THE INLAND KITESURFING CLUB

Changes to the club for 2011

On Thursday 27 January 2011 a meeting was held at Leewpan with the land owner to renew our contract for 2011 and to discuss future plans. The farmer has agreed to a few things but has also changed a few things for 2011 which are as follows:

Access to Leewpan dam

1. As of 2011 every club member will have to pay a daily fee of R20.00 per person. This is a new rule from the Land owner. Please see the club funding section below for details.
2. Everyone who is entering the Property has to have a valid club card. Please make sure that you have your card with you as if you have left it at home you will not be allowed to kite. Good tip is to leave your club card in the pocket of your kite bag. This rule is going to be strictly enforced as per the Land Owner and anyone found kiting without this card will be asked to leave immediately by the Land Owner.
3. All our students who have not joined the club yet will have a 2 part temporary card that will be given to them this card will be taken off them from the person manning the entrance leaving them with the other half to show to the Land Owner if he comes around to have a check.

Club Funding
The annual club fees for 2011 will be R300 and as a daily fee of R20.00 will have to be paid the Land owner a agreement was arranged that we do not have to pay him anything else.  This R300 annual club fee will then be used to run the club and pay for any work needed to be done at the dam.

Spot cleaning and structures

1. The Land Owner has agreed to hire us a tractor and driver to get the grass cut when needed.
2. The Land owner has given us permission to get rid of all trees that are growing down wind of the rigging area, this will also give us a lot more space for rigging and allow us to move all training further down (please refer to map further down this letter of the new layout of Leewpan dam.
3. We are allowed to erect a structure for a club house this will merely be a simple structure and a small changing room. Toilets where also spoken about but this will be too expensive to run water and surge pipes down. So one will have to use the ones at the entrance, there is also hot water in the showers now so please do make use of them after your session.
4. The grass growing in the water may be removed.

How will the above changes be executed?

Grass cutting
This will be done by means of a tractor supplied by the Land Owner; we are hoping that the bushes growing to the South of the current rigging area will be able to be cut by the tractor as well. If the bushes are too thick we will have to employ a couple of workers to jump in there and do it by hand, this will be labor intensive and pricy. The road leading from the main entrance to the kite spot is also over grown so this will also be cut and fixed.

Sign boards
A sign will be installed on the R50 showing new members where the turn off for the dam is. A Rules board will also be erected at the entrance to the dam informing everyone about the club and the basic rules about kiting at Leewpan dam.

Water grass removal
This is one of our main concerns as the grass is becoming dangerous if it gets tangled in ones lines. The idea here is to buy a pool net and connect weights to one end this will then keep the net down in the water, then we will connect lines to the other end and drag the net though the water. Best way to drag the net will be too connect it to a winch or if we cannot get our hands on a winch we will have to use the tractor. This method will not totally remove the grass but should in theory pull out all the loose grass that floats on the surface leaving us with minimal grass on the floor of the dam. This will be very time consuming but is the best method so far (If you have another idea that you think will work well please do let us know). Problem with the above method is that it will leave us with the same problem again the next year as it will grow during the summer months.

Club house
This will merely be a simple structure with a bamboo roof. The frame of the structure can be built using wooden poles similar to the ones used for Lapas. The roof will have to be built on sight but the idea here is to use bamboo poles that are securely tied to one another and then fastened to the roof frame. This will not keep the rain out but as we kite in winter rain will be minimal but the idea here is to get some shade and have a comfortable area to chill when having a break from kiting.
The change room will also be built from Bamboo.

Weather station
The weather station has had much debate on the website over the past few years, The station we are looking at is the iweather edge V to see this station in action please follow this link to get an idea of how the clubs station will report and show the Data http://www.iweathar.co.za/display.php?s_id=24&unit=knots

The weather station will be a live station installed at the dam and be viewable through the  website. Thus will be a password blocked station so only members can get the required info. Idea is to also install a web cam at a later stage. This will give us the chance to also have a look at what the weather is doing and will also be a nice touch to the club.

The weather station will have to be installed close to where we kite to get the best reading and web cam view. With it been all the way out there theft to the station could be a problem but the solution could be as follows. (Any other ideas are greatly welcomed).

The station will be installed on a steel pole with solar panels as power, all the info will be sent though a GPRS connection that is supplied with the station.

The weather station needs to be a few meters from the ground so a steel pole will be required for this, we will use a fairly thick pole and at the base of the pole rebar will be will be inserted into the steel tube and cemented in, this will make it nearly impossible to cut down the pole with a hack saw, barb wire will also be put around the base of the structure. The barb wire will be a mere deterrent and make life a bit more difficult for anyone wanting to gain access to the pole to climb up. What we will also install half way up is a fork system that points down making it impossible for any one getting to the gear with out a good ladder.

Leewpan dam layout

Please refer to the map below for the new changes that will take place this year.



1 Parking area – This is the current parking area and will still remain the parking area.

2 & 5 General rigging area – This will remain the rigging area it will just be extended to the North and South to make it bigger.

3 General kiting area – This is where all kiting is done this extends right out into the dam

4 New area for training – To prevent any problems with students on the water we will be moving them further down wind. We ask that all kiter’s please keep clear of this area if there is training taking place. If there is no training you are more than welcome to kite in this area.

New spots

We are also in the process of looking at another club spot around the Vaal dam for the NW winds but we will keep everyone posted on the findings. If time allows this year we will also try and arrange a meeting with the farm owner and fishing club at Grootdraai dam to see if we can arrange something there. Meetings where held about 3 years ago but the out come did not go the way of the kiters but as we have a club that is up and running it’s worth another try.

When will above work begin?

Our plan is to get the sign boards installed, cutting the grass and trees and start removing the grass from the water through the month of March and hopefully have the above things completed by the beginning of April in time for our season.

We are hoping to get the weather station installed by May if funding allows and the club house and web cam done in 2012.

We are waiting for quotes for the sign boards, weather station, tractor rental and pool nets once we have received all the quotes we will email the info to all members so you will be able to see the clubs Budget Forecast for 2011.