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Riding and Flying, FREE and at Will

Lots of valuable articles from Rick Iossi, FKA Inc.
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RickI
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Riding and Flying, FREE and at Will

Postby RickI » Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:25 pm

The following is a reprint of an article from the latest issue of the magazine "Kiting" published by the AKA:

“Riding and Flying, FREE and At Will

Kiteboarding can be a very liberating, extreme sport. You throw yourself into it, after adequate preparation and safety considerations, to drive hard, fly high and long. The stoke of this sport is beyond compare and even addictive for many of us. In society though, with most great freedoms often comes responsibility to preserve that freedom. If you want the incredible stoke flung out in great gouts by this sport you have to take some care to protect your ability to ride. Kiteboarding sad to say, is NOT a God given constitutional right but can be easily lost.

Just like not landing your airplane on the highway, or respecting climbing rules in National Parks or waverunner operating restrictions in swimmer zones, if you wanna play you need to follow some reasonable practices and guidelines. If you don’t, you may well be shut down at some point.

Some kiteboarding restrictions have appeared in various areas. A few of these restrictions on access and riding are logical such as in the case of excessive beach crowding and should have been undertaken by riders, VOLUNTARILY before Big Brother stepped in. No one likes being overwhelmed by laws, if we use our head and fly at our sport responsibly, government should stay out of our way in most cases. Things like staying out of guarded swim areas while kiteboarding for instance when more thinly populated unguarded areas are present not so far away.

D I S T A N C E in kiteboarding can be a very good thing. It protects you the rider, bystanders and your ability to ride in many cases. If you don’t use distance you may be shredding more than just water, you may be shredding your ability to ride there in the long term. Being hooked on showing off to the crowd near the shoreline may well show you to the door and out of kiteboarding at your launch. Working things out with windsurfers in long term riding areas is a very good thing. Figuring out how to coexist is a is a more productive goal than promoting problems and rivalry through poor communication and indifference.

Consciously avoiding complaints and official concern are essential steps in protecting kiteboarding access in lots of areas. Many current restrictions started with complaints and repeated behaviors that gave substance to the complaints. Unfortunately, people often require to be “burnedâ€

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