For those interested - I e-mailed the New York State Parks Department for clarification on the ban, and this was the response I received.


Mr. (my name),

Along with other groups interested in activities in their state parks, we have met twice with people who are interested in engaging in kite boarding. After discussing all the locations we he have available in state parks on bays, the Long Island Sound, and the Ocean, we agreed that there is not a place with proximate parking where there is not usually a heavily populated beach. Our judgment is that the length of beach needed to lay out the gear used by kite boarders and the potential impact on bystanders precluded us from opening beaches with parking nearby to kite boarding. While those we met with were adamant that they wanted to launch from remote, unpopulated beaches we don’t have beaches that fit that description and that have legal parking.

We could meet again with you and others interested in kite boarding. However, nothing has changed since out meetings of two years ago.

If you would like such a meeting, please call me.

Ron Foley
Regional Director
Long Island Region
NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

It seems that they AGREE that there ARE areas suitable for kiteboarding, but their excuse to not allow it is that they want to save kiters from a walk which they consider is too long because said locations are not "proximate" to parking.

It might be interesting to find out what distance they consider to be "proximate" as well as WHY they have taken it upon themselves to decide how far kiters should be ALLOWED to WALK if they want to kite.

It would seem that if the foregoing is the best reason that they can come up with for a ban, then kiters should have a relatively easy time negating it by simply agreeing to walk the required distance.

Furthermore, the issue of whether there is legal parking should not affect permission to kite. Kiters could arrange to arrive by boat or get dropped off and picked up and if they park illegally, there are enforceable laws regarding illegal parking.

Richard M.
Malibu Kitesurfing - since 2002
(310) - 430 - KITE (5483)
http://www.MalibuKitesurfing.NET
kfRichard@MalibuKitesurfing.NET

You 're right Richard,NY kiters need to work with NY park authority to set up their own kite beach.They really need to get involved with details,good luck n let us know how it goes.

I suspect that the concern is not that they want to save kiters a walk - they believe that kiters will park illegally to be closer to the launch, restricting the flow of traffic and generally being a pain in the ass to the rest of the population. They're probably right. Sure, there's an argument that they should "just do their job" and enforce the relevant parking regulations, but this takes resources away from other areas - bear in mind that they'd also need resource to police those asshats who will continue to launch outside designated areas, pull tricks in the swim zone and buzz passers-by with low flying kites. The easiest option is an outright ban - you can call this efficiency, or you can call it laziness.

Suggesting that the park authorities are simply being lazy probably won't do you any favors - it's probably up there with using the "don't you have any real criminals to catch?" line next time you're pulled over by a traffic cop.

Maybe it's a safety concern with using remote beaches with no proximate parking? With no proximate parking how do they get emergency vehicles into those remote beaches if need be?
It's still park property and they still need to provide that type of park service would they not?

It's an interesting problem to solve. You have remote beaches that could be used but no proximate parking... but once you put in proximate parking will the beaches remain "remote"?

Need to solve the "proximate" parking issue. Need to drill them on what is proximate parking and possibly come up with a variation on that... a new extreme adventure park set of rules and guide lines to support adrenalin junkies?

Gotta get creative.

I was planning on going to an upstate NY state park on Lake Champlain this Friday, is it banned or not? People have been going there for years and I haven't heard anything about the ban.
Thanks!
Mario