Select to expand quoteForcetwelve said..
I used to love Altona when I lived in Melbourne. Had some awesome sessions there. I found as a beginner it was a lot more user friendly than St Kilda in terms of crowds and space. However before I left last season was getting a bit out of control and I felt less safe if something went wrong.
Back in Tassie now - lucky to see 2 kites on any beach on any given day!
I agree it is getting a bit out of control. I think some of the Kite schools need to be a bit more sensible when organising Kite Days. Inverloch / Rosebud are great places for Kite Days and sending out 50 unsupervised learner kiters on mass (which is what ends up happening) in these areas is far more appropriate. At a crowded city beach like Altona where you have pedestrians, close proximity to power lines / trees, a narrow beach I think it is just dumb. There were 3 kites in the trees in 1 day on sunday, one was still up there last night, I am sure locals and the council will be getting fed up with it. I live in Altona and it is my local beach and I will be pissed if kiting is banned or restrictions are placed on us local kiters because of the irresponsible actions of a few.
Select to expand quoteaxion said..Forcetwelve said..
I used to love Altona when I lived in Melbourne. Had some awesome sessions there. I found as a beginner it was a lot more user friendly than St Kilda in terms of crowds and space. However before I left last season was getting a bit out of control and I felt less safe if something went wrong.
Back in Tassie now - lucky to see 2 kites on any beach on any given day!
I agree it is getting a bit out of control. I think some of the Kite schools need to be a bit more sensible when organising Kite Days. Inverloch / Rosebud are great places for Kite Days and sending out 50 unsupervised learner kiters on mass (which is what ends up happening) in these areas is far more appropriate. At a crowded city beach like Altona where you have pedestrians, close proximity to power lines / trees, a narrow beach I think it is just dumb. There were 3 kites in the trees in 1 day on sunday, one was still up there last night, I am sure locals and the council will be getting fed up with it. I live in Altona and it is my local beach and I will be pissed if kiting is banned or restrictions are placed on us local kiters because of the irresponsible actions of a few.
I've said it once and I'll say it again - It is the People's (Kite) Republic of China on ride days. Hundreds of people in red shirts showing up in a van, taking over a location, not talking to the locals, standing right in the spot you want to be, making a mess, and then leaving.
Select to expand quoteaxion said..Forcetwelve said..
I used to love Altona when I lived in Melbourne. Had some awesome sessions there. I found as a beginner it was a lot more user friendly than St Kilda in terms of crowds and space. However before I left last season was getting a bit out of control and I felt less safe if something went wrong.
Back in Tassie now - lucky to see 2 kites on any beach on any given day!
I agree it is getting a bit out of control. I think some of the Kite schools need to be a bit more sensible when organising Kite Days. Inverloch / Rosebud are great places for Kite Days and sending out 50 unsupervised learner kiters on mass (which is what ends up happening) in these areas is far more appropriate. At a crowded city beach like Altona where you have pedestrians, close proximity to power lines / trees, a narrow beach I think it is just dumb. There were 3 kites in the trees in 1 day on sunday, one was still up there last night, I am sure locals and the council will be getting fed up with it. I live in Altona and it is my local beach and I will be pissed if kiting is banned or restrictions are placed on us local kiters because of the irresponsible actions of a few.
I saw the same thing at Altona last season... direct on-shore, horrible conditions, beach blocked by grounded learner's kites bouncing on the sand...and even one local jogger having to run through the lines of a kite that had crashed on the beach (still attached to the learner, and out of control).
Perhaps a better approach would be to restrict areas where these ride days can be set up? Clearly a commercial business profiting from a bulk deployment of learners at the expense of others in the community is not going to go down well,... but it's profitable and the community isn't saying otherwise, then they'll keep doing it.
I know the topic has moved on from when I started it off; andgotten into some other areas that needed to be discussed openly; however as someone that is still learning and made more than a few few mistakes with this last Sunday with right of way (once again sorry if I took your line or caused anyone to have to make evasive manouevers), this IKA video has really helped me see what I was doing wrong and why
(needed to really SEE some examples to understand why).
I think the ride days are a good idea, and the best way for learners to get comfortable with riding in a safe(r) environment. I believe they were down at the Apex Park end ie in a suitable area for beginners, had they not been there on a ride day most likely some/most of these same beginners would have been there anyway, but set up far closer to the pier.
Altona is always going to be busy on sunny weekend days with good Easterly winds, and it will always feel more crowded if the tide is low.
If I see a kite on a tree, I am going to take it home. Finders keepers. 
.oO (That should scare the beginners to be more careful next time)
Select to expand quoteStKKiter said..
I think the ride days are a good idea, and the best way for learners to get comfortable with riding in a safe(r) environment. I believe they were down at the Apex Park end ie in a suitable area for beginners, had they not been there on a ride day most likely some/most of these same beginners would have been there anyway, but set up far closer to the pier.
Altona is always going to be busy on sunny weekend days with good Easterly winds, and it will always feel more crowded if the tide is low.
I agree the ride days are a good opportunity for beginners. It seems to me the people complaining about them are the same people complaining about schools giving lessons and then not passing on safety info or caring about their students afterwards.
I don't think these ride days are done solely for profit, they are done because beginners need them.
This post has gotten quite off topic, and I think that if anyone has concerns with certain companies or groups (such as the black trailer that was parked at the main beach or the large group at apex park), then they should contact them directly and be more proactive.
Back to the topic at hand, what an awesome day, which carried right on until after the sun went down! I for one was sure glad that BOM got the rain forecast wrong for the day 
