Kite Bytes

A wicked coastal squall hurls French kiteboarding champion Vincent Joly down through the shore break of Cox Bay, straight toward the rugged headland at the south end of the beach. Attached by a hundred feet of cable to the straining, billowing kite that whips around above him, Joly suddenly disappears into the foaming surf, his blonde dreadlocks vanishing beneath the waves. Just when you think he’s lost control and faces a grisly death as he’s carried onto the rocks of Cox Point, Joly springs from the breakers like he’d been shot out of a cannon. In defiance of gravity, he deftly rides his high performance kite up into the overcast. When he’s a good 20 feet above the roiling breakers, Joly cranks a couple of backflips, and when he hits the water again he’s already coming back the other way. Lost control? Dashed on the rocks? Not likely.

Read more Tofino Kiteboarding

Currently, kiteboarding is not allowed in Vancouver but I think that it should be.

I mentioned to Philippe at AirTime Board Sports that I was thiking about endorsing a Parks Board candidate in the upcoming Vancouver Municipal Election on November 19th, 2005 and he mentioned that he, and a group of other Vancouver kiteboarders, had been in discussions with the city recently, and he sent me the minutes from their last meeting. Here they are:

Vancouver Kiteboarding Access Issues Meeting Notes

Date: Thursday, August 4, 2005

Attendees: Paul Baratta, Philippe Cabanne, Phil Calvin, Andrew Chad, Ken Dunion, Darryl Enns, Richard Ewing, Chris Glazier, James Schouw, Charles Seaborn, Rob Wood

1) History
Formal and informal conversations have occurred between the City and kiteboarders in recent history. Most notably, Philippe Cabanne, Chris Glazier and others formed the Vancouver Kiteboard Association (VKA) and registered it as a legal non-profit association / society. The City stressed liability insurance was required before any consideration could be given to allowing kiteboarding within City parks. The group did not meet the City’s requirements and eventually the VKA dissolved.

2) Current Status

A) Where is kiting allowed / where is it not?

• Kiting is not permitted at any City of Vancouver parks.
• Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation controls lands east of the anchor at the far west end of Jericho Beach / Spanish Banks.
• Though kiting is not specifically mentioned the bylaws have enough authority to ban kiteboarding.
• Lifeguards enforce the ban.

• Pacific Spirit park, which is west of the anchor at Jericho / Spanish Banks. Rule only applicable to high water mark.
• Centennial Beach in Tsawwassen.
• Iona Beach, due to close proximity of YVR.
• Kiting is not permitted on UBC lands, e.g. Wreck Beach.

b) Jurisdictions and Controls

• Cliff Lemire is the Supervisor of Aquatic Services for the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.
• Charles Schulz is the head lifeguard for Vancouver Parks.
• The City has indicated in an e-mail that kiteboarding is a concern during the summer months when lifeguards are on duty form the Victoria Day long weekend in May to the Labour Day long weekend in September.
• Richard Wallace is the representative for GVRD regional parks.

3) Associations

A) The Squamish Windsports Society / Skypilot

• There is no official association between the Squamish Windsports Society (SWS) and Skypilot. Members of both associations know each other.
• Chris Glazier is on the board of the SWS.

B) Kiters Anonymous

• Paul Baratta has started Kiters Anonymous as a forum for all kite powered sports activity (land and water).

C) Vancouver Kiteboard Association

• Chris Glazier moved to reform the Vancouver Kiteboard Association (VKA) with Rob Wood as lead organiser. Motion accepted.

i) Goals

• VKA mission is to advocate safe and considerate kiteboarding.
• Immediate goal is to reintroduce the association to the City and establish a positive, meaningful dialogue with the City. First step is to establish a repore.

ii. Action

• Rob Wood and Phil Calvin to draft a document to present to Cliff Lemire this winter.
• Document will:
  1. Introduce VKA mission and goals.
  2. History of kiteboarding in Vancouver and other nearby locations.
  3. Illustrate examples of successful kiteboarding areas, especially shared use areas.
  4. Code of conduct for kiteboarding.
  5. Discuss self-policing.
• Draft document will be reviewed by all members of VKA before presentation to City.

iii. Level of organisation

• Low key organisation at this time to meet immediate objectives with City. Primarily to be used as a discussion forum and support group for kiteboarders of Vancouver. Organisation is open to change and growth as sport evolves.
• Meetings as required at this time. No website, publications or fees at this time, or plans for such.

iv. Affiliations

• None at this time.

