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i quit IKO to start kite safe asia KSA

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KiteboardingTampaBay
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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby KiteboardingTampaBay » Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:06 pm

Hi Antigrav,
I am well familiar with BKSA and organizations in general, as I am co-founder/ Director of a public charity here in the US and done far more research than your average reader on many types of organizations, both inside and outside the sport.

I have ZERO respect for people who can't operate out in the open. Every bit of IKA was done behind closed doors, and these "leaders" ran from the forums as fast as they could because they are going to do things their way, whether anyone likes it or not.

2 years ago, it was a failed windsurfing tour, now it IS in control of all events on the "world stage" in our sport.
Banned riders, tours, events, equipment...what's next?
No IKA/ ISAF fan club card= no kiting?

Are they going to sue me when our organization tries to do something for the sport?

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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby Feng » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:49 pm

gazxtreme wrote:Most of the people have "proper jobs" and do get paid when on BKSA business including mileage. There is also a few people who are race crew who attend and help run the BKSA events and usually marshalls etc who again get paid for their time.
I was at the latest BKSA General assembly.
As far as I understoud, the school inspectors are basically other school managers / owners, obviously not from the same area otherwise their opinion could be biast.
It makes sence as on top of their formal BKSA training they have some practical views on how a school should be run.
I understoud that the BKSA reimbourses their travel expenses (as long as they are resonable).

What I fail to understand is how this works for school ouside the UK or worst outside Europe.
I doubt (well at least I hope) that the BKSA does not pay the plane ticket.
So who pays the travel expenses ? Is it the visited school ? In this case the inspector report is lickly to be biast
Or does the BKSA takes the opportunity of the personnal holliday of BKSA trusable people and ask them to spend a few days on inspecting the oversee schools.

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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby gazxtreme » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:22 pm

Feng, it is of course very difficult to imagine how schools around the globe would be inspected as more would like to become BKSA affiliated. As you suggested this has been possible by keeping communications well open between the trianing staff. In the instance when I inspected Nyali in Kenya I knew through being up to date with the kite scene as much as possible that Nyali had a BKSA school so I contacted head of training to tell him I was due to go to Kenya within a reasonable drive of Nyali and offered to do an inspection whilst there. The school paid for a return taxi to the school and the BKSA paid for the inspection. Mileage would have been nice from the UK to Kenya :D . This is my idea of a good arrangement, the school got an inspection, the BKSA got a difficult to reach school inspected and I got some extra spending money and a very eye opening trip through Mombassa in a taxi. Life is an adventure, take it by the balls and squeeze :thumb:

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Feng
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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby Feng » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:35 pm

gazxtreme wrote:In the instance when I inspected Nyali in Kenya I knew through being up to date with the kite scene as much as possible that Nyali had a BKSA school so I contacted head of training to tell him I was due to go to Kenya within a reasonable drive of Nyali and offered to do an inspection whilst there.
In this UK do you have some kind of sport school/center management background ?
Or do you have the "standard" profesionnal backgroud and you follow a item list provided by the BKSA ?

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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby gazxtreme » Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:43 pm

Feng wrote:
gazxtreme wrote:In the instance when I inspected Nyali in Kenya I knew through being up to date with the kite scene as much as possible that Nyali had a BKSA school so I contacted head of training to tell him I was due to go to Kenya within a reasonable drive of Nyali and offered to do an inspection whilst there.
In this UK do you have some kind of sport school/center management background ?
Or do you have the "standard" profesionnal backgroud and you follow a item list provided by the BKSA ?
I became an instructor in 2005 then due to the closest schools being 100 miles from my location I established my own school from scratch.
I became a BKSA approved school over 3 years ago and was appointed as a national trainer nearly 3 years ago. On top of this I have chosen to extend my qualifications beyond just the standard requisites, mostly relevent to running the kiteschool.
BKSA Senior Instructor and National Trainer
RYA Powerboat L1 and 2
RYA Safety boat cert
First Aid qualified "renewed every year not every 3 years"
Short range radio licence "VHF"
Certificate in safeguarding and protecting children
Certificate in coaching children and young people
Crew member of Sea Support providing safety cover for the BKSA kitesurfing events etc
I am a fan of seeing things done right and like to think I do so myself, however I am not afraid to learn from others more experienced or take constructive criticism. Being part of the BKSA does not buy you any favours, everybody has to have yearly inspections including the head of training, I feel the system is fair and realistic and people of all backgrounds and experience come together to make it happen.
RE Inspections, there is of course a comprehensive set of paperwork to be completed during the process, it keeps everything to a standard no matter who the inspector is.

