The thumbs for Kitehard's last post and pfr's post, give a clear picture of what the kite communitiy thinks about AKS suggestions.
Any lawyers amongst you rabble?
Surely this couldn't happen in Australia, America maybe but here?
Someone can effectively own the beach?
Oh and just by the by thanks to AKS instructor for spotting one of my lines not connected just as I was about to launch, and averting potential tragedy. 
J-P
Hi everyone,
Now that I have your attention! Thanks for all the helpful comments and posts.
Just a little off topic, but the kiteschool was there long before 95% of kiters currently using the beach and is also the reason most of those kiters are there now. But anyway...
Seeing as I have your attention, my proposal is we do not cordon off the area, it is never our intention to do so. We are part of the crew too, but I did want to highlight the fact that there is a problem which needs to be addressed.
The fact that Pinnaroo is a newbie beach (no surf, wide sandy beach and clean wind) and no one is considerate of the newbies or instructors has pushed things to the point where there has now been an accident where someone has been injured.
Some things need to change and we all need to be on the same team to achieve the outcome which works for all of us.
Here is what I am asking local kiters for:-
1/ Roll your lines when you come in and move your kite to the area in front of the dunes if you aren't using it for more than 10 minutes. Most days, the whole beach is covered with kites from the dunes to the water line.
2/ Don't leave your boards on the beach. Move them up with your kites.
3/ Don't launch your kite with a student or instructor in your wind window
4/ Don't ride your kite with a newbie in your wind window.
5/ Have a little respect for newbies and give them some space.
6/ Don't setup in a newbies wind window. We start everyday before anyone is at the beach and continually have to move up or down the beach to keep our wind window clear of people. This is eventually impossible and leads to avoidable incidences like yesterday.
7/ If you see something about to go wrong, word up the offender. I can't do it alone. If everyone pitches in and doesn't leave it to someone else, we can change behaviours.
8/ Try riding through the flags at Mullas and see if anyone yells at you. We need the same at Pinnaroo for people doing the wrong thing.
9/ We have never wanted anything other than harmony with the local beach users. There are only two or maybe three guys from the original crew who were there before the school that still use Pinna's and they seem to get it, why doesn't everyone else? All the rest are there because of the school.
10/ Have some respect for the learners. We have lots of ladies learning now too and they all deserve a break so cut them some slack. As I said in my last post, the kites are blood red warning colours so keep clear of them.
So many people complain of newbies clobbering them with kites over their lines. This is only happening because you are inside their wind windows. Think about it!
A little help from everrone would be greatly appreciated. We're doing all we can to make it better and more enjoyable for all users. How about you all pitch in and do your bit too. We would appreciate the help.
Cheers,
KH
Just my 2 cents, I would have thought (regardless of who was there first) that it should be up to the business to do it's best efforts to not inconvenience the general public, not up to the general public to do their best to not inconvenience your business. Whilst asking people to mutually work together to have a safe beach is not unreasonable, some of your recommendations seem to rely a lot on the public avoiding causing you trouble rather than the other way around.
Spacemonkey,
Thats like building a housing development next to an international airport thats been around for 20 years, then when people move in they complain about the noise...
^^ Just a reminder there's also a jetski zone there plus a bit of a wind shadow (and no one to watch you pull your big tricks except the odd kid / family)
AAARGHH!! We've run out of space!!
Kitehard, I think your DNAs are more a 'Strawberry Sorbet' red don't you? ... LOL!!
Pinnaroo is a pretty **** place to kite anyway. I think that the only reason people tend to group there is because of the schools existance. If the school moved, then by the next 5 years that place would be full of people too...
I don't know if it has to be so official, but keeping general kiters and a kite school kind of seperate under some sort of mutual agreement has to happen. If we don't give schools space to teach, then there will be no lessons, and there will be a lot more unexperienced kiters out on the water causing havoc.
You whinge about schools and newbies? If it wasn't for this sport's growth potential the kite designers would not be wasting their time developing new and improved designs.
Schools have to operate somewhere, they pay lots of money in insurance and council licences etc. YES they DO own a bit of the beach and they probably taught you!!! If it wasn't for organised schools you would be paying a lot more for your kites. Do you want the sport to be closed to new participants? When is the cut-off time? Who decides?
Why would you want to kite in close proximity to a body dragging student? Why would you want to set up in a newbie's danger zone? Don't you remember how nervous you were when you were having lessons?
I think most of you complainers are just resentful of KH because he gets to make a living out of the sport and you don't. From what I see he gives back to the sport way more than he gets from it.
From the aerial shots I think you just don't like to walk too far to set up!!
Sheesh....this sport is full of whingers.....imagine if schools operated like surf schools!!! Churning out 50 or 60 people a day!!!
Hmmmm,
Interesting about all the red thumbs considering all I'm asking for with most of my points is for people to adhere to the WAKSA C.L.E.A.R. recommendations, and nothing more.
Funny how you all support those rules so long as it doesn't inconvenience your daily kiting experience.
Does no one see that the few requests I have made will benefit ALL kiters in both convenience and safety? Don't bother, I don't expect an intelligent answer. 
It should also be noted that most incidences on the beaches are not the students in our school, but learners and inexperienced intermediates who have long finished lessons and are starting to gain half a clue. We need to make it safer for ALL kiters including you.
