Safety & Rules
There have been known fatal accidents while kitesurfing so
for all disciplines of kiting, safety has to be taken seriously
(especially for the summer when there are many hard objects and
people nearby), please make sure you have read and understood
http://www.kitesurfingschool.org/safety.htm before getting into kiting.
Read the
Rules section
on the Kitesurfing School web site for kitesurfing navigation rules.
Don't jump over the roof! Fortunately
this is just a photography illusion
Photo by Bill Barker
The safety rules and regulations at the Kitesurfing School web
site should provide you enough generic information for safe kiting.
However, there are a few safety rules and regulations you should follow for
Ottawa.
Summer Safety & Rules
Ottawa Summer kiting spots are small and
normally has a launch area just large enough for launching and
landing a single kite. In addition, there are a many other
users (windsurfers, beach-goers, sun-bathers, swimmers, etc.) sharing the same area. Fortunately we are gifted
with lots of shallow water and can benefit from them for launching and
landing our kites. The following are guidelines that
have been written by local kitesurfers and are specific to two launch
areas in the region. They both contain lots of
good information that can be applied to other launch sites within the region as well.
1) Britannia Beach,
Nepean
The following
guidelines were put together by the Ottawa kiting yahoo discussion
group:
When on the water
at Britannia, there are some other hazards that you need to be aware of namely:
-
Rapids just north of
the Britannia Yacht Club (watch out for S wind at Britannia as
such wind will blow you straight to the rapids)
-
Gull-wires over the
swimming area at Britannia
-
Rock shoal (and some
other rocks) on the SW side of the Britannia bay in very low water
season.
2) Parc des Cèdres,
Aylmer
The following rules
were written by the Association Kitesurf Windsurf Aylmer:
Winter Safety & Rules
There are normally lots of spaces to kite in the Winter so
it is generally safer to kite in the winter than in the summer; however, in
early and late season (mid December and second half of March), please
make sure that the ice is at least 10 cm thick before kiting (dig a hole
in the ice and measure it thickness before going out). Also, the ice
is harder than water so you should wear a helmet and may want to wear
padding while kiting in the winter.
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