a boarder can be found in amongst the swimmers.

A small amount of consideration from boarders will help to ensure that this sport remains uninhibited much like Wind surfing has for the last 30 odd years in NZ.

You must operate your Kite no less than 50m from persons in the water or other vessels. 50m isn't far, but allows for a safety margin that protects other water users and allows all users to use the same patch of water. By taking the time to move a little further down the beach or offshore will ensure that all users can get along.

As I said in the post "a selfish few" the ARC Harbourmasters Office is currently undertaking a review of the Auckland Regional Navigation and Safety Bylaws (the local legislation that governs water users and activities) and with the bad press and numerous public complaints that the sport has received lately there maybe submissions to have this activity removed or limited by making reserved area's in kite boarding location's for swimmers only. We are currently holding public meetings with the first one last Tuesday and the remaining over next week, all public including kite boarders are welcome and I would suggest that it is prudent that the sport is represented, the dates and locations are as follows:

Monday 11th February, 6pm at the Devonport Yacht Club, 25 King Edward Parade, Devonport
Tuesday 12th February, 6pm at the Te Atatu Boat Club, bottom of Bridge Avenue, Te Atatu South
Thursday 14th February, 6pm at the Buckland's Beach Yacht Club, Ara Tai, Half Moon Bay

Below is a link to our website, which contains the draft copy of the bylaws:

www.arc.govt.nz/environment/coastal-and-...ns.cfm#reviewofbylaw

Jae Staite
Maritime Officer
Harbourmaster's Office
Auckland regional Council

c/- Marine Rescue Centre
3 Solent Street
Private Bag 92 012
Auckland
Phone: +64-9-362 0402
Fax: +64-9-362 0399
Mobile: 021 792982
www.arc.govt.nz

Obviously this is an important issue that we need to take ownership of, for the future of the sport. Who from the kiteboarding community can make it to the meetings?

I'll try to be there.

Part of the proposed by-laws state we cannot exceed 5 knots within 200 metres of shoreline. How are Kiteboarders going to comply with this requirement?

Greg,

If you carry on reading that section you will find the following:

5. Clause 3.2.1 (a) Shall not apply to: (f)

any board sport carried out with due regard for the safety of other water users, and in accordance with the accepted safe practices of the individual sport.

Boards sports being defined in the bylaws as :
board sports - any board sport, including windsurfing, kiteboarding and surfing where the means of propulsion is by wind, waves or other natural forces, and where no mechanical means of propulsion is used.

This has been added to these bylaws so as to give better clafication of the current bylaws, which doesn't exempt board sports.

Hope this clears this one up for you Greg.

Jae Staite
Maritime Officer
Auckland Regional Council

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
09 3620402
021 792982

We don't have a problem in Taranaki, coz if we see somebody being a muppet then we tell them where to go.......

I Feel for you JAFA's..........

I don't think i saw many swimmers in the water at Waitangi day.... it looked pretty good wind too... well it was until my fuel decided to blow its ass.

I knew this shite would happen. This summer has been a horror for kitesurfing... all these hot sea breeze days with low tide in the arvo.... so no chance for Bramley to weave its majic. But Waitangi day wasn't a sea breeze and it was quite quiet... one of the better days of the summer.

you know what i'm so glad summer has finished. Auckland summers are queer for kiting. Kiting takapuna in 10 knots with nappy browners, and false teeth munchers is just a sign of desperation. Same at EB.... fortunately the Seabreeze is stronger out da eastside.... wind of 15 knots... too bad the water is so warm.... i wish the sewers would overflow so i can kite in some poo like in chch... no-one likes swimmin in poo... and those who do are radicial enough to not mind a few nutters whizing by on kites....

some people just hate us having fun... i think we just need to keep away from the east facing beaches when N or NE etc and sunny and hot in summer. lets face it the wind is gay...

BRING ON WINTER WOOOP DA WOOOP!!!

best places to kite auckland in a sea breeze day is Bramley with the channeled 15 knot northerly, 30 degree shallow water and no swimmers.

