Be Excellent To Each Other

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 376914.stm

Not on Gwitian Beach, you ain't.

On a personal note, I have found that when I've been surfing, kite surfers are some of the most irresponsible and rude people around.

I didn't know there was much of kite surfing going on in the country. Shows what I know.

They're quite big on it round here, there's no proper waves though so no surfers for them to upset.

This is the case for most beaches. I'm a kite landboarder/buggier/static flyer and don't venture out on the water but most good beaches for kiting I've visited, such as Mabelthorpe or Pembrey Sands tend to be zoned anyway. The probem is the general public just don't appreciate what a traction kite could do to them. They wouln;t wander into a circle that a rampaging quad bike was making in the sand, yet they'll wander in the way of four pre-stretched and razor sharp lines moving under tension fixed to a point travelling at 100kph while I'm wrestling to get it landed in sudden gusty conditions. Which gets old very quickly. Power/traction kitersI've found to be generally highly responsible and will go to the point on a beach the furthest form everyone else, but often they get all their shit out, set everything up and get going just as a horde of thick people meander into the dangerous bit, gets soul destroying after the first twenty times.

Any kiters on here fancy a fly in south wales or linconshire and humberside let me know.

The difference is that Quad Bikes aren't allowed on (most) beaches. Have you got public liability for your kite? I had to get it for my RC car to play with it at a club meeting, which I thought was daft but actually makes some sense.

£15 for twelve months kite insurance, cover up to 5 million for third party damages. That said, I still cannot believe how dumb people are, week in week out. What do they think the line is going to do when it hits them? Tickle them? If it isn't going to damage them (which they must not think it would) then clearly it'd ruin my flying or even damage the kite instead, yet they still do it, so whichever way round you look at it, they just don't give a fuck, and they are the ones who should be paying for inurance. If I insure my kite, they should be insuring their dog/child/whatever. At least at all times I am able to at least give instrucitons to my kite and I've got 'killers' which will bring it down at a moments notice, wreas they are happy to let their two year old or their labrador run riot and ignore them. My kite's on a leash, why isn't your dog? etc....

Plus, if I'm covered by insurance, what motivation is there for me to stop flying when someone is dumb enough to deliberately endanger themselves? Sorry about the paralysis guv, here's a couple of million quid to spend on getting your house done out so's you can sit in it dribbling and wishing you could ever walk, fuck or even fly a kite ever again.

A tiny minority of kiters in my experience have ever set a kite up and flown it amongst others in an irresponsible manner, and on the rare occasions I see someone doing so I go and tell them all sorts of horror stories which usually makes them think again. Alas these buggers are just as bad as the non-flyers who don't think and between them responsible sportsmen whose antics bring a lot of pleasure to those a safe distance away who care to watch are being marginalised.