Kite Surfing.

ite surfing is growing quite quickly in Western Australia. A lot of sailboarders are seeing the advantage of these sailing devices and are giving some thought to taking up this new challenge.

That being said, the kite surfers must also realise the dangers of the devices and regulate their use to places where they will not interfere with the sailboards and the general public. There is some friction between the windsurfing/kitesurfing camps already, which is a shame for such excellent and complementary sports.

Western Australia has thousands of kilometers of beach along its' coast. There are some superb areas that have great rigging, great sailing and are free from the more established water users such as sailboarders and surfers. Some of these areas are detailed in the following pages.

A lot of the coast is kitesurfable, and it easy for kitesurfers to move their operations to less crowded areas where they will not endanger or interfere with other beach users. I am labouring this point because I am a kitesurfer (and sailboarder) and do not want to see kitesurfing regulated or to produce bad blood with other water users, especially when there is so much beach for us all to play in.

Kitesurfing has a lot to offer sailboarding. Think of your favourite sailboard shops who were struggling with diminishing turnovers. Now they have a new line of product to sell. This will keep them in business and help with their overheads, which should make for more choice and smaller prices for all our gear, both sailboarding and kitesurfing.

The Swan River provides some excellent locations for kitesurfing, especially for learning. More and more people are doing it up and down the coast also. Around Perth, Pinnaroo Point provides a long (usually) uncrowded beach, with flatish water. It is great for rigging up and kite launching, great for kite sailing, and generally uncrowded, not being a a preferred sailboarding beach.