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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby kiwimike » Fri Dec 24, 2010 1:50 am

i am going to donate my time to the guys setting up the kite safe asia or KSA as they are calling it. we had a meeting and have decided on a few vital points.

first the accounting books will be public. every 6 months they will be loaded up onto the webpage www.kitesafeasia.com this site will be running less than 10 days.

secondly there will be a local quality rep in each country. the philipines, vietnam, thailand and bali (also hong kong, Singapore, and anywhere else in asia if possible) i have offered to be the international quality control rep. i will volunteer my time and just have my expenses covered for travel.

i will visit each school at the start of each season to present a club kit with flags, tshirts, minimum safety guidelines etc. at the start of each season i will present the best insurance options for the region. we are working on this now. insurance will not be compulsory however your insurance status will be shown on the website. i believe we can do club membership for 200 euro per year.

a real licencing system will go into place. a proper plastic card with a photo on it and an individual number for each student and instructor. this number can then be checked on the KSA website to show the student or instructors level. the student will get the number after completing his course and have it for life.

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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby ilovetokite » Fri Dec 24, 2010 6:39 pm

So, now you just jumped from BKSA to Kite Safe Asia. what does BKSA and Kite Safe Asia have to do with each other? Seems like you will have to pay money to Kite Safe Asia to get a flag?? Your above post makes no sense, please explain. How are you "pledging your assistance to BKSA"? Who are "the guys" setting up Kite Safe Asia??

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Re: i pledge my assistance to the BKSA

Postby kiwimike » Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:12 am

a group of us in asia are setting up the KSA. most of the schools in asia have quit the iko system and we are looking at setting up an association of schools in asia to do the following
1)set up and follow minimum safety guidelines
2)advance safe and grow kiteboarding
3)help with getting liability insurance for schools and indiduals
this will be a non profit organization. we will print out accounting books online. magnumboards.com is going to sponsor the association to get it running. all going well a small fee from every club should keep it running. this will be a face to face organisation with local reps. the club fee will get more than just a flag. KSA will provide customer service, help with insurance, listing and advertising for the schools, training for instructors and hopefully in the future we will be able to sponsor any tallented local riders.
this is the future, each area will form an association and then intern become affiliated with other international associations. the kitesafeasia.com website will be running next week and alot more of your questions will be answered. at the same time i would like to hear suggestions from anyone who would like to give some input from what they would like to see this or other organizatios doing or providing.

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Re: i quit IKO to start kite safe asia KSA

Postby jumarcil » Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:19 am

Hi kiwimike;

Iko has really treated you like shit. What kind of nonsense is that ? They have some sort of Dictator running the show ? I was thinking of taking the certification but when I read stuff like that It makes me want to run away from such organizations. You will start seeing a lot of people starting their own group if you see that kind of behavior. That kind of behavior also could take your business down. If you promise IKO certifications to your student for sure they will ask for refunds if you can't provide what you offered them. And IKO is aware of the wrong it can do to your business....

You don't want kitesurf to be ruled by a dozen org like boxing. WBO, WBA, WBC, IBF, WPBF, USBC, IBO, WBU, IBA etc.

Wow what a bunch of as&?%&?%&....

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Re: i quit IKO to start kite safe asia KSA

Postby kiwimike » Sun Dec 26, 2010 3:22 pm

yes i am stunned by what happened. but now i am trying to get over it and move on. we really need a global standard with locally run organizations. these have to be transparent and people need to see where their club fees are going. the books need to be made public. i hope to see other organisations following my lead and would like to speak to anyone interest in starting up an association in their own areas.


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