If you apply common sense the sport is self regulating similar to sailing, windsurfing, surfing and a myriad of other water and non-water sports. Those common sense approaches and general rules of the water should be more than enough to avoid any problems at your local and allow you to sort out most if not all problems. A basic laundry list is as follows:

* Stay well away from beginners and give them the room they need to enjoy a stress free session.
* Do not launch or land in an area where you may endanger the public if something goes wrong.
* Do not boost upwind of kiters unless you have ample room to land and if something goes wrong you don't endanger other riders.
* Kiter on starboard tack has right of way unless launching off the beach then kiter heading out has right of way.
* After launching get out of the lunch area as quickly as possible.
* Don't stand around on the beach having a conversation with your kite in the air while others are trying to go out and come in.
* After landing ensure your lines are well taken care of and don't clog up the launch area.
* If the launch area is small pack up one kite before setting up another.
* Don't short tack other kiters.
* If kiting at an unfamiliar spot respect the kiters who kite there regularly and the fact that your actions if disrespectful or dangerous may cost them their sport if they are banned because of your actions.
* If you have an issue with someone or a group of people sort it out there and then in a positive, respectful way rather on SB

Like I said this is mostly common sense. I would suggest by reading other threads and what you have written here that your attitude is your biggest problem with the other kiters at your local. you might want to stop being a victim and start being a positive member of your community.

So why might this general rule be massaged one way or another?

Bronnieren said..
Kitebt said: "* Stay well away from beginners and give them the room they need to enjoy a stress free session."
I love you for saying this! It is so stressful trying to relaunch, board retrieve, and water start when you have other kiters cutting up close to you. We do our best to stay to out of the way, but are not very manoeuverable yet .

Really. Then why do I see beginners body dragging through a lineup of experienced kiters laying down tricks? Why do I see morons teaching their buddies within this lineup...sometimes upwind, so THEN their 'student' rolls through the lineup, invariably dropping their kite and causing all sorts of mayhem. You may do your best, but this is not universal.

eppo said..

Really. Then why do I see beginners body dragging through a lineup of experienced kiters laying down tricks?

...Ummm, cause they're beginners and don't have full control yet.....

eppo said..

Why do I see morons teaching their buddies within this lineup...sometimes upwind, so THEN their 'student' rolls through the lineup, invariably dropping their kite and causing all sorts of mayhem. You may do your best, but this is not universal.

...ummm, the solution has already been mentioned, stay away from beginners.....

Greenarrowz said..
Point taken...... and yes im always learning.
I thought the kiter leaving the beach had right of way too here....boy was i wrong.
Varying rules are confusing.

Actually, I had the same attitude as you when I first started.

"Ohh look love... that kiter is running with the kite along the beach.... bloody idiot... so dangerous...."

or

"What is he doing!? Pulling kite down wind as beach goers are walking along?.... wtf"

blah blah etc etc.

After a few years you realise it comes down to - each to their own.

With common sense like this you won't be a beginner for long.

Greenarrowz said..
Point taken...... and yes im always learning.
I thought the kiter leaving the beach had right of way too here....boy was i wrong.
Varying rules are confusing.

you know what Dan ...You cant leave the beach when someone is riding a wave, 20 mt out ,right in front of you just because you read the f..king hand book.
It was impossible for me to turn off that wave because the shape and wind direction would not allow it. Some one with your abundance of knowledge should have seen that.
If you had waited 2 more seconds ,which you could have done easily as You were safe and alone on the beach,I would have been downwind of you and you would have not risked a certain collision.
There are exceptions to every rule.....
A surfer locked in a barrel wont be able to swerve to miss someone paddling out will he.??????????????????

You know me and everyone else has helped you out for hrs and hrs with advise so you could progress safely
Drop it and leave with some dignity

Chris_M said..

fingerbone said..

Greenarrowz said..
Point taken...... and yes im always learning.
I thought the kiter leaving the beach had right of way too here....boy was i wrong.
Varying rules are confusing.

you know what Dan ...You cant leave the beach when someone is riding a wave, 20 mt out ,right in front of you just because you read the f..king hand book.
It was impossible for me to turn off that wave because the shape and wind direction would not allow it. Some one with your abundance of knowledge should have seen that.
If you had waited 2 more seconds ,which you could have done easily as You were safe and alone on the beach,I would have been downwind of you and you would have not risked a certain collision.
There are exceptions to every rule.....
A surfer locked in a barrel wont be able to swerve to miss someone paddling out will he.??????????????????

You know me and everyone else has helped you out for hrs and hrs with advise so you could progress safely
Drop it and leave with some dignity

Or pretending to "surf" on a knee high fat burger and staunching out everybody else at the beach because he's fake surfing along on his surfboard, being a massive c**t all round.

Not sure if this is how it happens in most other places, but seeing way to much of it at my local. The reason people on the beach have right of way is supposed to be because if something goes wrong with your kite or whatever and you're on the land you are much more likely to be catapulted into a solid object than if you were on the water (less solid things out there, and more drag if your kite starts death looping.

