well over the recent years, i have had numerous discussions with water police, dept of transport and council about kitesurfing and the resounding response is that they can't even control jet skis that pose a massive threat to waterways and beach users "due to state and federal gov't restraints" . little splinter groups like kiteskiers are noted as minor nuisance along with all the other minor nuisance sports and individuals will be prosecuted if showing extreme negligence resulting in death, providing the local council with a legal precedent for future reference.
I agree, the government trying to license and regulate kiting- look at their prior efforts - jetskis, wow that has been really successful!
But, that said in Victoria you don't see people being irresponsible on jet skis as much as they used to be. (just my observation, I'm happy to be proved wrong on this) And your PWC license is tied to your drivers license, so points on one affect the other. You get booked over the limit on your jetski/power boat and you lose your drivers license too. I think jetskis are more dangerous than kitesurfers, windsurfers and 12 year old sailors put together though!
I saw a jet ski rider being booked at Mordi Pier for comng out of the creek at 5 knots but then not waiting long enough before opening it up. A cop on a jet ski was waiting there at the creek entrance and pulled him up straight away. So the Victorian government is serious about enforcing water safety.
I just can't see how they are going to police this and to be honest, how many accidents occur down on Port Philip Bay due to kiting? If you check the KBV website, its pretty rare. Most of the incidents there seem to be dog walkers worried about kites on the beach.
Most accidents seem to occur on land rather than on the water so how would licensing change that?
Also, how does licensing impact interstate and international visitors? Kiting is a pretty portable recreation sport, thats one of the things I like about it. A good argument to make is that there are plenty of tourism dollars that would go elsewhere if a licensing system was adopted.
What about the 12 year old kids mucking around in their Sabots and International Cadets, they are hardly causing problems and require regulation. In fact, if they are sailing with a club, they have probably been doing an IYC approved course (Which my sailing club put me through in NZ when I was 12-14) which probably makes them more competent than most adults out on the water.
But, at this stage, its just a tabling of a discussion paper. ie. should we think about thinking about the possibility of licensing kiters and sailboat users. That doesn't mean KBV shouldn't get involved at the first available opportunity and represent our interests though.
On that note, I see KBV has 289 members. There must be a lot more Victorian kiters than that. I will be joining when the membership year ticks over, (My BKSA membership lapsed in April) but those Victorian kiters who want some representation on this issue and aren't members, should be paying fees and joining up. It's not that expensive to do, and a whole lot less hassle than booking in to VicRoads to do a licensing test!
Thanks to the great response to this issue.
Down here in Warrnambool we have an open meeting tonight with the local council and the shadow minister for Ports: Regional cities: Racing, to discuss and put forward our concerns, and im sure common sense will prevail.
Upon seeing the interest this debate has created, I hope that the leaders (KBV) and other groups put their opinions and recommendations towards the right people as we are trying to do, and we only have about 6 fulltime riders in our area.
I will let you know how we go.
Cheers
Jas
Good work 'J'
Look forward to your post meeting report.
but they are not full time riders - couldnt be - most of them spend far too much time waanking to be full time anythings -- chink chink 
Seriously Jason - and other local area groups.
You would carry far more weight with good works like this if you were an 'official' entity. As well as the cred value a more consistent message could be presented from all groups if they were linked through their state KSA.
AKSA has some third tier kite group policies it is hoping to roll out in 2009/2010.
By forming a 'club' ; 'beach user group' (call it whatever you like but a club is certainly better for regional groups which use a number of different local beaches); then affiliate with your state KSA (for w'bool see www.kbv.org.au) you gain cred as an organised entity AND you will be able to get re-funding from your members annual subscriptions to AKSA via the 3 tier federation model.
We will also be able to provide you with a website of your own (if you want one); email services to suit your set up and hopefully some more organisational goodies like that.
Preliminary stuff right now but if you get onto KBV now you can at least be kept up to date.
All just hearsay from me right now but AKSA & state KSAs should be releasing some details soon.
i had a sudden flash of the ramefications when the Vic Government thought it was a good idea for anyone playing paint ball to have a gun licence.
"great idea, that way we can limit the activity to grown adults that have passed sanity checks"
so while the rest of us drove to NSW and did not support our local businesses there was a sudden increase in gun purchases :D
hey i got me a licence now, why don't i get me a gun thanks the government for interferin.
No Licence required!!!!!! The State Gov. has dropped the proposal like a bag of spuds. We would like to think that we had some impact on the decision but somehow I don’t think so!
Either way it’s great news that we are still free to ride around and annoy anyone we want..!
Although.....
They have decided that they still need some sort of regulation on Kite boarding (wind powered vessels) so they are looking at Kitesurfing Zones in the open water (outside the bay/metro area).
This seems almost as crazy as the licence in my opinion, it sounds like they want to just push us into the corner/pocket of the coast line so they know who to blame if something happens in that "ZONE".
A quick easy fix for the government.
Cheers
"you don't need a licence to snow ski or snow board therefore we have people enjoying the snowfields"
I think that skiing/snowboarding is different, because have you looked at the terms and conditions on the back of a skipass lately?
By wearing the pass and riding on the chairlifts you are agreeing to abide by the rules of the skifield. (Standard rules all over the world) It's a regulated activity. If you get caught flagrantly breaking the rules with no regard for other peoples safety, you'll have your liftpass torn up, no refund.
There is no such list of ts and cs for kitesurfing. You can go out and do what you please, ignorant of the water rules because there is no obligation for you to know them (legally, not morally). As soon as you take and pass a boating license test, you are acknowledging the existence of the rules, and indicate your agreement to abide by them. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse, because you have a card that says you know them.