So many close calls on the water and the beach of which about 5% is to do with the school. Mattyjee actually knows what's up
The only people I will respond to from this point on are people who ride at Pinna's and know the situation. No offense, but the rest of you are clueless to the situation at our beach. You wouldn't have a clue as to what AKS does for the local community and I'm not about to start spelling it out. The locals know! 
Many thanks to the many locals who stopped by with words of support and for the concern for the injured learner today. Remember, this all came about because a fellow human, a fellow kiter was injured.
The rest of you can red thumb away and rabble on.
Cheers,
KH
)
What the hell is going on!!! 
Darren, I always respect your knowledge and genuine passion for the sport but this is unbelievable.
In fact I actually did my first and only lesson at your school a few years back so I am thankfull for the opportunity to learn the correct safe practice.
However,as per your first post, there is a small element of danger in kiting and that is probably the reason why we enjoy it so much.
No matter how much you attempt to have safe practice, accidents do and will happen on very rare occasions
Any attempt to use this opportunity to claim ownership of the beach and cordon off your own little private area is a disgrace in my eyes.
Considering your record for years of teaching, there is probably 10 000 times more risk in crossing the road than in attending a lesson at your premises so why create agro with the established crew who are probably ex-students in any case?
Let's keep things open and friendly just as they have always been and everyone can take care of themselves.
Hi Guys,
AKS has carried out a review on our processes internally and come up with some new ways of operating to improve the safety of our students and reduce the potential for accidents, but it needs to maybe go a step further.
I propose a meeting with concerned kiters from Pinnaroo to come and have a chat with us this afternoon after kiting to see if we can come up with some changes to make the beach safer. Unfortunately, wind direction, beach layout and council designated zones make moving the school impossible. If there was a way to move the school to a more appropriate location, we would have done that long ago.
We will provide a few coldies and hopefully if there is some action that we can take, we'll be able to make the beach safer which has been our intention since day dot.
We finish work at 6pm so if you want to just have an informal chat come see me anytime I'm not busy, or wait until about 6.15 when the school trailer should be a bit quieter and we can have an orderly meeting.
Cheers,
KH
Good on you Darren for actually doing something proactive for the kiting community and general safety of beach users. I doubt that any of the negative posters in this thread have done anything practical themselves other than post some rabble on this forum.
I support your proposal to set aside an area for beginners to launch and body drag. It's not unreasonable in my eyes because you aren't restricting water space and everyone knows Pinaroo is full of beginner kiters. Most of the posters on this forum should be skilled enough to avoid beginners and kite upwind of them if they want to kite Pinaroo.
Maybe some of these people should try and kite at some spots in Sydney and Melbourne where space really is at a premium. You only spend 10 minutes on the beach rigging and launching a kite, so what does it matter if you can't do it wherever you like on the beach? Just laziness imo.
Hi All,
I kite semi regularly at Pinaroo - more when I was beginning.
AKS IMHO run a really tight school & I would recommend them always. Darren is great. Will always help. Gives good (very very often free) advice on technique. Lend a bit of line when your bridle breaks!
The suggestions the AKS move are silly. Pinnas is a good learning spot.
The main problem at pinnas are that there are quite a few Beginner - nearly intermediates kiters who fancy themselves excellent. They kite too close to the newbies & give them a scare and then they do their half a#$d moves to show off in close. In an accident between newbie & intermediate kiter the fault is always the guys with the better skills. He/she should have stayed clear.
Pinnas is a learners beach. You wouldn't really want to kite there for any other reason. It's not flat (the knee breaking chop is famous) & there are no waves. It is actually a bit of a crap spot to kite.
I think that some cones on the beach seem like a good idea. Not for hard & fast enforcing of allowable locations, but to indicate the learning area. Downwind for newbies, up wind for those who can stay there. I personally sail up near the horse/dog beach anyway. The wind is better up there - no disruption from other kites. But I agree no one should ever ever think they own the beach.
Also to those making comments from QLD & NSW - WTF??? You guys have seemingly no idea of local conditions. The suggestion that AKS go North shows why you should stick to your own pond. The wind gets really squirrelly north near the ski area for some reason. I've been trapped out there as I'm sure most who've sailed there have experienced. You can't see this on GOOGLE MAPS!
Sad to hear that AKS had a bad incident. Hope the guys are ok.
Stay cool Darren. My guess is most of the negative posts on here are people who haven't seen you guys operate.
Hi Guys,
Apart from the initial post about sectioning off the beach (which was a stunt to ensure response and discussion), I have not mentioned setting aside areas for anyone. It seems everyone has fixated on this and run with it like hell. It was a hoax, a stunt, to get people involved (and it worked ). Now lets get on with the second part of it .... finding a better way to do what we all love.
We believe the school has co-existed with the growing numbers of kiters, fishos, cat sailors and general public quite well over the years. We are just looking for ways to further improve safety for both learners and general beach users. We have done as much as we can within the school but more can be done with a little co-operation of the locals. This is why I invite all involved to a meeting this afteroon, to discuss ways to make it better for everyone.
If we are aware of a method of reducing danger and we don't do anything about it through complacency or apathy, and someone is badly injured or killed, aren't we guilty of inadvertently contributing to the incident?
Pinnaroo is a great spot that deserves protection. We can work together to improve it, it's now up to you .....
KH
Maybe kite boarding should just be banned completely - that would be much safer...
