Kitesurfing is awesome, I love it, nobody owns the ocean, everyone who wants to has the right to kite. But just lately the numbers of beginners is off the scale, there's that many learners at the suck it and see stage its scary.
Perth's kite shops must be doing a roaring trade, i've never seen so many shiny new kites. Unfortunately I am seeing large numbers of people with board leashes, I was taught these were dangerous. We are not exactly zero harm zero incident in this sport at the best of times.
Whether or not you agree about board leashes, BETTER TRAINED KITERS can only be a good thing. Learning to body drag up wind is not that hard, practicing this will teach better kite control as well as correct technique , which can only be a good thing. If you can't body drag up wind perhaps your not ready to try with the board just yet. Not everyone can be zero to hero, people learn at different speeds, some people need to take smaller steps. The learning period is not that painful if your dedicated, good kite control before moving on to the distraction of the board will help many learners.
Awareness of kite etiquette such as looking before turning, the ability to raise or lower your kite when on opposing tacks is good practice ( granted its hard to raise or lower your kite when first learning )
something needs to change if we carry on as we are the potential for disaster is too high.
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ONLY PLEASE ( ha ha ) concerned local
Could it be a problem in that sometimes people are trying to save money by minimising the number of lessons they have? Plenty of people would get into Kitesurfing thinking that they can enjoy the thrill of Snowboarding without having to pay stupid amounts of cash for gear, lift passes, accomodation, travel expenses etc. Then of course they are told that they need $500 worth of lessons before they're ready to start buying gear and plenty of punters would think that they're all good after they've done a bit of body dragging down wind so they head out and buy their gear instead of forking out another $300-$500 on lessons they figure they won't need.
I'm pretty new to the sport but surely body dragging up wind is one of the easiest things to master for a beginner and it helps you practice in terms of flying the kite one-handed and also landing the kite safety. It amazes me that people can't do it.
Blah blah blah
Wah wah wah
There's too many learners
Ones got ten posts, ones got seven
I bet you're both at the sucky get in the way learner stage and piss off everybody at your local
Looks like you got your constructive critasium people welcome to seabreeze make sure your skin is thick, or have a box of tissues close by there is a lot of love that gets shared around......
[}:)]
How many times does it have to be said people!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tell anybody, hell tell everybody.........
kitsurfing is dangerous, is extremely hard to learn, is expensive, you need
to go to the gym 5 days a week to do it, helps if your Gay to fit in
with other kiters, sharks everywhere sometimes your got to weave in
and out of them, and be missing a chromosome [}:)]
this is guaranteed to keep beach free of shore creepers,has worked at my local
for years now 
Fair enough. Bring on the winter, strong winds, decent swells and hopfully empty beaches. Next season is going to be good too, properly the best ever. I can't wait.
Like it not the sport will continue to become more and more popular. If you would prefer it to remain a bit of an elitist sport accessible to few then you must also be prepared for the inevitable high prices of equipment that come without volume sales. This applies to all products including Kite Gear.....do you remember how much you paid for a plasma TV 10 years ago....
More participants mean more kites and boards sold which means more opportunities for more retailers to come into the market which mean cheaper prices...Get used to it guys
Couldn't agree more, this means it's time to raise awareness and educate people on the beach systematically. I don't think any of these beginners will read our forum posts...so it's all about taking actions on the field. If I see a board leash I tell them to go visit : kiteboardleash.com ... if they're not convinced after that I don't know what will...
The explosion of numbers this year is just insane. Even as recently as last season there were plenty of days when there were just two or three of us out at Trigg - now you can hardly ever self launch for the sheer number of kites on the beach 
There's nothing we can do to stop it people, the writings on the wall so enjoy it while it lasts...
If you're so much better than them just stay the f$%# away from them and you can't go wrong. I always suss out who I'm not going to stand near whenever I rock up at a beach. Learn a bit of defensive kiting the same way you do on the road and predict what people are going to do. Its not hard.
We were all crap once and we are all crap compared to someone more pro.
Select to expand quote
Man one day you'll thank me for keeping the beach clear of try hard want to be's
with there "look at me ,look at me" attitude . just check out WA situation every
second thead is wahh wahh this and cry cry that.
10 000ks of shore line with only limited areas suitable for kiting depending on wind directions ,kind of like comparing road stat's to shark attacks, ppffftt.
Competition kiting is usually a well organised controlled event "this is good"
I'm always doing 425ml arm curls any time after 12pm at my local gym
can you "please explain "what i'm doing wrong as i'm at a loss to what you mean?
the Burglar
I kite at Penguin Island and Safety Bay over here, regularly more than 20 kites out there. They don't cause me any problems, even the half dozen learners body taking lessons right in shallows. In fact most people don't have problem with it, otherwise they'd be kiting somewhere else. also makes the post session BBQ's more fun
I suppose I don't mind the crowding, means more people to learn from and if I do want some space I don't mind roadtripping a couple hours to check out a new spot.
The comment about the gym got my goat a bit, none of the sports I've taken up for recreation have required me to go to the gym just to participate (part of the attraction is that they are enough of a work out I don't need to go to a gym to keep fit). Kiting is no different for me, the thought that I'd need to spend at least 5 hours a week at a gym just to be able do something for fun just doesn't seem right to me. Maybe if I was competing regularly i'd be working out to gain that competitive edge, but that's just my thoughts on that.
And there are always going to be people showing off in every sport, kiting just attracts more because it is such a flambouyant activity to start with, it's the nature of the beast. But if you really want to keep the beaches clear of people with the "look at me!, Look at me!" attitude, could you start with Jetskis?