And of course the manukau heads which often fire it SW at 20 knots at Huia, West Cornwallis and Kaitarakihi. Whitepointer's don't complain to the council, the matter is settled over afternoon tea... booooyaaaa!!!

but hey winter is on its way and the skankholes like taka, orewa, EB etc will start kickin ass again.

wild WSWesterlies.... i miss those days. Guess they will be back soon with any luck

Yeah Ian i miss those days bigtime. i remember last summer it blew WSW right through the summer cos of El Nino. this summer they forecast La Nina but to be honest akl has missed out. I know northland got some but the systems missed me out this way.

the big poobar for me this summer has been that tide... bad timing with the seabreese. Bramley doesn't get swimmers but only works on HT/outgoing if northerly. At 15 knots it's allways been windy enough for my 21m bfk but with all the swimmers i just knew it was a recipe for bad karma so didn't even bother headng out to EB. I tried flat island but that didn't seem to work so stayed at home with the wind blowing 15m knots... like a caged Lion. Not worth risking wall to wall bans just for the sake of a session on the beast.

So yeah bring on winter shakers and Muriwai.. and of course Ambury Farm.

Thanks, I didn't read the actual document, just the highlights. Thanks for thinking of us and the clarification.

While Chch does have the Poo Pond to keep us out of conflict with swimmers, sometimes the tide and desire get the better of us on a warm summers day...

I think we can all learn alot from the issues up north. Even down here we need to keep educating each other on the dangers we pose to others.

As mentioned the best days kiting are shite for everyone else, so it really isn't much of a sacrifice to wait for nuking winds or normally cool type low tides to kite at the beach...

Fortunately in the Bay of Plenty the beaches are long enough that there's space for everyone. What amazes me though is that many swimmers seem to intentionally choose the most active kite zone, it gives them something to watch while they are in the water and they are not initimidated at all. They have more confidence in my ability than I do.

The most likely scenario is when a surfboard goes AWOL, gets picked up by a wave and heads to the beach at high speed. No incidents yet though. The standard of surfing has really improved out of sight this summer, Mad Dave especially is throwing some mean strapless aerials.

Simon

Most of you are probably aware of the double page spread in last weeks North Shore rag about the danger we represent. Weve pretty much been painted as the Antichrist. How much of this article was right and how much was wrong (and thanks to a minority, its not all wrong) is not the point. Perception will have a lot more to do with the fate of our sport than reality.

At these meetings that are taking place over the next week, in one corner there will be a bunch of angry non-kiters, all pretty much singing from the same hymn book. If there is any range in their thinking at all, it will be very limited from severe restrictions to outright banning.

In the other corner there will be us. And while we all want the same thing - to be able to enjoy our sport as freely as possible - opinions on how we might achieve that are divided.

The other corner will be able to capitalise on that division.

Obviously were not going to be able to whip one up before tonight, but perhaps we would benefit from the formation of an association. This would give us a very clear set of rules and regulations, which we would (probably in conjunction with other beach users, which is not entirely unfair) have a large say in. It will also make it easier to force the dickheads to behave.

The sport would also have an official voice, which tends to hold more sway with councils and other official bodies than a few disparate voices.

yeah the ones that wanna swim with us cos they have da wild streak and haven't become killjoys will never want us banned. Glad to see that there are still people like that around. You get similiar setups here when its winder and overcast in summer... a few people swimming around... they love us and never complain.

But conflicts at EB are nothing new. This isn't a 2008 phenominon.. this was around in 2001, 2002 etc.

and the ones that complain will allways complain.. if we get into lawn bowls they'll complain about that too.

as long as we be considerate to others then that's all we can do.

ps: i didn't see the incident on Waitangi day... the slow leak on my slingy bladder wasn't as slow as i was hoping.

the worst days are 10 knot thermals and guys kiting EB at high tide drifting in amoungst the swimmers. Bramley has sorta made this a thing of the past but some continue to do it and next summer i'll be trying to eradicate this most ban worthy act from the eastside.

i support the tried and true method of evicting problem kiters from our beaches... shape up or ship out. If someone complains about you and your told by another kiter to sort it out... and you don't then don't expect us to stand by and watch our passion get banned by the nanny state.

as for being the antichrist..... next they'll be calling us terrorists... yeah as a matter of fact i DO have a bomb in my kite.... lol

yea i was ther the whole day and he was fine. hes a local so its all good in the hood.

yours sinserly:
east.side.kiters

i'm not saying it's their responsibility but it may be in the best interests of the gear importers and shops to get involved and try to get some good PR etc going.
just a thought.

it all goes down tonight... good luck kite surfers

I went to the Monday one. Only kiter there.

thats probably a higher than normal % . I guess there are 2000 kite surfers and 1.5million people in akld. Lets hope it doesnt come to a vote eh ?