Postby runsujal » Sat Jul 15, 2006 8:05 pm
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."