Problems at Byron Bay (again)

To all who kite at Byron Bay.................apparently there has been major problems happening there again of late. If you are not familiar we fought to keep a section of the Bay open to kiting in the past. Be warned, council has a scheduled meeting that once again is looking to a permanent solution ie BAN. If you are a new kiter to the area from o/s or interstate, make yourself familiar with the user plan. If you see someone giving illegal lessons, or learners flying kites in this area, make them aware of the restrictions. Do not fly your kite on the beach or kite along main beach. Waterways are now monitoring and will issue fines for infringements when kiters come to close to surfers, swimmers, or flagged areas. Be especially careful of the winter whales swimmers that swim across the bay all year round.

The usage plan we came up with can be found here.
www.nswkba.com.au/locations/north

In Summary
Local Byron Kite Guide
01/05/2009

Local Policy for Byron area - Developed by Byron kitesurfers for Byron Council Apr 2008

Kitesurfing area at the Pass:
No power-kites or kitesurfing from Main Beach to Clarkes beach (the Wreck to the track to Captain Cooks Lookout - see map) due to normally onshore conditions and crowds
A small kite launch/landing area at Thommos rock. ie between the Pass and Clarkes - see map. For predominant northerlies, this section of beach has side-shore wind and a buffer of beach downwind, and few other beach users on windy days, therefore considered safest area. There are no beach access paths in this area - walk to area from the Pass carpark or Captain Cooks Lookout carpark. Kitesurf out from this section of beach.
As per NSW Maritime safety guidelines, keep at least 30m distance off from other people. If crowds make keeping this distance away from others impossible, then it is not suitable to kitesurf and other beaches should be used.
ADVANCED KITERS only to use this area. Must be able to stay upwind.
No commercial kiting / lessons, either on land or water

Kitesurfing at Tallows:
no kitesurfing in swimming areas, ie within 60m of swimming flags
no power kites or kitesurfing at Cosy Corner where hang-gliders land - that is, north of the southern-most track to the carpark - see map.

Kitesurfing from South Golden Beach to Byron:
no kitesurfing in swimming areas, ie within 60m of swimming flags
General kitesurfing guidelines for Byron Shire beaches and waterways:

Kitesurfers to have $10,000,000 public liability insurance for land and water, eg. AKSA (Australian Kite Surf Association) or IKO membership compulsory. Tag must be displayed on harness.
Safety leash must be worn whilst kiting.

kitesurfers to comply with the Australian Kitesurfing Association (AKSA) safety guidelines.

www.aksa.com.au/safe_kiting_guidelines.php


Kitesurfers to comply with the NSW Maritime safe kiting guidelines for water.

http://www.aksa.com.au/filestore/pdf/nsw_maritime_guidelines_-_developed_11_august_2003.pdf

I don't want to go into detail of specific complaints 2nd hand on a forum. I personally only kite there when there's swell getting in, which isn't often, so haven't witnessed anything. From what I can gather there are 2 different types of complaint.
Learners and illegal lessons causing havoc on beach and shallows.
Kiters breaking rules of minimum distances in water either because they are unaware of maritime rules, unsighted, or just ignorant.

In 2 weeks there is a closed meeting with council. They're organising to get reps from local board riders, surf club, swim club, waterways, marine parks, council, and kiters together. I can communicate more info after this meeting. The Byron marine park runs from Brunswick Heads to Lennox Point. Any changes to usage zones within the marine park has ramifications for the surrounding areas.
Local rules are published on NSWKBA website. We ran into problems with trying to get signs erected re kiting in 2008.

so much for hippie free culture that come with thoughts of byron bay, that place is thick with more council by lines, by laws (bi-sexuals on council boards) and just plain sooks than anywhere i've ever visited

Is there a way to bump the important parts of this without all the 'rowdy colon action' (oops sp.)

Its kinda a big deal I reckon. It can be a very busy area.. I actually kite further south but was talking to one of the people who very regularly swim across the bay the other day. One of them generally drags a float with like a bike flag off it just so the group can be a bit more visible. There are times when they swim in choppy conditions and way out in the bay where an uninformed kiter may be surprised to see (or not see) them. The other day a dive boat went between the group of swimmers.... without seeing them... This kinda highlights to me that its an awesome spot for many user groups and therefore real important to play things extra extra safe.

