The Vancouver Parks Board has announced an On The Water Strategy pilot program that will be in place during lifeguard season, May 22 - Sept 6. Non motorized craft (including windsurfers and kiteboarders) will have launching and landing access at 4 new locations.. and kiters will continue to have access at Spanish Banks Extension beach (dog beach).
Each access point will be marked by signage and two flags spaced 30 to 50 meters apart. Users must launch and land only between the flags. [I know this will be strange at low tide when the water is far away..]
1. Spanish Banks just west of the Spanish Banks West concession stand 2. Locarno Beach between the Trimble Street parking lot and the pier 3. Kits beach at the north end near the rocks 4. Sunset Beach
Maps will be published soon and I will post them here. Thanks to Joerg Germann for his continuing communications with the Parks Board on this.
That’s amazing news Chris! It’s certainly been a long time coming. I know there’ll be lots of veterans out there helping to remind newer Kiter’s about the new policies in place. Mind you, it would have been nice to have this 16 years ago when I lived close to Spanish banks - better late then never, we finally have some progress.
We can actually go kitefoiling in the summer now without walking 1 km with all our gear? Madness!
This is great news, I feel like it might not go over so well with beachgoers though, but that depends how it's implemented. 1. they keep the area clear of people and their tents and towels and people get angry that they can't lounge there 2. they don't keep it clear and launching isn't feasible because it's crowded with loungers
Big thanks to all that made this happen, please don't f*ck it up.
The whole area from Spanish Banks West concession to the Pier is a swimming zone and you still will not be allowed to kite there, this means you launch there then you either head West upwind past the swimming markers or out in to English Bay North of the swimming markers.
Great to finally have multiple options in the summer. Sunset Beach could be a challenging launch; boat traffic in the entrance to false creek and I would not want to drift eastward from there but the wind gets in there and one tack over to the museum side and then you can get outta there.
Here are the maps. Note that the Locarno site will actually be moved west at least 100m farther from the pier. We still have access at Spanish Banks Extension (dog beach). The Sunset Beach launch looks sketchy to me.
If you are not confident that you can return to one of these launch/land areas then do not launch.
This is a pilot project and we must all be on good behavior and cooperate with the lifeguards who will set out flags marking our launch/land areas. Let's try to follow the spirit of the rules and make this work.
CG
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First, let me say I'm super happy to have these launches in any form.
The West concession launch has been put in a spot that families with small kids tend to hang out in because it's in the wind shadow of that out cropping of trees.
The Kits Beach launch requires going directly upwind in a very narrow space which will be almost impossible. You will be able to head East from there to the rocky area towards the dog beach though.
I'm glad they are including kites in these multi-sport water launches but lets not assume that gives us any rights to use them even if the conditions don't permit.
Personally I will be using the Locarno launch to foil and the West concession launch to pump up my kite and then walk it West over the dog line and launch or drift launch there.
I spoke to lifeguards at sunset beach and they don't like where the access was put either - they won't see anybody from where they are stationed and also the access is way too close to the pretty busy boats channel. It is of course a bad place to launch a kite as well. Lifeguards told me to call 310 and explain this because apparently they listen and make changes especially if there's enough people. So I did. I suggested making some room at English bay beach instead. I hope some of you do as well. May be it will change. It does not go into effect till mid july - there's still time. I also asked one lifeguard at English bay beach and he said (unofficially of course) that if I stay away from the middle (marked by their flags) he will turn a blind eye - super nice of him and I hope nobody gets in trouble for that. Love that it's changing towards more access, we should push a bit to make it actually usable.
Today marks the 1st day of this pilot program. I talked to the lifeguard at Kits Beach and she was pretty sure it was only at the other beaches and not at Kits, but the sign was up where it was supposed to be at Kits, no flags though and there will be people in the way most of the time.
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PS. I think it's time to bump up the max attachment size on this forum.
I spoke to two lifeguards at the Spanish Banks West concession stand today while passing by. There were no kites and few beachgoers (too cold) so it was a chance to chat. They said that kiters are not allowed to launch between the flags that are there- only "non-motorized craft" but not kites. I told them that my understanding was that it was permitted for kites, but they said they had reviewed a memo from a supervisor. I stayed respectfull and said I would look into it. Hopefully it planted a seed for them to go back and "read the memo", unless something changed.
The launch at the West Concession looks pretty nasty. You have sand but it's in a full wind shadow so you'd have to use the rocky area (and not at high tide) to launch from.
Still looks great for a pump and carry upwind to beyond the dog markers and launch from up there though. You'll want to stay up there anyway as you'd have to be like 500m out from the beach if you aren't west of the dog markers to stay out of the swimming zone.