How come a power kite association dosent cover all power kite sports? I couldnt make it to WBB but a big factor was having to be a NAPKA member. For me being younger and not having disposible income i dont have money to burn. Put on top of that i no longer really landboard and never did buggy. So spending 40 bucks to a club that dosent support what i do under a powerkite to me is a waste.
How can you be a power kite club and not support ALL power kite sports????

Quote: Originally posted by power

How can you be a power kite club and not support ALL power kite sports????

What club does ?


If you enjoy water you should be asking IKO and PASA this question ! They have been around much longer and shutting us out. It is because NOBODY else was insuring us that we had to make this move.

I don't think anybody is excited about the fact that NAPKA has to exist. If NAPKA didn't exist WBB would potentially be dead. We keep telling you that.

It has already been explained that you can attend as a guest of a member.

Do you have something constructive to offer like a way to get kite events insured for free ? You keep asking the same question? The answer doesn't change.

NOBODY accept the insurance company is making money off of NAPKA. People are putting in their time at no charge so that the cost of being a member can be as low as possible. Nothing comes for free and insurance is a part of life. You will understand this once you start to need your own.

I was young too once and if there was a.......
Sporting event, concert, CD, taking a girl out to dinner, blowing money at the bars, junk food/pizza, buying toys, clothes, sunglasses or jumping in a car for a road trip... I always seemed to come up with the money needed for any of this stuff so....
I hardly think that 40.00 would of prevented me from hanging out on the beach of Wildwood for 3 days doing something that I loved. This was also the price for a year membership so really $20.00 for the spring event and $20.00 for the fall.

You do bring up a valid point as to why they don't cover all kite sports, but reason for not coming to WW is

If NAPKA is really going to take off and be something good for kiting they will have to cover ALL of power kiting. Thats my point and its what will need to be done to survive. Its the perfect time to have something that does.
Have to strive for the big picture.

Quote: Originally posted by power

Have to strive for the big picture.

And this is whats being done.

ok, Power, I will try and explain why NAPKA doesn't cover all power kite sports. I in no way am trying to be a smart about it, or anything like that.

It's this simple.NAPKRA was started to help provide insurance to the people of Washington State and Louisiana so they could have race events on the beach. I know in Washington State, buggying on the beach had been taken away for a very long time. A group of Buggy enthusiast got together and worked along side of the Sate and got an arrangement made to help get Kite buggying back on the beach. Insurance and a type of registration is what they wanted, so that's what they got. Other states also outlawed kite sports on the beach and parks and other places, for different reasons. Thus the need for other people to have insurnace to access these spots became a real thing. (trust me this is info in a nut shell compared to the time invested in gaining access to these spots by people who love the sport)

The insurnace cost a certain amount of money just for it to cover buggying. It took a very long time for the original members of NAPKA to find an insurnace company that would even cover that. The cost of being a member covered just the insurnance for kite buggying in the beginning. The membership grew a little bit and through some very hard work, the Officers (all volunteers as mentioned above) using as many resources they couldand hundreds of man hours,(again all volunteer) got ATB kiting, coyotes, and dirtsurfers coverd under the same policy. The "R" for race was taken out and NAPKA was now open to more disciplines. Well of course that cost more money to add to the insurance, thus membership cost had to go up to cover the additional.In return, some people left NAPKA. It did almost die out. We are in the rebuilding process I believe right now and it is going great. In Washington state where this all started, if it wasn't for the forming of NAPKA they still would not be able to buggy! Again, non of us wanted Kite buggying to have to be like this, the local governments, city councils, park departments made us have to have insurance.

I have been working on several things with the insurance companies at this point, and have actually gotten a quote to add kite skiing, kite snoboarding, and kite ice skating! The pro rate because we were in the 4th month of the year was over a $600 cost in insurance, or almost $1000 dollars extra a year for the coverage. Now I have to weigh in all the factors, help promote NAPKA membership and hope that IF we do add all those new disciplines to our insurance that we can pay the bill. If we do not pay the bill, no insurance. The money just doesn't come from trees. We have to have members in order to keep our insurance. And like they say above, there are events out there that would not even happen if it wasn't for NAPKA being able to supply them the insurance. We are there for that reason, insurance and a set of guidlines for safety for those that don't know the sport and be assured that we are doing what we can to make sure our events are safe.

