Beach-goers at Sherman Island

[friggin old guy]

It's not the lessons that are the problem, it's people lacking basic common sense about keeping flow going.

Judging from my last drive down to LA on I-5, there's a marked decrease in the general population's ability to be mindful of others. The stack of people lingering in the left hand lane with their book on tape and cruise control was unbelievable. 75% probably shouldn't even be driving if they're that clueless about how they're impacting other people on the road.

Same thing with Sherman. Holy crap I've seen it bad before but never like this weekend. Honestly I think you have to be a little bit of a moron not to realize that you're creating a problem by parking your kite in the middle of the launch zone, dawdling with your kite in the air while there's a line of folks waiting to launch/land, and doing stupid stuff in front of the peanut gallery impacting flow.

Sherman's a great place for lessons, but hopefully they're also making strong points about kiting etiquette that relate to being mindful of others and avoiding safety issues associated with crowded conditions.

[jrg]

judging from my last drive down to LA on I-5, there's a marked decrease in the general population's ability to be mindful of others. The stack of people lingering in the left hand lane

I normally don't sit in the left lane except to pass, but the right lane on stretches of I5 is in terrible shape - but I do move over for faster traffic.
Since we are bitching about drivers, whats the deal with the folks doing 45 on HWY 1 who speed up to 65 when there is a passing lane?

[ozchrisb]

What's with people blasting past me on the levee when I'm doing 35mph past the "Slow down please" signs? You really need to get to the lot 30 seconds before me? What's the speed limit along there anyway?

[etxxz]

[friggin old guy]

Well shit it's August so its already past time for the annual bitch fest about unruly evil non-stackers of kites.

Just don't get so jaded that you stop trying to encourage good behavior......keeping it positive is important I think. Which seems funny with all the ragging I've been doing lately. I'll stfu now......

[ozchrisb]

Get off my lawn!

[recoprianto]

I miss Sherman, but I don't miss these endless discussions about the same things every year at Sherman. Complaining on forums is a waste of time and energy. If anyone is so worried about it, next time you are there, spend a few hours at the launch telling parkers to move it, or stacking kites at the launch, etc...

It reminds me of people that think that liking a post about an abused animal on Facesuck is there little contribution to solving the problem. Nope, didn't help a single abused animal with that like.

[friggin old guy]

Complaining on forums is a waste of time and energy. If anyone is so worried about it, next time you are there, spend a few hours at the launch telling parkers to move it, or stacking kites at the launch, etc...

Disagree about complaining being a waste of time. Accidents are going to happen at Sherman or pretty much anyplace else, just like you get accidents at any ski resort. If we as a community don't act like we're being proactive to prevent them by enforcing common sense rules like keeping the launch area as unobstructed as possible, we're going to get some kind of really stupid and unnecessary rules imposed on us.

Agree that moving kites and talking to folks about being uncool is the thing to do. I move kites all the time, which I know pisses people off when their bridle gets tangled or whatever. Point is, I see less and less proactive engagement there on weekends.

So screw it I get the feeling like there's a certain segment that feels like they're above all this and they just ignore it, but in the long run I sense trouble.......and feel like ragging on the forum is akin to ragging in the launch area. Don't want to be negative but I'll continue to call it like I see it if I feel like it's going to mess things up for all of us.

I know I'm just inviting more abuse for being a crotchety old bastard. But I'll invoke the spirit of LMG in saying this is stuff we should care about on a community basis.

And yeah we should kill this thread.......