Insurance..

[lonerider]

I've always had insurance if its available for all the stuff I've done be it rc cars boats planes helicopters ,proper clubs will not let you join or use there tracks / airspace without it,it's foolish not to have insurance

[skimmer]

I'v only been kiting since the end of the summer, i didn't even no you could get insurance. I don't kite where there's allot of people, just the odd dog walker who pisses on your harness, could i claim for dry cleaning?

[iansillett]

mick that's appalling maths! 1/3rd have no insurance

[mick]

mick that's appalling maths! 1/3rd have no insurance

 

What ya talking about donkey. I never said no figures init.

[andrewjohn]

mick that's appalling maths! 1/3rd have no insurance

 

And that's appalling eye sight. It was Slide with appalling maths.

[casey]

Just playing devils advocate here - do you think if a member of the public had a kite hit them it would even cross their mind to sue? Yes they'd shout & tell everyone they knew, but I only think they'd sue if they knew you had insurance & as the newby said, it hasn't even crossed his mind.

[casey]

My issue with insurance isn't having insurance itself, I absolutely agree with the principle. It's the feeling i have that the BKSA are slowing controlling the beaches. So my local spot you needed a permit & any insurance was fine to get it each year, but now it specifically wants BKSA insurance. Same with a course I recently did, having alternative insurance caused an issue. It makes me not want to have any if my freedom to shop around is slowly being taken away.

[77W]

Just playing devils advocate here - do you think if a member of the public had a kite hit them it would even cross their mind to sue? Yes they'd shout & tell everyone they knew, but I only think they'd sue if they knew you had insurance & as the newby said, it hasn't even crossed his mind.

 

You know what , a few years ago I would have said no but with all the adverts about for personal injury I think there are plenty of oppertunits out there now ,

 

Good point about only being sued if you have insurance though, it does make you wonder eh ? , perhaps the kiter would be more inclined to say the have no insurance even though they did perhaps say if the incident was minor & they thought the person is/ may milk the situation

[Blast]

Just playing devils advocate here - do you think if a member of the public had a kite hit them it would even cross their mind to sue? Yes they'd shout & tell everyone they knew, but I only think they'd sue if they knew you had insurance & as the newby said, it hasn't even crossed his mind.

 

Rubbish, it's often the first thing they'd think!!!

We saw a member of the public grab a loose kite which then knocked him off his feet, dust himself down. The owner of the kite checked he was fine and all was good.

A few days later I get a call from the council trying to trace the kite surfer as the guy wanted to put a claim in for loss of earnings etc etc

We didn't know the kite surfer so couldn't help.

He then tried to claim from the council.

 

I am dumbfounded people are willing to take the risk and wreck the rest of their lives for the sake of the cost of a new depower rope or wetsuit boots!!!

[JonM]

a lot of privately owned / managed beaches tolerate kitesurfing based on the assumption that that most of us have 3rd party insurance

[slide]

agreed , and the buggy/landboard scene is a worry/concern to the councils , so its only polite and decent to have it where we are still allowed to go .....sometimes we need to take action first , before they put bans everywhere

[Stvredmond]

who dont runners, dog walkers other users of park/beach not need insurance then. just in case a dog walker throws a stick and it hits me knocking me unconcious or one of those get fit classes throws a med ball and it hits my car.

[Blast]

who dont runners, dog walkers other users of park/beach not need insurance then. just in case a dog walker throws a stick and it hits me knocking me unconcious or one of those get fit classes throws a med ball and it hits my car.

 

 

I take it your just joking right?

It's kind of hard to compare the risks of kitesurfing to the general public with something like throwing a stick for the dog or a medicine ball in a keep fit class??

 

What happened to me and through no fault of my own two weeks ago could have seriously injured (or worse) an innocent beach goer!

I'm hardly likely to kill someone throwing a stick for my dog!

[Stvredmond]

depends how big the stick is. maybe a bad example then. just hate the politics involved in kiting and think the councils etc find it very easy to blame a kiter. how about the dog who pissed on my kite, hope the dog owner is insured to pay for the damage it could of caused.

 

find the politics crazy with insurance for kiters.

 

do surfers or fishermen pay insurance? im sure a hook through my toe, that they have left on the beach, is going to be pretty serious

[creed]

What has politics got to do with it?? it's taking responsibility for your actions. I would be pretty fucked off if an uninsured driver caused injury or harm to my family. I think I am a safe driver but i wouldn't dream of driving without insurance. Same deal with kiting. Shit happens and I have a moral duty to protect against it. All for a whopping 30 quid!

[iansillett]

my appologies mick! it was slide... oooppsss

[The Geoff]

My issue with insurance isn't having insurance itself, I absolutely agree with the principle. It's the feeling i have that the BKSA are slowing controlling the beaches. So my local spot you needed a permit & any insurance was fine to get it each year, but now it specifically wants BKSA insurance. Same with a course I recently did, having alternative insurance caused an issue. It makes me not want to have any if my freedom to shop around is slowly being taken away.

 

It's not the BKSA (or SPKA or any other organisation) that's threatening to close down beaches, it's the councils. Somebody gets hurt, can't track down the kiter in question (see above), so they threaten to sue the council. Simple solution for the council? Ban kiting.