The stuff Pearl outlined has been posted here on seabreeze a bunch of times and is always readily available with accompanying maps on NSWKBA.

I generally try to notice threads where people ask about Byron and add a link to this info.

Stick to the guidelines and help others to do the same by explaining the reasons for them.

sorry mate didn't mean to jack the thread, deleted the rabble, lets find a solution!

Headline reads...." Kiter hits swimmer, Council sued"...

Usual reasons for councils to ban everything ....

Blame the stupid Governments for making it a litigious state.

It's a good point. I personally think signs are useless. We have a couple here that Nat Young put up about 'dropping in', and courtesy in the surf........strangely they don't seem to be working.
Maybe seabreeze could look at having a kiting destinations heading in the toolbar with interactive oz map. Kiting locations and best local conditions could be displayed when clicking on an area, as well as no kiting zones. Sensitive spots could be left off and those that have kiting guidelines could display their rules. $$$Advertisers and shops could have their location marked, so you know the nearest kite shop to the area. Planned kiting travel/tour operators could also market their trips with info about o/s destinations$$$$.
Presenting the fact, that you are advertising kiting guidelines on one of Australia's most popular websites, would be great local ammunition to take back to council if these things come up in your local area.

Voitek in ranking
1 Lennox- kiting across road, walk to pub and shops, kiddies love to bash you up on friday nights
2 Suffolk- kiting out front, local pub and shops. Free bus into byron brewery.. some crazy residents in the caravan park.
3 Byron- good year round perv.. nightlife...beware of cheeky monkeys. Don't come here with Rex Hunt we don't like him

how times change, I didn't see any other kiters there at all during my sessions there a few years ago, just a whole bunch of wtf is that swimming underneath me.

Aussie turning into UK? just ban it... I wouldn't have expected that from a council where free recreation is so important to so many people in the area.

There is a resource for that - it's called kitebeaches.com I use it frequently whenever I travel - the problem is that the standard of each location listed is only as good as the information that is posted on it. If locals don't put up decent information on it about their listed spots then people are going to come and possibly break the local rules - especially if you are an overseas traveller and English is not your first language.

I know there are a few people out there who aren't fans of it, but if you travel, it's a good starting point. If you have issues with your local spot, check to see what is said about it on kitebeaches and ensure the information is correct. You can't force people to read everything and take notice, but that is probably the most comprehensive location database on the web so you can be sure people are going to check it out. Links to Seabreeze could be added so that people can come here and ask questions too! As long as we give them decent answers...

I don't see how it is totally up to everyone else to give all the right info to travellers. Don't they have a responsibility to find out as much information for themselves as kiters speaking english or not. If we where to go to france on a kiting trip would there be someone thrusting information at me or would it be Common sense to find out as much as i could for myself. Look at Surfers Paradise, They have massive signs up and info everywhere for people to swim between the flags in all different languages but the life savers are still pulling tourists out of the water where they shouldn't be. you can only make available so much information before the responsibility is on the tourist.

I have traveled in France and the delineation of kiting zones and areas is far more comprehensive than anything I have seen in Australia. They have staked banners on the beach warning the general public about the dangers of kites and information boards that you cannot miss. The French surf lifesavers are also far more militant at keeping kitesurfers away from swimming zones (I was about 50m away from a swimming zone, turning to go the other way and a surf lifesaver was blowing a whistle at me and telling me to turn around. (The opposite also applies when you are a swimmer and you drift outside the flags)

Thanks Christo for your reply, I've looked at the 2 insurances & aksa is open for membership but doesn't cover me until 1st oct & iko store is bringing up a malware alert on my system! Is it a maritime requirement in nsw to have insurance or just suggestion? I don't have a problem getting insurance - it just doesn't cover me for next week.

The insurance covers you from the moment you pay. The policy is a group one and renews annually, AKSA are working on a new system that will allow them to offer insurance for 12 months from any date of joining.

When someone joins just prior to the current policies renewal date they are automatically renewed for a full 12 months.

There no problem with the NSWKBA website AFAIK, I just renewed last week using PayPal and everything went through just fine.

Insurance is not compulsory, however its a really good ideas to join AKSA, the more members they have the more powerful their voice is when representing the needs of kiters to governing bodies like Maritime and Councils.