TV program on kitesurf prohibition!

[Youtch]

Hi all,

We are looking for some wise advise from international kite community.

As you might be already aware of:
Kitesurfing is completely FORBIDDEN in all Catalunya from the 1st of June till the 31st of September.
(Catalunya is one of the biggest region of Spain, and Barcelona is the capital)

It has been the same case for several years now, and local association have not been able yet to tackle this issue through negociation with government administrations and to set up some well defined kite zones in the longest/widest beaches as in France for instance.

We have just been given this week the opportunity to get some coverage by national TV in Catalunya about this.

In the process of collecting ideas for the TV program, people came up with some really crazy idea.

They want to gather as many kiters as possible (could effectively gather more than 100 kiters) on the most crowded beach of Catalunya to get a huge mediatic impact and people attention during the TV coverage!

This beach Castelldefels is indeed a very long and wide beach, but because it is only 15min away from Barcelona during the week-end in summer it can get so packed that there will be at least one towel every 2 meters and thousands and thousands of people, familiy, swimmers, children...

Some have been trying to convince them that we might get huge mediatic impact indeed but it will be a huge NEGATIVE impact above all, as the only thing it will trigger is fear from people who don't know kitesurfing yet and people would tend to associate immidiatly kiting with something bothersome and risky.

with no success at all so far...

Personnaly, the only vision of the overcrowded beach with all those kites make me completely sick.

Thanks for your feedback/ contribution.

Any idea on how to make a TV program on this topic would be more than welcome.

Here are the threads from the local forum, (sorry this is in spanish):
http://www.spainkiters.com/phpBB2/viewt ... sc&start=0

IDEAS PARA POSIBLE DOCUMENTAL EN TV3:
http://www.spainkiters.com/phpBB2/viewt ... highlight=

Many thanks for your advice!!!

[dwb]

well, I have lived in Barcelona for over a year now, and lived in the US prior to that.

Yes, it is banned here, but although I love to kitesurf, the beaches are absolutely packed here in the summer. I have never seen anything like it. It's tough to walk to the water without walking over someones towel from June until September.

Secondly, and I think this is the big problem, it is very common for people to fly their kites on the beach, practice jumps etc... Also most kiters launch there kites towards to the road, and just a few weeks ago a gust pulled a guy into the local commuter train tracks. What a mess...

Basicaly what I am trying to say is that I would love kitesurfing to be allowed here in the summer, but as long as the beaches are packed like sardines and the kitesurfers continue to practice on the beach causing problems it will always be prohibited.

[Youtch]

Well there are some areas in Catalunya that are not packed at all.

There are at least a few points were we could kitesur without disturbing anyone: mainly because those places are ugly, or the water there is not so nice for swimming, or because it is less accessible.

The point of this thread is not about kite forbidden or not during summer in Spain.

The point of this thread is if you should do a TV program about it, how you would do it?
On a beach over crowded might not be the wisest idea.

[Toby]

some ideas which should be paid attention to:

- have someone talking who is well educated, speaks a good spanish and nows what he says. A good appearance is important.
- put up facts like: Spain is the only country with this general ban
- let them know it costs a lot of kite tourists for the region
- kiting is a beautiful sport and an attraction for many people. So a town gets an attraction by having a designated kite beach.
- the more kiters, the more business around it
- yes, get as many kiters together as possible. BUT be very careful nothing happens...and some guys wanna do the show offs...they will ruin it...get everyone to pump up their gear on teh beach, looks BIG, but only have a few, selected riders kiting.

I hope that can help a little.

Good luck and keep us informed!

Greets
Toby

[Youtch]

Thanks for your feedback toby!

It will be fluent educated spanish or catalan required as it is for national TV.

On the tourism side, this is mainly the reason why we are getting banned, they get so many tourists every summer, regardless of what they would do, that they don't need kiters at all.

Except maybe the most deserted spots....

[dwb]

maybe a good idea is to do it up in San Pere Pescador... this is one of the few places in Catalunya were it is legal in the summer. If you go in front of the Club Mistral center up there it is actually real organized: they have "kite zone" flags all over the beach, a rescue boat, and a kite zone marked off in the water. In the height of the season they have someone that works on the beach and insures that everyone abides by their kite safety rules.

You might think this is all going a bit too far as far as safety, but it would give a good impression on the news that's for sure...

[frantztaiwan123]

how about a company wich could take you 200 meters away from the shore take off your kite in the water with bow kite is not really hard now and then secure a group of kite boarder then bring then back to shore !!

[Youtch]

Sant pere is the only place where it is authorized, because the village lives only thansk to/because of windsurfing/ kitesurfing.

Last year a school had obtained a kite zone where people had to pay to kite! 100 people in some 100 meters.

This year, there should be a zone free.

To give more details about it:
Empuriabrava, the wealthy city nearby put a bid to give a kite zone in its area, but it was so expensive that no school, association could actuall afford to pay the entry price, as a results they close the subject saying that nobody was intered in kiting anymore and that kiting was just the fashion of last summer!!!! All this of course written in the local press!

A concentration of people is planned for thsi week-end in Sant pere anyway to clarify conditions in this summer.


To put the debate back to its original tracks:

Is there anyone in the forum experienced with broadcasters, TV shows, etc? Who managed to produce a documentary about kitesurfing and security?

We definitly need advice as we have never done such a thing before.

Many thanks!

[oqion]

I has been suggested that there are beaches close by that are not overcrowded.

So here is my suggestion.

Show the overcrowded beach, on a day that is really overcrowded. Take a low shot with narrow depth of field then push up while capturing the density of it all.

If you can get a shot of the density of beachgoers being problematic for non-kiters do so, and highlight it.

Do a wide sweep ending on a LONE (single) kiter with a blown up kite standing in the middle of all of those people. Show his friends in a line holding his kite lines over the crowd with them looking all around like, "where am I going to launch?"

Interlude, talk about how crowded the beach is, and about how –wise- the law is for that beach.

Then cut to a non crowded beach show the open sand, the waves breaking. Take inviting shots from a wide angle that shows a sense of space. Avoid tight shots or dramatic pushes.

Show a wind sock displaying how windy it is.

Do the same sweep as before, but this time instead of the crowded beach with a loan kiter, show your 100 kiters with their kites stacked orderly. Show them all staring out into the water, and milling about disappointed. Cut back to the wind sock.

Explain why even on this non-crowded windy beach they can not ride.

Do interviews in which all of the kiters praise the law for the crowded beach. Talk to tourists who will not be coming back, business owners who are being hurt by the law.

[doggmat]

yeah!

well done with this initiative! i've moved to barca few months ago and the fact that kiteboarding is forbiden in catalunia during the whole 4 summer months makes me at least sad.
is sant pere the only legal summer spot at the moment? what about delta del ebre?

as for the programme, it would be really good to get some official from french/italian/portuguese ministry of sport who could give their perspective on the idea of having legal kiting beaches. or maybe some kite activists who were involved in establishing it in these countries. they could give some real life examples and show how it works overe there.
it's a good idea to show catalunia as a weird exception from the normal world where legal kite beaches are standard.
but first present all the arguments against kiteboarding, as they are given by the government, and than distroy them with facts and examples from other countries.

hope this helps.

yo!