If your actually getting barreled on your kite all the way to the beach, yeah ok maybe that's an exception, but I suspect not

Not saying you are the massive c*** in the story fingerbone, just thinking of a hero I know of over here

Can we merge this with the 'incident at shearwater esplanade' thread?

I'd like to hear RushInAir's thoughts.

fingerbone said..

Greenarrowz said..
Point taken...... and yes im always learning.
I thought the kiter leaving the beach had right of way too here....boy was i wrong.
Varying rules are confusing.

you know what Dan ...You cant leave the beach when someone is riding a wave, 20 mt out ,right in front of you just because you read the f..king hand book.
It was impossible for me to turn off that wave because the shape and wind direction would not allow it. Some one with your abundance of knowledge should have seen that.
If you had waited 2 more seconds ,which you could have done easily as You were safe and alone on the beach,I would have been downwind of you and you would have not risked a certain collision.
There are exceptions to every rule.....
A surfer locked in a barrel wont be able to swerve to miss someone paddling out will he.??????????????????

You know me and everyone else has helped you out for hrs and hrs with advise so you could progress safely
Drop it and leave with some dignity

Right of way in regards heading out from the beach actually refers to a kiter coming into the beach to stop kiting. The rule is intended as Chris_M said to give the kiter with the greater chance of harm an opportunity to get out of harms way. It is simply how to regulate coming and going from the launch spot and who has right of way on the beach. i.e. If you see someone about to get in the water and their kite is in the air then you give them room to leave the beach before you come in and finish your session.

What you guys are talking about is right of way on the water. If I apply common sense and I was leaving the beach to start my session and there was another rider already on a wave then I would certainly wait until that rider had gone past before heading out. Firstly because if they wiped out I could hurt them and myself and secondly because I would not want to ruin their stoke.

If I understand correctly what happened which is fingerbone was already on a wave and not intending to come into the beach and greenarrows was about to leave the beach then I could understandably get why fingerbone would be pissed off about having a kiter come at him thinking he had right of way. IMO that is just dangerous on behalf of the guy leaving the beach. The guidelines are their first and foremost for safety. If you are coming down the line on a wave you are not concentrating on who is coming out from the beach as you are in the moment on your wave. The last thing you want is to look up and see someone hurtling towards you because they believe they have an entitlement which IMO they actually don't have.

Common sense in this scenario would be to give the rider on the wave time to get past. What if he wiped out just as you left the beach and you ended up in a tangled mess?

I don't want to necessarily get into your boys argument but I would have been pissed of as well if someone did what fingerbone described happened to him. I am not going to pull of a wave that I am riding just because someone has their kite up on the beach. If I am coming into land then that's a different scenario and I would give the guy coming off the beach as much room as he needs to clear the launch area.

Sometimes it helps to be specific. If you launch at x...... Walk 300 meters over dunes and grass to the beach. Then walk another 100 meters upwind, unless the wind conditions change (and the beach kiter entering the water starts having a safety issue)...... Wait your turn.

To be fair this isn't the exact location (respect for a local who doesn't like posts like this). However for the learnings of others it has all the similarities.

1) Pump up and launch a long distance from the surf zone.
2) Walking at least 300 meters over grass,sand concrete and timber to the beach.
3) Now on the beach near the waters edge, walking upwind, up the beach.

If you did do the above 3 things........IF....... (or any variation of distance and circumstance), and then couldn't wait the 2 seconds for the rider on the wave to finish (as fingerbone has stated). It's always going to end badly in my opinion.

Again as I suggested before, only a change in wind conditions causing the beach side kiter to have some sort of safety issue with his kite, IMO could ever justify the kilter on the wave giving ground.

Absolutbeginer said..

Sorry, but i am a beginner and the ...

Well there you go. See? You're been cautious now, which is a good thing. We all should still retain that level of awareness, but the reality is unfortunately the more experienced you are, the less caution and awareness you become.
Case in point are cave divers or divers generally. The pros die more often than the beginners do.

Kitebt
The reason for the rather long walk is grass to grass. You pump up dress and lock gear in car , launch from a great grass area ( if joe public isnt there ) then walk up a sand track over to the beach.Very simular to above picture.
It actually is great when you do it and but obviously more dangerous than conventional beach set up and pack up.
I have done it but am over cautious the majority of the time and usually just go for the beach thing.

kitebt said..

SavIb said..



Sometimes it helps to be specific. If you launch at x...... Walk 300 meters over dunes and grass to the beach. Then walk another 100 meters upwind, unless the wind conditions change (and the beach kiter entering the water starts having a safety issue)...... Wait your turn.

Why are you launching at X and doing all that walking? Am I missing something? Seems like an awful lot of energy expended when you could launch on what looks like a pretty good beach and jump straight into the water from where you launch from.

Agreed, why are you launching so close to those houses?