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Chaz wrote: JM was a true sports entertainer and great role model. I loved watching him cuss and swear and hit the Gatorade cups with his racket. A natural Irishman. It made me want to play tennis but he did stand up for unfair calls made against him, He knew the officials in tennis had a dislike and were not impartial to the man kinda like the kiting industry has for SB but as usual all we are good at is speculating without understanding the facts. When people are jeolous of talent they often look for a flaw and define that person based on his flaw(s).

Nice try trying to make Shannon the Victim. As I have said from the beginning I would have told anyone not to kite there and I wasnt going to make a special exception either. So this is not a case of impartiality by definition.
Now, if I had said anyone can kite there except Shannon then you would be correct.

Good one though.

The real problem is that you do not sell their kites. So what SB tried is simply to eliminate competion.

SBBeachbum wrote:The real problem is that you do not sell their kites. So what SB tried is simply to eliminate competion.

That I doubt, I dont belive there is a conspiricy.

why cant we just get along here without personally attacking others?

here is how i see it:

1. you have one person,Phil, who has worked so hard and put in his $$$ to keep open a kiteboarding spot. the person also has vested interest because he owns a kiting company. ofcourse he will be p#ssed if he tells someone that there is a ban on kb and person decided to do it anyways. how would he feel for all the effort he has put to keep the place open?

We should all be thanking him for being the "real" ambassador of the sport. If I am ever in the area, I will make sure to give him some business for all the hard work he is doing for ALL of us.

I would think SB would listen to Phil more than anyone, as I understand Phil was the host of SB.

2. this notion that he is an Aussie and a surfer that rules do not apply to them is a poor excuse at best. This is also slap on the face of 90% of surfers that do abide by the rules.

you cant go up to a judge, and plead "I didnt know". It doesnt work that way.

3. I went on Best forums to look at the SB's response. In his second response, he bashes Phil for his character. I was also surprised by the length of his apology. He mentioned about ambiguity and mis-communication, why doent he explain it further in details, his side of the story? I think that itself tells us something.

Attacking the guy who has work hard shows the real character or it is part of a PR at Best. We will never know.

Look at the details of conversation Phil provides to prove his side. personally, I think that Best didnt wanted to miss a good photo-op and decided to break a local rule.

How many of us here, would go kite, after a local host tells you that it is not allowed? There is absolutely NO excuse for this. Apologizing after the fact is totally absurd.

If he had just admitted and thanked the locals for their work. maybe donated some $$ to local environmental charity, we would be talking about how great SB is, but Best has decided to approach it by another route.

I would be saying the exact same thing if it was another famous rider from number of other well know kiting companies. Maybe other pros will learn something from this incident.


4. This might have a huge impact in banning KB not only at this spot or to others. SB reputation makes him a huge target by other groups who are looking to ban kiting completely near their shores.

They could make an argument that if SB breaks a local rule after being told otherwise, that others will also do the same. Other spots looking to ban kiting could use this example, to ban or limit kiting.


I am always worried that these type of incidents, tarnishes the reputation of all riders and put us in a defensive mode.


p.s. I love my LF kites. "once you go LF, you stay LF maniac."

If only we could get mans ways out of mensway we could get to the next level,we´ll get there.

KidKiteRock wrote:

Chaz wrote: JM was a true sports entertainer and great role model. I loved watching him cuss and swear and hit the Gatorade cups with his racket. A natural Irishman. It made me want to play tennis but he did stand up for unfair calls made against him, He knew the officials in tennis had a dislike and were not impartial to the man kinda like the kiting industry has for SB but as usual all we are good at is speculating without understanding the facts. When people are jeolous of talent they often look for a flaw and define that person based on his flaw(s).

Nice try trying to make Shannon the Victim. As I have said from the beginning I would have told anyone not to kite there and I wasnt going to make a special exception either. So this is not a case of impartiality by definition.
Now, if I had said anyone can kite there except Shannon then you would be correct.

Good one though.

Phil,

I just got back from two weeks in St Lucia and heard about this. I really appreciate what you do for WD access and don't want to rehash anything.

My only question is has there been any fallout with the Plover Police due to Shannon kiting in the pond?

Thanks,

Ed

ps why did he kite in the pond anyway when the beach is a mile long?

kiterfighter wrote:Oh by the way SHANNON never apologized for this incident. He apologized for the "controversy" and stated that the "facts are not completely correct".(check it out yourself on the Best forum) That is not an apology. To apologize one must admit one's mistake. He did not do so. Therefore one can also assume he may do this again and has not learned from his mistake.


Shannon be a man and admit you messed up. Tell us it won't happen again and you regret having made the decision to kite in an off limits area.

Otherwise you are not an ambassador to the sport.

Kiterfighter, do yourself a favor and read the whole thread and everyone's replies and see this for what it really is.

the more you write about it the greater the chance there is of someone seeing it and complaining about it even if they weren't there at the time...

Who launched Shannon's kite?

I know the answer to the question theasley just asked but i will wait for others to post about it. Also Shannon was not the only kiter to have kited there within a few days time span of that. Windsurfers were also cruising the lake as well. I talked to shannon when he stopped by on the bus and that is exactly what he said. I believe him 100%.

The guy that launched him could have easily stopped him from lauching or at least not launched the kite himself. There is no 1 person in the wrong here if in fact anything wrong did happen. Shannon's the easiest person to target as he has the biggest name, but all were at fault from what i know.

Just let it go. chalk it up to miscommunication if anything at all.