WATCH: Port Alberni officials have banned kite-boarding from a popular pier, saying it’s a danger to both the boarders and others. But as Kylie Stanton reports, kite-boarders say the closure is completely unjustified.
A community of kiteboarders in central Vancouver Island is in danger of having the proverbial wind taken out of their sails.
Kiteboarding has been banned from Centennial Pier in Port Alberni, taking away a launching point boarders say is one of the best in B.C. because of the unique thermal winds in the summer months. It’s the only place in B.C. where the activity, where a person holding a power kite travels through the water without assistance, is explicitly off-limits.
READ MORE: The ban on kiteboarding at Vancouver’s Spanish Banks was lifted last year
“There’s a mix of users on the waterfront. We have to make sure for everybody’s sake that it’s safe and we want to make sure from our own aspects of running a business that we aren’t liable,” says Gillian Trumper, Chair of the Port Alberni Port Authority.
There’s hope a compromise can be reached by creating a new zone 500 metres away.
“We can mitigate or eliminate 95 if not 100 per cent of their concerns with just a little bit of a redesign and rework,” says Dale Moffatt of the Port Alberni Windsports Society.
– With files from Kylie Stanton
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