I'm not for licensing by the way. I think the effort/diversion of resources and money to enforce the changes to the law outweighs the potential public gain by so much its not worth it. If, every day at St Kilda kitebeach there was someone suffering serious injury/death or causing property damage, then I might change my tune. I'm a pragmatist on the issue.
If the law WAS passed, I wouldn't even worry about getting a license, unless I honestly believed it would make a difference to safety (which it won't). The police just wouldn't be able to enforce it!
Using the same logic, surfing has far more third party related injuries so therefore all surfers will be banished to a smaller more secluded area to surf.
Baz.
Go for it Puppet!
C'mon slave, let's see some good old fashioned seabreeze banter!
And we're still waiting for the link to the thread that's supposedly out there?
Look as much as I think waveslave is a ****st!ck.... I kinda sorta have to back him up here 
he is possibly referring to Phil Morrow's post at the bottom of
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=39229&whichpage=1
where he says licensing would be a good idea. then again he tempers that remark with the fact that vehicle driver's licences have not eliminated carnage on the roads.
(seabreeze search only goes back 12months and this is a teeny bit older)
irrelevant anyway, as concensus seems to have bene reached on waveslave and his value to the world of watersports in general
I'm not sure what bad movie you base your whing-ing & complaining on Slave...is it "Ground Hog Day" because you just keep going on & on & on like a pain in the arse dog barking at 3 in the morning.
You've made your point time & time & time again, over & over & over that you don't like WAKSA, you don't think WAKSA does anything for WA Kiters...Perhaps in your own words, you'd like to point out one positive thing you've contributed on this forum, or for the kiting community in WA?
You won't join WAKSA. Your call. For those of us who are members of, or involved in WAKSA, trying to address a number of issues up & down the WA coast for kiters, how about just for once, you give it a rest?
We get it...you don't like WAKSA, and everyone on this forum knows it.
Can I ask you do something positive - STFU and find something else to get on your hobby horse about...Seabreeze readers are tired of you negativity. Come back to us with something positive to say about what you've done for kiters at your local spot. Until then...
More lies by deception. Another deliberate out of context quote.
I fail to see what it is you hope to achieve by this continual line of distortion & non reason. All I and all the waksa volunteers are trying to do is nice things for people - I just dont get where all your negativity is coming from or why
Did your mother abandon you as an infant or something
For those who cant be bothered checking the whole old story (der - like everyone)
The "if it could be achieved" referred to all the good things others had previously said a licence 'might' do. I then went on to say it couldnt & wouldnt ???
So how does saying 'a licence cant achieve all the good people say it could' possibly equate to me being in favour of it.
Actually what my post says (in context) is that puppet does not think licences can produce the results the people in favour of them would intend them to produce.
Surely this = (to people with a brain) puppet is probably NOT real keen on licences.
But then its twisted even further from 'one member says' = 'WAKSA fully supports'.
WTF. Like I said before when WAKSA talks it has its own tag.
The real question is whats your answer to my question? Should we kite between the flags? Cmon Slave stick your head out the top end for a change & give us a simple straight answer. Whats your take on that point?
Or add evasion to lies, deception, mis-quoting .... vomit .... vomit ... lol
And yes I do have to waste my time replying to your venomous lies otherwise someone may just think there is a hint of truth somewhere and be put off ever wanting to be a part of the nice & positive side of kiting. 
I think there may be some history between a few of you guys...!!!!!!!!
I would like to point out one of the justifications the State Gov. used to move on all this new proposed legislation.
They have no record of numbers in regard to kitesurfers and also no form of regulating us, if that’s what we require…. with no records of safety, injury, accident and fatality's.
This is where the idea of the licence came from, also the kitezones!
We brought the point forward (now that the licence has been dropped) that the idiots will still be idiots, outside of Zones or inside!
So instead of the Zone, make every kiteboarder have insurance through AKSA, or the local KSA’s, therefor they have better ideas of numbers for their reports and graphs, they can feel confident that we are at least insured and through being a member, we have access to rules/guidelines etc.
We will also be recommending- if the Gov. want to put some money into something to help everyone, then put it into the KSA’s to help them produce more information in regard safety, guidelines, safe local spots etc.
Cheers
J
I don't think it will come down to a licensing system - more like compulsory ASKA membership.
Taking a selfish stance, I think it's a good idea.
The thought of having to obtain a license/memebership to take up kiting may discourage those who are not fully committed to the sport. It WILL discourage unsafe kiting and those with the 'I don't have to do anything I don't want to - this is meant to be an extreme sport' mentality.
Unfortunately, it's the people with this mentality that contribute to the poor image of the sport in the media and may very well have contributed to the notion of a compulsory licensing system in the first place.
In that regard, the potential of the proposal has shown what it is capable of doing - even without being reinforced (yet) - WEED OUT THE DICKHEADS.
More to the point, less people on the water = more enjoyable kiting.
Imagine they required licenses for surfing....then you could surf snapper with 500 of your best mates instead of 1000! Awesome!
I got my fishing licence the other day...so far I've caught 10 undersized bream. If I don't Catch $30 worth of fish by year end I'm gonna be so mad.
Here's an ignorant question, when I'm in a boat I have a port and starboard side, but a kiteboard goes both ways, so how do you know when you're on your port tack, and therefore supposed to give way to someone you're about to T-bone?
Surely 'slave it is better to be proactive and self manage than to get someone that has no idea from the government do it for us. It is simplistic thinking to think that WAKSA can keep all beaches open for kites, it is all about compromise. Some places kiters should not venture, like extremely crowded swimming beaches, in between flags, in a shipping channel etc.
At least offer an alternative if you are going to criticize.
So am I right in thinking that there has been no "official" response from AKSA or any of its affiliates, or have I missed something? Makes me wonder why I should renew my membership. Again I think this is a prime subject for AKSA to show leadership or in the least state its position with clarity.
Baz.