John and I have booked a Brazil kiteboarding trip! We are going to Ibiraquera Point in Garopaba, Brazil from January 21st-31st, 2006. We are flying from Vancouver to Sao Paulo then taking a plane to Florianoplis, then taking a bus 70km to Garopaba. A special thanks goes out to Lindsay and Sheralyn at G.A.P Adventures (in Vancouver) for re-aligning the flights and dates to make the trip fit our schedules (and budget). As mentioned in a previous post, we are going to Key West Florida on a kiteboarding trip from November 16th-23rd, for John’s 30th birthday. I turn 30 on January 23rd, so the Brazil trip is for my 30th. While in Key West Florida, we are taking 4 days of lessons which hopefully will prepare us for the conditions in Ibiraquera.

If you are thinking about being in either spot during those times, drop me a line. Also, if you have been to Garopaba, Brazil kiteboarding and could provide any tips or suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.

Here are a couple of links to more information about kiteboarding at Ibiraquera Point:
http://www.ikiteboarding.com/locations/location_detail.aspx?LocationID=43
http://www.kitebeaches.com/kitebeaches/viewspot.php?id=1464

Well the summer is coming to a close and to tell you the truth I’m a little happy about it. I have to say that the Summer of 2005 was probably my second favourite summer of all time (Summer 2000 was pretty fun). I managed to visit 4 or 5 new places around British Columbia and also got to travel to eastern Canada a little bit and visit relatives in Toronto.

I was injury free for most of the summer apart from a broken pinky toe suffered while skimboarding. This picture fas taken on Labour Day when 10 of us went to Gambier Island and stayed at Curt’s cabin. There was no kiteboarding but we managed to get a little wakeboarding, waterskiing in. Andrew also brought his surfboard and surfed behind the boat with no bindings. It looked a little tricky but a lot of fun. I will be trying it soon!

Pics: Thats me (ChrisB) in the blue and that’s Andrew rocking the surf board.

I received an email from my sister Karli recently that I thought was worth posting.

“Great pictures - both Squamish and the beach - love the Kits/Spanish banks - looked like a very fun day/night. You have lots of pictures of girls in bikinis

So, we went up to Nitinat Thursday night, came back Sunday. It was blowing 20-25 knots all weekend. Beautiful and sunny, too. Francis had a really great time and got up on the board going both directions, if only briefly to the right! He is so excited and loves the North board. I went out Saturday and had a tough time controlling the 10 initially - plus it was with a new bar, and Francis’ board which I’ve never ridden. Ended up just body dragging, really. Then came the part where you say - now what the hell do I do to get the kite down when I’m downwind and haven’t crashed yet but want to get into shore - tried to take out windsurfers twice (due to the lack of wind in the bay - kite falls out of the sky, falls straight downwind, then picks up the wind and pop - out of the water and then down goes the kite!) and then thought I’d just land it out in the water and self rescue the very short distance to shore. Not so short after all. Learned a very important lesson - never self rescue unless you have to. Francis, however, learned this lesson even more as both he and the first boat that went to rescue him down by the hatchery got rescued by Fred the crabman!

Anyhow, Francis went to see Dwayne from Strong Kiteboarding to,look at a new 2005 12 meter Bronco for me, and Dwayne said that I would never use it because it’s too big for me

Sunday, Chris from Strong Kiteboarding, (all 150lbs at best) was out on a 6m or a 7m!!!! And the 8m would have been great for me, so, that is next on the to buy list - and before we buy a trailer for sure!”

John and I have been wanting to go to the Squamish Spit to check it out for a little while now and finally got the chance when we returned from our August Long Weekend trip to Whistler. We had a couple of friend’s with us who hadn’t seen kiteboarding up close so it was a fun way to introduce them to the sport as well as for us to scope out the launch. The The Squamish Windsports Society has done an amazing job putting together a great, safe launch site complete with a rescue sea-doo. Check out the pictures here: http://www.kitebytes.com/squamish/

No Need to Click Here - I’m just claiming my feed at Feedster feedster:bbe475b92bc0ccf9ec8ca62f36720d70

I have not been kiteboarding for a few weeks but I got to hang out at the beach yesterday for some bocce, volleyball and a little sunset skimming action. I did, however, represent by bringing a North Flag so that people could find us. Check out the pictures: http://www.kitebytes.com/beach/

John and I are going to Key West Florida on a kiteboarding trip in November from the 16th to the 23rd. John turns 30 on the 20th so we thought it would be a good way to ring in the 30’s. Check out the weather graph from the other day when Key West was still feeling the effects of Hurricane Dennis.

Kiteboarding, it appears, was invented by none other than the indispensable Benjamin Franklin. Legend has it that one languid summer afternoon in the early 1700s a young Ben Franklin, “being desirous of amusing myself with my kite, and enjoying at the same time the pleasure of swimming,” found himself and a plank he used for a float propelled across a “mile-broad” pond “without the least fatigue and the greatest pleasure imaginable.” It was an activity he recommended, although the record fails to mention how many actually took him up on it.