Controversy at Lincoln Beach

[andrewcarey44]

I figure I need to give some background to things going down at Lincoln Beach & SSB. Earlier this year, Jacob Buzianis was contacted by the director of Utah County parks (John McMullin) about meeting up to continue conversations regarding the kiter's use of the lake and really to give some input and collaboration into improving the launches. The whole purpose was about progression of the sport and improvement of the beaches geared to kiters. I was already working a bit on figuring out the Rush lake fence conundrum and volunteered to give him a call and set up a meeting time where a group of us would attend. I finally reached him on the phone after a few days of calling. He mentioned that they were very interested in working with us to make improvements. He committed to calling me back to schedule a meeting time. Days and weeks passed and I never heard from him. I finally got a hold of someone with Utah County saying that John had retired and was replaced by a man named Roger Parry. I was finally able to speak to Roger on the phone this week. I asked him if he knew much about the sport of kiteboarding and he immediately brought up the incident at Lincoln beach with the camp host from a few years ago. Being that this was his initial impression of us scared me. I was not part of this incident nor was I involved in the initial resolution meeting that took place. However, I have been told by kiters who attended this meeting that the camp host was deemed 'at fault' and that the kiting community was apologized to and told that we were a valued group that uses the beach. From my understanding this camp host was fired.

Understanding this, we simply to need to set the record straight with Roger and make sure that he has the right "1st impression of us". He then began to talk about how congested Lincoln beach can become on the weekends and how he doesn't feel comfortable with us using the launch on the weekends. Please keep in mind that this all occurred in a 5 minute phone conversation. He was not saying that he was banning kiting on the weekends at Lincoln, he was just stating that he doesn't feel comfortable with it. I mentioned that as a group we have some ideas for improving this congestion and making weekend kiting work. He was open to hear those ideas. He said that he will call me sometime next week to set up a meeting time.

I feel that a meeting with Roger will be beneficial in clearing the kiting community of the whole camp host incident. I understand that this is frustrating because he is simply miss-informed but we also need to come to an understanding about the whole weekend use issue. I know that many people are concerned about 'stirring the pot' and introducing un-necessary attention to our sport. However, I feel that being pro-active in this situation will help in the long term with sustaining our Utah Lake launches.

I hope that this makes sense. I realize that I was representing a large group here in contacting the County. I was initially calling to set up a meeting time to discuss the sport & improvements (per the request of the former Utah County Parks Director). I wanted to put this out there for a group discussion on what needs to be done.

In addition, due to the motorcycle fatality at SSB a few weeks ago, more attention has been brought to this beach from the county, land owner & sheriff. That is a whole other animal but it highlights how fragile these launches are. Not to mentioned the invasive Deer Creek mussels.