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Just looking for general feedback here guys and gals, I'm noticing at my local beach spots kite instructor's teaching in offshore winds!! As a instructor with 9 yrs experience this concerns me, i have always advised my students never to kite in offshore winds, that being said, when teaching does that give a instructor the right to brake 1 off the most important safety rules??????? Feedback please
Maybe for the land based stuff (if that's still part of the IKO course... it's been a while since I taught) but even then wouldn't the wind be pretty cruddy?
Yep, light offshore with a forcast storm coming, kite in air and on the water, student and instructor standing in waterline. As instructors we all make judgement calls about conditions, my point here is should we be teaching learners in conditions that we tell them not to fly in, in my opinion safety is the most important part of what we do ??
In short NO.
People learning have enough info to assimilate. Teaching in offshore conditions is a recipe for disaster. I can just imagine a newbie wanting to get out for their first kite and thinking as they had a lesson at the beach in offshore winds it must be fine to kite in the same conditions.
Cauncy jests aside as someone who is setting up and running a kiting event next month promoting safety should be Very High on your agenda.
Safety, Carnt get out of that
were bombarded with applications permits all safety related, we've had to submit our safety to get approval
in Tony's case I'd be having a chat, you need 250/300 mtrs of total clearance for winds to be clear of inland influences,
The drama I see is when the student leaves that beach and has a play on his own in offshore conditions, if the said instructors doesn't get a rev up ,he will continue with this practice,
Yep, have seen some pretty crappy behaviour from instructors over the years and it makes you wonder hey?
To reiterate, the only thing I reckon you could do without endangering a student is the trainer kite stuff, but as I say, when I was teaching last (ages ago) the IKO was beginning to phase that out and get students straight onto big kites so as to not freak them out when they jump up to the big ones... not sure if that ever became standard practice?
But agree, anything water based in offshore is asking for trouble and is totally irresponsible.
Not to thread hijack but have also been seeing a few local instructors putting learners on kites that are way too big "to get them up and going faster". There are so many things wrong with that approach I wont even begin to list them.
After the blackmail and the bullying comes the smear campaign.
How low are you guys going to go with this teenage-like behavior? Is the next step to send guys to beat me up in the car park?
I can very easily demonstrate how wrong your information is since I keep a detailed record of all my lessons activities including footage that I send to my students as part of the lesson service.
The sea breeze arrived at Pinnaroo at exactly 2:40pm that day which is when we began the kite setup.
We launched the kite shortly after 3pm. It was a steady cross to cross-ON shore breeze blowing at around 12 to 14 knots, perfect for a first land-based lesson and the kite flew really well on short 14m lines.
We flew the kite where the X is marked on the map which is where my permit and the council allow me to operate.
In fact, everyone knows that due to the steep dunes at Pinnaroo it is simply impossible to fly a kite in that area if the wind is Off-shore, especially on short lines.
Since the student already had prior training we were ready for a practical self-rescue, so he went for a body drag + self-rescue in cross-on shore winds at 3:36pm. Below is a picture of this body drag with the corresponding time stamp and GPS that clearly shows the appropriate wind direction.
And here is the video of the student coming back to the shore from his self-rescue at 3:39pm with the corresponding time stamp/GPS
Whoops didn't realise I'd walked into an internet fight.....
*backs out of room slowly*
Ok, back from my round of golf ?? once again, not getting involved in a slagging match, no names mentioned here, but if you want me to we can start whenever you fancy, just remember, perth is a very small kiting community and for the record, this is about my concerns, there is no one pulling my strings, any body and every body that knows me will confirm that, peace and love ????????????????
I have no idea about blackmail, bullying, smear campaign or rangers being called, as for this backfiring, your missing the point, I'm actually feeling like i'm being bullied for asking for opinions on a public forum.
How sad
It's easy to hang poo on the instructor, but if you get paid a regular weekly salary then perhaps listen to his story first.
If the student has limited time, or the instructor gets paid by the hour, then leave it to them to negotiate a time and safe place.
Harden up Aussies. What have we become? A nation of regulated princesses?
Man this thread's fantastic reading, better than a mills and boon. I think I understand the guts of it, and who is having a go at who, but it would be so much easier if I only knew who all the alias's really were. Obviously I haven't been around the kiting world long enough yet.
Game on, continue as you were, LOL.
