Since I have been kitesurfing, mainly in Vic, but also FNQ and one trip to Bali in big surf, I have been greatly impressed by kiters respect for each other, helping each other out, and general friendliness.
It has been fantastic to get involved in such a great sport (the best in the world!) from the early days, and its great to see it get more popular across Australia and worldwide. I have friends who kite in every state now.
However, I have also noticed a trend for a few kiters to get snarky and put up posts that are unfriendly, unhelpful and/or a bit elitist.
I am wondering if this is a carry over of some of the negative aspects of surfing culture such as hassling over waves, agro in lineups (even including some biffo)?
Just sayin...
I encourage everyone to "be nice", respect other kiters and newcomers, and for us all to keep kitesurfing enjoyable, friendly and safe for everybody.
I concentrate on my kiting
You should also.. Imagine if we didn't have seabreeze?? Your feelings and noobs feelings would be intact and nobody would be worried.
tissues?
The attitude change is the result of the crowd, or what you just greeted enthusiastically: increased popularity of kitesurfing.
Adds to it the ever easier gear. 10 years ago kitesurfing was an extreme sport requiring fitness and a sense of adventure and risk (sometime your life). Now if you can drag your gear to the beach without angina attack, and can swim 100m without drowning, you are just fine.
"darlen' what should we do this avo? Rollerblading, kitesurfing, or just a gentle beachwalk?"
Peterc150 
Naa ya freakn wrong bout that crap and fwucked up aggro stuff - dontcha start shootin ya mouth off at our local or we'll run ya in 
Oops - sorry I thought this was the Rokingham 'Pond' topic 
Nothing to do with surf culture.
Just the fact that many kiters are GenY and they have no social skills and little grammatical skills after spending their whole lives interacting more online and on SMS than in real life, whilst being pandered to by society.
Consequently many are straight up rude ****s, and the polite ones have so much trouble writing a post legibly that they come across like rude ****s.
If kiting was invented 20 or 30yrs ago you'd find the forum much more polite.
What the hell is "Öasis"???? 
Was that the band that backed Elvis????
Yeah,,your right,
Its the same patern that windsurfing has done,
No one would think of admitting to that anymore
But I hope in 20 years time when kiting is old hat like windsurfing has become,
I hope I am open minded enough to enjoy hoverboards,or what ever is invented and not live in the past saying "back in my day"
Bring on the future.
I want a hover board
RPM, I concentrate on my kiting too. Its got nothing to do with having Seabreeze, but rather how we use (or abuse) it. Its interesting that kiting posts are sometimes trolled. Tissues? no thanks.
lotofwind, interesting analogy with windsurfing, but windsurfers I know seem cool and not aggro. I did have an issue with one windsurfer on the water recently, but only 1 in 5+ years kiting is an isolated incident.
Mark _australia, I agree that some Gen Y factors may come into play. A lot of narky posters also don't have their name on their profile. Internet Name Wars rages on!
SaveTheWhales, now I know not to kite at Rockingham. Cycled there a few years ago and liked the place though.
Carantoc , kiting is forever , not sure fad factor is relevant.
I wonder if there are differences between locations too? A non-kiter friend was in WA recently and said she saw multitudes of kiters on many beaches, many more than Melbourne. I thought we were rather busy here in Vic.
I haven't come across any rude boys when kiting; maybe it is more an online phenomenon.
I think there are a couple of reasons:
1. Kiters have kites attached to 30m lines meaning more chance of getting in each other's way and annoying the crap out of other kiters.
2. As more kiters are arriving, more newbies getting into the sport, more chance of people getting annoyed by people who don't know what they are doing
3. Douchebags getting into the sport. Its way more affordable so the douchebags who normally wouldn't have the patience can now do the sport.
4. The internet allows people to vent anonymously.
Some examples:
I had a session today where I could easily vent about 3 separate incidents, mostly caused by new kiters. 3 years ago, these kinds of incidents didn't happen because the newbies respected the kiting zones. Now, they don't seem to give a **** and kite where they want. You chat to them and there are 3 more newbies to replace them.
Generalisations are OK if they are valid.
More GenY's have social interaction problems due to electronic media and not getting out doing stuff (than do baby boomers or GenX, for example)
More GenY's have poor grammatical skills due to text speak and reduction of some requirements in school (than do baby boomers and Gen X's)
I did not say all of them
Any time I encounter rudeness and lack of etiquette online, the vast majority of the time it is the younger crew.
Awwww I have upset the young'uns again.
Maybe they could answer honestly - do they see more kiters paying out on each other and tearing apart noobs in this forum, or more of that in the other fora?
'nuff said.
PeterC seems to agree as he laments the narky comments here. As do all those who green thumbed me. But the young trolls can't see past the fact I criticised GenY. Boo hoo
Yawn,,,,yes I know,,dont feed the trolls.Sorry people.
So your real last name is Australia is it...lol ,,gutsy
and..........loving it
You cant seriously compare computer ettiquette between Gen y,x and babyboomers?????
When no one had computers back then.
Bayby boomers complained about GenX(extreme dude gnarly man) where a bunch of lazy dropouts that wouldnt know how to do a hard days work and dont respect their elders.
Now GenX are having the same sorta whinge.
Nothing has changed,
GenY will be complaining bout GenZ.WOW what a suprise.
As for anonamously posting, I cant seem to find Mark Australia in the phone book,,,,,OMG,he is not using his real name,,,he could be anyone
lol
You are posting anonamously the same as most are???Unless you put your full name and actual addresss/phone no. you are hiding behind MR Australia
I personally have not noticed a correlation with narky members and a younger crew. For the record I am 51 and have been stuck in a mid life crisis since 25.
The correlation to surfing culture doesn't seem too strong either. Some other topics/posts about "mowing the lawn" etc have attracted a lot of bile - and this is flat water / twintip kiting.
I think there is a correlation between anonymity and agro posts though - some people says things under pseudonyms that they wouldn't under their own name. This is a hot topic in the Internet, from Wikipedia editors to Google+ (Google have been trying to enforce real names) and FB (ditto). nma.tv
Some states seem to be over represented with narky posters too - I am not sure why this would be the case?
There is also a definite correlation between narky posts and the "noobs at my local stuffing things up" topics. This is not age-related, its experience related.
Getting narky, at the beach or online, is not a good way to deal with an influx of new kiters and resultant issues that could impact kiting locations (such as kiting bans).
Hence my original comment about us "being nice", respecting other kiters and newcomers, and for us all to keep kitesurfing enjoyable, friendly and safe for everybody.
