Forcetwelve said..
I used to love Altona when I lived in Melbourne. Had some awesome sessions there. I found as a beginner it was a lot more user friendly than St Kilda in terms of crowds and space. However before I left last season was getting a bit out of control and I felt less safe if something went wrong.

Back in Tassie now - lucky to see 2 kites on any beach on any given day!

I agree it is getting a bit out of control. I think some of the Kite schools need to be a bit more sensible when organising Kite Days. Inverloch / Rosebud are great places for Kite Days and sending out 50 unsupervised learner kiters on mass (which is what ends up happening) in these areas is far more appropriate. At a crowded city beach like Altona where you have pedestrians, close proximity to power lines / trees, a narrow beach I think it is just dumb. There were 3 kites in the trees in 1 day on sunday, one was still up there last night, I am sure locals and the council will be getting fed up with it. I live in Altona and it is my local beach and I will be pissed if kiting is banned or restrictions are placed on us local kiters because of the irresponsible actions of a few.

axion said..

Forcetwelve said..
I used to love Altona when I lived in Melbourne. Had some awesome sessions there. I found as a beginner it was a lot more user friendly than St Kilda in terms of crowds and space. However before I left last season was getting a bit out of control and I felt less safe if something went wrong.

Back in Tassie now - lucky to see 2 kites on any beach on any given day!

I agree it is getting a bit out of control. I think some of the Kite schools need to be a bit more sensible when organising Kite Days. Inverloch / Rosebud are great places for Kite Days and sending out 50 unsupervised learner kiters on mass (which is what ends up happening) in these areas is far more appropriate. At a crowded city beach like Altona where you have pedestrians, close proximity to power lines / trees, a narrow beach I think it is just dumb. There were 3 kites in the trees in 1 day on sunday, one was still up there last night, I am sure locals and the council will be getting fed up with it. I live in Altona and it is my local beach and I will be pissed if kiting is banned or restrictions are placed on us local kiters because of the irresponsible actions of a few.

I saw the same thing at Altona last season... direct on-shore, horrible conditions, beach blocked by grounded learner's kites bouncing on the sand...and even one local jogger having to run through the lines of a kite that had crashed on the beach (still attached to the learner, and out of control).

Perhaps a better approach would be to restrict areas where these ride days can be set up? Clearly a commercial business profiting from a bulk deployment of learners at the expense of others in the community is not going to go down well,... but it's profitable and the community isn't saying otherwise, then they'll keep doing it.

I think the ride days are a good idea, and the best way for learners to get comfortable with riding in a safe(r) environment. I believe they were down at the Apex Park end ie in a suitable area for beginners, had they not been there on a ride day most likely some/most of these same beginners would have been there anyway, but set up far closer to the pier.

Altona is always going to be busy on sunny weekend days with good Easterly winds, and it will always feel more crowded if the tide is low.

StKKiter said..
I think the ride days are a good idea, and the best way for learners to get comfortable with riding in a safe(r) environment. I believe they were down at the Apex Park end ie in a suitable area for beginners, had they not been there on a ride day most likely some/most of these same beginners would have been there anyway, but set up far closer to the pier.

Altona is always going to be busy on sunny weekend days with good Easterly winds, and it will always feel more crowded if the tide is low.

I agree the ride days are a good opportunity for beginners. It seems to me the people complaining about them are the same people complaining about schools giving lessons and then not passing on safety info or caring about their students afterwards.

I don't think these ride days are done solely for profit, they are done because beginners need them.