So its finally happened the council in Tarifa have decided to impose regulations onn the kiteschools and the beaches of Tarifa. The idea behind this is to make kiting in Tarifa a more organised, controled activity and the move has my full support even if it is causing me a mountain of headaches with paperwork and negotiating through Spanish red tape.
The basic idea is that all kiteschools now have to become members of the tarifa kitesurf association, membership of this group proves that a kiteschool is legal and is working to certain standards to ensure that the beaches are a safer place to learn. In return the council has agreed to provide safety boat cover, lifeguards and dedicated first aid stations on the beaches of Tarifa through out the summer season. Hopefully this will see the Kiteschools start to work together to improve the organisation on the beaches and the standard of courses being delivered.
I imagine this will however see the end of Tarifa being such a cheap place to learn to kitesurf, in the past the level of competition here has led schools to drop prices year on year in a bid to gain clients. These new regulations mean schools expenses will rise as Insurance, equipment and various other costs rise dramatically which will bring Tarifa in line with the rest of the world as far as the price of kitesurfing lessons goes. The client can be sure that they will receive a quality service for their money and that should there be an incident their school and Tarifa in general is fully prepared to deal with it.
