Crissy Field SNAFU Memorial Day weekend.

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Tony Soprano
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Crissy Field SNAFU Memorial Day weekend.

Post by Tony Soprano » Wed May 28, 2014 7:10 am

Saturday. Memorial day weekend.

Approximately eight people were rescued on Saturday...this happened because of there skill level and poor decision making. The most challenging conditions are when it is a flood current and the wind has a strong south component to it, making the wind off shore just off the beach.
Most rescued were not local riders, acting to much like a Labrador retriever dog(just to dam happy and not enough common sense)

MONDAY Memorial Day

I have received complaints from other beach users that some kite boarders are not being courteous and are unsafe. Reports of landing kites on top of people. Launching and landing into crowds of sun bathers etc. I gave out the safety handout to unfamiliar faces and had everyone down at the waters edge and instructed all to land there kite in the water if there was no one to help them land there kite. Absolutely the rule of the day was not to ever fly your kite over anyone's head. I went out early and hung out a while. But then the wind really picked up and apparently things fell apart on the beach. I cannot and will not be everyone's kite bitch on the beach. If I am not actually on the beach barefoot and my shoes on then I am done. On crowded days we need volunteer full time kite docents taking a shift of a couple hours at a time to keep things cool from kite boarders too in a hurry to launch/land.

Message from the San Francisco board Sailing Association Facebook page:

We hope everyone had a great holiday weekend - it sure was a windy one! Sadly, at Crissy Field we witnessed a number of kite launching and landing activities over the weekend that placed recreational beach goers in danger---folks, NO ONE should launch or land their kites in a crowded beach area. It is your responsibility to be sure you have clearance of at least 25meters downwind of your launch/landing area. All it will take is one bad incident and we risk losing access altogether. So we strongly implore all boardsporters to self-monitor as a community - we ALL have a stake in this.

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tgautier
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Re: Crissy Field SNAFU Memorial Day weekend.

Post by tgautier » Wed May 28, 2014 9:00 pm

Thanks Jeff for all that you do. I know those of us that are regulars or semi-regulars take quite a bit of caution and read this forum too.

But those aren't the people we have to worry about.

Have we considered putting up big signs with something ominous on them - like:

DANGER

DO NOT LAUNCH AND LAND POWER KITES FROM THIS BEACH UNLESS YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE SAFETY REGULATIONS.

The signs at the upper launch have done wonders to manage in a reasonable way the parking situation.

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le noun
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Re: Crissy Field SNAFU Memorial Day weekend.

Post by le noun » Thu May 29, 2014 9:04 am

tgautier wrote:Thanks Jeff for all that you do. I know those of us that are regulars or semi-regulars take quite a bit of caution and read this forum too.

But those aren't the people we have to worry about.
+1
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fearlu
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Re: Crissy Field SNAFU Memorial Day weekend.

Post by fearlu » Thu May 29, 2014 12:50 pm

Yep-- Jeff for Mayor!
Go bigga'

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