Some of you may be aware that there is news today concerning access to White Rock beach. Transport Canada has ordered closure of access to the beach ostensibly because of safety concerns following 2 incidents of trains hitting pedestrians. In practical terms what has happened is that the boat launch at West Beach has been closed off with a barrier. This is of no real concern to kiters but has a major impact on kayakers and paddle boarders. Of greater impact to us and to windsurfers is a plan to erect a fence at East Beach at the site of the grass lawn and close to the Feral shop where most of us do rig up. The media release states that all this is to “protect the health and well being of residents and visitors” It seems to me that restricting access to the beach accomplishes the exact opposite. If you agree with me please contact the Mayor and Council at http://www.whiterockcity.ca.
This is lot different than the recent effort at Spanish Banks as this isn't specific to kiting; you should have no problem finding fellow constituents to jump onto your cause. I'd start by focusing the effort first. Have you tried calling Greg St. Louis, Director of Engineering to ask about the timeline of the upgrade and what could be done in the interim? Is it even an option for the city to decide how they address it or has BNSF made up their minds and the city just has to comply. Id start there, you'd know better what you were up against and who you'd be working to convince of what / what action to take etc.
Id be curious to know what he says, and Id even be willing to make that call for you. Let me know.
Thanks Coddy. Just to bring you up to date a high mesh fence was erected yesterday at the entrance to the boat launch at the west end of the beach. On it the City of White Rock has posted a notice that says Transport Canada has ordered the access permanently closed and that any complaints are to be addressed to Ottawa. That together with the closure of all the gaps in the fence along the promenade has resulted in there being no access at all to the beach west of the pier without “trespassing“ on the railroad by climbing over the fence. To what extent that will be enforced remains to be seen but for the moment it has killed a flourishing paddle board industry on West Beach together with kayaking, canoeing, fishing. On several occasions I have done downwinders launching at West Beach but the reality is that almost all kiteboarding is done at East Beach. The situation there is a little different in that the train tracks run between the road and the promenade and there are several access points from the parking lots to get over the tracks to the promenade and the beach. They have remained open. What most kite boarders and windsurfers do is to cross the tracks at the extreme east end of the promenade where there is a large lawn. Whether that area is City land or whether it belongs to the railroad or to the Semiahmoo Band is not clear to me but the media release says that a fence is to be erected between Findlay St which is adjacent to the end of the promenade and the Reserve by the end of June. I have heard indirectly that the Band has said no way. If it does go up it will have a major impact on windsurfing and paddle boarding. Getting kiting equipment across to the beach will marginally less convenient but otherwise not really impacted. However the loss of access to West Beach seems likely to produce a migration of other beach users to East Beach increasing the possibility of friction so I do have concerns. I know there have been some complaints about kite boarders already.
As regards action I have already contacted The Mayor and Council but the official line is that this is federally mandated so, as mentioned above, complaints are to be addressed to Transport Canada. I have emailed Russ Hiebert our federal MP. I have been talking to some of the kayaking and paddle board operators so hopefully we can get something coordinated. I have talked to Darren Marshall at Feral Kiteboarding and we will try and organise a meeting of White Rock kiters. If anyone on this forum is interested can they PM me and I will keep them abreast of developments.
In the meantime sorry for the long boring post but I think that water access is an important issue and as Spanish Banks has shown if handled well, can have benefits for us all.
We have a greater number of kiters and windsurfers using this space in recent years, so being proactive on this issue is a great plan. Being that it is a good spot for beginners to learn the increase in in all water use traffic could potentially have a negative affect all of us if something goes wrong! Meeting up would be would be a good start on making some plans, I'm in. Thanks Chalmers for bringing it to this forum, hopefully one small user group with others can have an impact. Patrick
Keep up the good work. Did I misunderstand or should you also call that local engineer to get good read on how long the railway crossing upgrade would take and how you can influence that. It may not be his budget, but he probably understands how it would get done.
I haven't tried today but up to now all calls on this subject are referred to the bureaucrat at Transport Canada that apparently ordered this. I tried calling him, received an assurance that he would call back but to date have not received that call. I have though just received an e-mail from him which sets out the reasons (public safety, I could go into it in some detail, it is almost laughable but I won't) why this has been done. I am glad to say there has been a massive public outcry in White Rock, rallies planned, petitions launched etc. We shall see.
However looking at this from a kiteboarding view I see this as a bit of a wake up call, with a stroke of a pen a lot can be lost. Therefore I have got together with Darren at Feral Kiteboarding and we have decided that it would be useful to get the White Rock kiting community together to talk about how we should approach this and any other threats to our continuing enjoyment of kiteboarding at this site. I have already spoken to a number of the group but if anyone on this forum is interested we plan to meet at the Sandpiper Pub, which is right across the road from the launch at 6pm next Thursday 19th June. We plan to keep this pretty informal but I think it is worth doing.
I'm happy to report that this morning I'm told that the fence at the boat launch is coming down. However the reason for this post is to remind those interested that the meeting to discuss the issue of beach access is tonight 6pm at the Sandpiper Pub.