Why Cape Town will have a Beach ban in the next two years
Posted 02-03-2004 10:19 AM


You think your life will remain the same? Those afternoons of heading out to Big Bay will be there always? Youre in for a shock.

I can guarantee you were in for a ban in the next two years and I can guarantee you that people will be forced to change their attitudes very soon. Yes, it may be a money spinner for the shops and Cape Town as a whole, but if you think that the council wont close it then you havent looked at it seriously enough. One fatality of a bather or beach goer and were talking wall-to-wall bans on Cape Town beaches. Another incident involving a surfer who happens to complain to the right people and there will be trouble.

Those shops who are in it for the short run are in for a big shock, because ultimately its your business that will drop if beach bans hit. Those retailers out selling kit without lessons will be one of the reasons for the downfall. Yeah, I hear people say that retailers are changing, but time and time again I go down to beaches and see kooks who dont have the first clue about rigging a kite inflating their kites on the beaches. Second hand market to blame? I think not. These kooks are flying new kites and from a number of different retailers so its not a case of one bad apple. What happens if one kite goes loose and decapitates someone 300m down the beach? You still think the council wont look at bans? What happens when the territorial fights start breaking out between surfers and kitesurfers who cant resist the urge to prove their talent by rider over surfers while trying to spray them? You think the council will notice then. What about leashes? You think youre too good to ride with a leash? There are two kinds of kooks, the beginners who dont know better and the wannabe pros who should know better.

I find it sick and ironic that people will shout their grievances about stolen kit, threatening to lynch, and necklace or hang the individual but theyre quite happy for retailers to flog kit to unsuspecting newbies, or for mates to ride inches past a surfers heads. Why is that? You think only theft effects you. You think its funny for guys to harass surfers and jump over the windsurfers. Nice role models you are for the new kiters coming through!

We all need to chip in and put the guys in their place, pros and beginners alike. If you see retailers selling kit without lessons, stop buying from them. Maybe theyll catch a wakeup. Switch brands if you have to. The only people that have to ride a brand is sponsored riders, you have the choice. If you see beginners who are out of line, advise them and put them on the right track. If its pros, put them in their place as well.

Hey, if this pissed you off, at least it got your attention.

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Kiteboarding Kiteboarding Forum Why Cape Town will have a Beach ban in the next two years

Sunday , Takapuna, a 12m kite slammed on to the beach at maximum speed 2m from an unsuspecting elderly couple.

NZ water safety council is already looking into it
Shakespeare has already been proposed as an area to be "banned" DOC is over it like a rash.

Someone else can say the obvious things about a national body to negotiate access rights.

I'm just getting into this, and it looks like I won't be able to go anywhere to learn for fear of helping to get the beach banned. I cetainly don't intend to cock up, and I will try to stay out of the way of others, but like everyone says, if someone is doing something wrong, tell them. Me personally, if someone can see I need advice, give it. And if a 'pro' is being an idiot, clip him/her around the ears. The last thing we need is to have a ban on east coast beaches, and have muriwai become a reserve.

I thught I would post this as its what some one from Rome wrote on the
www.ikiteboarding.co.za website

Re: Why Cape Town will have a Beach ban in the next two years
Posted 02-04-2004 12:39 AM

In Italy we already experienced beach ban problem during last summer season.

From July to end of September last year the beaches nearby Rome, on the central western coast of Italy, were banned to kiteboarders after that several people complained with local maritime authorities because of feeling threatened by kiteboarders riding too close to bystanders and even suffering injuries due to crashes with kiters.
The maritime authority immediately banned kiteboarding from the beach of said area all along the entire summer season, after having noticed the lack of a suitable set of rules regulating the practice of kiteboarding at national or regional level.

In other regions of Italy some groups of local kiteboarders got organized and obtained from the maritime authority a license to run a portion of the beach open to the practice of kiteboarding only.
Such portion is usually 100 to 300 metres long, with an annexed corridor of water; in this way all other beach users are kept separated from kiters reducing to zero the risk of complaints and injuries involving non kiters.
Each kite-licensed beach has its own set of common sense rules (they are all very alike each other) and kiteboardes are (in theory) obliged to stay within such boundaries when rigging their gear and riding within the first 100 200 metres of water off the beach (thereafter you can go wherever you want).
To access the kite-licensed beach you have to pay a daily fee of 10 a day or subscribe for the whole season for say 70 to 100 (1 = 1.25 USD).

I personally witnessed a few non fatal accidents involving bystanders in non relgulated places, Italian beaches are packed with people during summer season and, unless we get organized, sooner or later kiteboarding will be banned from the best spots, which incidentally are always the best spots for sun-bathers too.

The initiative is up on kiters: local maritime authorities have normally other problems rather then setting up rules for kiteboarders and dedicating people to their control: their answer will always be the simplest and most effective one: to ban kiters from (crowded ?) beaches.

As a starting point, there should be a set of safety and common sense rules which are recognized by kiteboarders at national and even international level (like for many other sports); then kiters should have a national or control body (federation) which would submit such rules to the maritime authorities who will eventually accept then and be entitled (and empower beach infrastructure runners too) to act against non observers giving fines, retiring gears and even taking bad kiters to court in case of serious accidents consequent to the breach of rules.

GianMaria
Genoa - Italy

Shakers getting banned aye? Too much taggin old ladys and harassing the pheasants. Oh dear where r we gonna kite in a SW?

Dear meatball
how is it possible to kite with the one hand? - cos obviously the other is used else where - if one beach is banned in NZ they will fall like a house of cards - Coast to coast compliance went from $5000 two years ago to $160,000 this year -- before you start whacking off about endurance races - the point is - local red tape runs rampant in NZ - and if someone gets hurt on some beach some poor local regional pen pusher will get the balm for not banning earlier - so --- banning will be as popular as Janets boob at the super bowl - how was that nipple ring!

hey what happened to Osama bin kiting number 1? Did George W Poleboarder finally find him?

nope somone stole his name!