 

It's then usually down to the BKSA etc (or more usually an affiliated club) to do a lot of diplomatic work and go to lots of tedious meetings to show that there's another way, allow kiting but only for insured kiters, hence protecting the council (funded by our council tax) from being sued.

 

If you'd prefer to use, for example, SPKA insurance then you're free to sit down with the council and go through the process again, but it'll probably cost you lots more in time and travel than ~£30 for BKSA insurance.

 

Sad state of affairs, I know, but the BKSA aren't trying to "control the beaches", just to keep them open in some form.

 

Thankfully we don't have as much of a problem up here in Scotland because the law surrounding responsibility for beaches is a little different, and the smaller number of kiters-per-beach means the chances of accidents are much smaller anyway. You're all welcome any time, but only three per beach, yeah?

[Blast]

The point I'm trying to make is when the shit happens it's a whole lot more shit than getting a fishing hook in your toe or even being hit by a big stick!!

 

What politics?

Have you any idea how big the claims can be for say a month of work or a broken limb.

 

The councils in this area (S.Wales) are happy for kiting to continue but they also genuinely believe that the individual's have been sensible enough to pay £25 or so?

If they saw some of the posts on here, especially yours they'd likely just want to ban it!

I know this from my constant discussions with them, trying to stop the one or two muppets from spoiling it for rest of us.

[Blast]

Nice one The Geoff,

The vast majority of kiters have no idea how much time the BKSA put into keeping the beaches OPEN for all.

This is as well as all the other hours invested in training/events etc etc

[Stvredmond]

couple of good points there and have just been having a read through the policy notes for bksa.

 

it states

 

"The Insured Person whilst engaged or taking part in aeronautics or aviation"

 

does that include jumping then

 

where is this £25 a year insurance. i think youve started to change my way in thinking on this and apologise for my earlier stupid comments

[Stvredmond]

couple of good points there and have just been having a read through the policy notes for bksa.

 

it states

 

"The Insured Person whilst engaged or taking part in aeronautics or aviation"

 

does that include jumping then

 

where is this £25 a year insurance. i think youve started to change my way in thinking on this and apologise for my earlier stupid comments

[Andy-j]

Ok so it's clearly a different ball game down south but up here in Scotland on my local beaches there are very few occasions there are ANY third parties around to injure.

 

I insured myself for the first 3 or 4 years of kiting but i just cant see the justification. I'm much more likely to injure someone on the mountain snowboarding than i am on the beach. Maybe its different if you are a newbie but 95% of the time i am in control of myself and my gear. The other 5% you are unlikely to see 3rd parties on the beach as it's sure to be howling.

 

Sure accidents happen but the risk to others where i kite, i just cant see it.

[StarKitesUK]

Good thread to start this one, very interesting peoples justifications for and against.

 

Would you pay to keep you kites safe? damage and theft etc. I think I would just not sure it's out there.

[Stvredmond]

Good thread to start this one, very interesting peoples justifications for and against.

 

Would you pay to keep you kites safe? damage and theft etc. I think I would just not sure it's out there.

 

is that not called house insurance???

[cliff1599968814]

It's like any other insurance, you don't think you need it until you need it.

 

About 18 months ago I was involved in an incident in which an unfortunate landboarder came out of with a broken metatarsal and as a result lost time at work and almost ruined a kitesurfing holiday he and his partner were due to go on.

 

Neither he or I are inexperienced kiters but due to a chain of events we clashed and me being sat low in 55kgs of stainless steel buggy inevitably he came off worse. I was heading along the beach at the edge of the sand and had already clocked this guy coming across the beach on his board. It didn't take much working out that I would have passed him way before he got to the edge of the sand on the line I was travelling, I wouldn't even need to raise my kite.

 

All well and good and a very normal situation until a kitesurfer holding his kite was coming from the water decided to walk across in front of me. That I can deal with it happens all the time, the difference this time is that his buddy was holding his bar and had the lines stretched out across the beach at my neck height! I scrubbed off speed but still got tangled up in the lines which also bought my kite down. This loss of speed now put me in direct collision course with the landboarder, he tried to jump and I tried to put the buggy in an opposite slide but unfortunately we both came into contact.

 

I was and still am insured with Perkins Slade through the SPKA. When I found out that he had broken his metatarsal I agreed that he should make a claim on my insurance. The two kitesurfing buddies had disappeared soon after the incident and we didn't get their details or even find out if they were insured so I was his only recourse to getting some due compensation.

 

Following a two hour meeting with the claims investigator discussing everything including class 8 rules to dealing with a court appearance it was decided that without the details of the two kitesurfers I was the next person at fault because I had full view of the other parties leading up to the incident. It took nearly 6 months but the landboarder was rightly compensated for his injuries.

 

This was an accident, although negligence played a part none of the parties went out with the intention to put themselves or anyone else in danger. Normal everyday situations can change quickly, this guy was a landboarder so he knew the risks but this could have easily been someones dog or much worse, a child.

 

So that's my reason for being insured and I do know now that the premiums we pay are not just going to fill the pockets of the clubs that provide the insurance.