We are a non profit organization, none of the officers get paid for anything. All money in our account goes to pay for the insurance, stamps, envelopes, making the cards, and our website. The officers of NAPKA do not get any money in return for the gas they use to take care of business for the organization. It's all volunteer. They do it for the members. Right now, NAPKA is on a surge. Maybe in the near future we will be able to add the kite skiing, kite snow boarding, kite ice skating. That would cover a lot of our sport.

I think if you thought of it less of a "club", and more of an organization that provides insurance to people that need it to have an event, or practice for an event, that is an affordable cost to it's members rather than on a sole person, you may be able to understand just a little bit. Some of the great snow events up in NE and Canada now do not happen because they do not have insurance any more. Manufacturers don't cover it, Sponsors don't pay it, the town's don't cover it, and no one pays out of pocket themselves to get it, therefore the events don't happen any more. I have several groups that are very excited at the possibility of snow kiting being on the insurance. I am going to try and make that happen before summer.

Like I stated last year, the WBB was going to end because the local government was trying to shut it down because there was no insurance. The only thing that could have happened was to get insurnace, that cost money, a lot of it. I like yourself don't have a lot of money, I could not pay for the insurnace, it would be almost as much as a years worth of insurance on my personal vehicles.

Again please don't take this a crazed response to your post, but more of me trying to help you understand why NAPKA is what it is and where we might be heading in the future, and why it exist in the first place and why we need members so we can get the insurnace.

I hope it doesn't take you losing a spot you love to ride, to realize why NAPKA is necessary at WBB and many other events. I know you said you don't buggy, but you may eventually need something, maybe not NAPKA but something to be able to give you insurance to be able to gain access a spot you love, like we did!

Pssssst!!! Rich for NAPKA president 2014... just starting the campaign early

Forgot to mention one thing, to come to WBB, you didn't have to be a member of NAPKA, you only had to be a member if you piloted a buggy, or kite ATB'd, or rode a dirt surfer, or coyotes, or you could have been my guest as I offered before.

You would have been free to ride on the water, fly static or just hang out if you wanted without joining NAPKA.

Quote: Originally posted by power

So spending 40 bucks to a club that dosent support what i do under a powerkite to me is a waste.

Obviously there seems to be a bigger issue here that the rest of us do not know the whole story. But bro if you cant swing $40 to hit an event for the weekend its probably best you were not able to make it. The hotel, fuel and food would have killed the budget for sure. I am counting 9 depower kites in your quiver .. cant afford $40 to hang out with a great group of people enjoying the sport we all love?

I'm not an IKO member because I don't buggy on the water. Nor would I expect a kite boarder to use their gear on the sand.

Did I mention I like cheese?

I know that I am late to this thread, but this is a important topic to me and I want to add a few thoughts.

Quote:

If NAPKA is really going to take off and be something good for kiting they will have to cover ALL of power kiting

Let me start out my saying that I do not think that NAPKA should include all forms of power kiting, none of the other kiting organizations are all encompassing, and I see no compelling reason for NAPKA to be. IKO does water and snow kiting, PASA does water kiting. I don't see the need or the ability for NAPKA to compete with water kiting against IKO or PASA. NAPKA has a niche to fill and needs to use its limited resources to focus on the unserviced needs of land based power kiters.

NAPKA is good for kiting now. It provides event insurance for several events across North America and provides liability insurance for practice fields which keep some members flying fields open. I feel that it does this at a very reasonable cost. Under the current leadership NAPKA is growing, you might say it is taking off. NAPKA can be better for kiting. It has been evolving and offering more for our sport and I know the trend will continue.

I have just been looking into the British Kite Surf Association or British Kite Sports Association (depending on which bit of their website you read!) because I had been asked if I could do some Power kite lessons and I wanted to check out the route to certification for land based kite sports in th UK.

The BKSA does seem to attempt to cover all kitesports but is focused more and more on Kitesurfing.

It grew from similar circumstances to those described above - insurance, land access problems etc. It now approves schools and governs instructor training. All of which are necessary -once again- for insurance purposes!

The OP obviously has no idea what a massive amount of personal time and effort goes into setting up and running these organisations. Particularly early on when they are just a bunch of enthusiasts fighting for the right to fly!

If you think you can do a better job then go and set up your own organisation! I can't wait to see your membership fee if you think $40 is expensive...

Well done to all you guys at NAPKA.