KAILUA — Kiteboarding's growing popularity has become a thorn in the side of some Kailua Beach Park users, who recently complained to the Kailua Neighborhood Board and the O'ahu Kite Club that the activity is taking up too much beach space and the problem has to be resolved.

"One woman got a rope around her neck," said Charles Prentiss, who heads the board's committee looking into the issue.

One of the problems for beachgoers is how the kiteboarders prepare before they take to the water. To ensure safety, kiteboarders spread their rigs out on the beach to check to see that all the pieces fit together correctly and that the lines are not tangled. The process can span more than 100 feet and make it difficult for others to pass. When the kiteboarders don't leave space to pass, beach etiquette is breached and problems arise.

And the problems just aren't with the setup.

Joe Gilman, who lives next to the kiteboarders' launch area, has helped them out of trees and seen them crash into fences and into his flagpole. Gilman said beach users must keep an eye on the kiteboarders because, once in awhile, they lose control.

Although Gilman agrees that the beaches are for everyone, he said he'd like the kiteboarders to "go someplace else."

Kiteboarders faced a similar problem about six years ago at the beach park and they initiated an educational campaign, posted guidelines at the beach, agreed to launch in one area and monitored their activity.

The recent complaints are similar to the concerns raised back then, including how kiteboard equipment takes up too much of the beach and how kiteboarders endanger others when they crash or jump in the shore break, Prentiss said.

Erik Eck, a board member of the O'ahu Kite Club, said self-policing and an educational campaign worked well six years ago and the club has stepped up efforts again.

New residents, inexperienced kiteboarders and crowding contribute to the renewed complaints, according to Eck, who said that windsurfers, kiteboarders and kayak renters all launch in the same 50-yard stretch of beach and that Saturdays are the worst.

"If you go down there on Saturday at 11 a.m., when the wind is light in the summer, when there's 1,000 tourists on the beach and there's kayaks, you can see that there are too many people trying to use the beach," said Eck, who finds that many of the kiteboarders using Kailua Beach are Windward residents.

Prentiss had suggested that the kiteboarders be allowed to self-police for three months to see if that would clear up problems, but the board turned that proposal down and asked him to find another solution.

"They said they wanted something more severe in terms of regulating the kiteboarders," he said.

The alternatives his committee will look at this month include an outright ban, barring kiteboarders on weekends and basing their use of the beach on weather conditions.

Any proposal for new rules would have to go through the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction over ocean activities.

Richard Rice, administrator for the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, said ocean-user conflicts in Hawai'i are widespread and government has taken some steps to resolve a few problems by designating areas for activities such as parasailing and recreational vehicles.

Any resolutions should involve the community, but even the best plans can backfire.

In Leeward O'ahu, a pilot project to operate a kayak tour company in Makua was shut down last year after fishermen complained that the kayaks were scaring the fish away, Rice said. That business, initially, created much-needed jobs and was first supported by the community that couldn't foresee the problem.

Rice said a new study, "West O'ahu Ocean Operational Protocols," may help the situation in Kailua. The study, located at www.state.hi.us/dlnr/dbor/pdf/wooop_draft/DRAFTREP.PDF, identifies concerns and protocols in place and explains the role of users, he said. The study will go to legislators he said, hoping that dialogue will ensue.

"The neighborhood board is the best place for the community to iron out its differences and then they can bring the suggestion upstream," he said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.