ADS said..

We'll said Niall and Bevo

As somebody who entered the event, im glad these questions are being asked. It doesnt matter if its post or pre. It shows that the judges are keen to develop shared understanding and listen to new ideas. in any a developing sport this is important. It wasnt a farce, it was really good fun. Thanks to all that put in the effort to make it happen.

I am with Carl argument goes round and around?maybe should have a strapped division with slightly different rules to the surfing style comp..What I really don't get is all the twin tippers in the ocean going in and out and not launching to the sky..
Nial and Corey really the only strapped guys in the metro I like to watch.

sir ROWDY said..

As people have said I think it will always be hard to have both in a comp and not have people whinging about it.

If it's a comp based on actually riding the wave then it doesn't matter what you have, it should be based on fluidity and style of surfing, in this comp strapless will always have an advantage (in regular conditions) as riding strapped doesn't really lend itself to that.

If it's a comp based on boosting off waves, strapped will obviously have the advantage if difficulty of un-strapped isn't taken into account.

In my opinion if you want to ride strapped you should at least be throwing 3's and stuff off the lip and going for mobes and other crazy stuff. I really don't see any other reason why you would ride straps unless it's super big and bumpy, in which case you still wouldn't be doing much anyway...

It may be a first but I agree with you 100%

AndreC said..

It may be a first but I agree with you 100%

It eventually happens to most people .

wakeskating vs wakeboarding, tow strapped vs paddle. they both got their place but too subjective to bother the effort of thinking fair judging at top level. ice skating vs bowls

How about big wave kitesurfing .Straped riders using the full wave face .Unstraped riders just hanging on for dear life to get to the bottom of the wave.
A kitesurf comp at 'cowbomie' or the 'right' or 'cyclops'.Id love to see that!

diamond2001 said..


A kitesurf comp at 'cowbomie' or the 'right' or 'cyclops'.Id love to see that!

Picture who ever it is edging along the face against off-shore wind... how can you make a comp when you can hardly even do a proper turn or air at the location.

diamond2001 said..

Side shore and a cup of concrete!

Exactly, thus those locations will never be good venues for a comp (or in some cases at all).

Bla bla bla.

The fact is this; Kitesurfing has many different approaches, none of them right, none of them wrong. You simply cannot combine them into one contest no matter what you are doing. It's like trying to combine all track and field events into one race and deciding on a winner taking into account difficulty, time, style etc... (never going to happen).

All views are valid.
The most progressive wave-riding comp in my opinion is un-strapped. Although people aren't doing as many airs as everyone would like at the moment I can assure you in the future they will be. Holding back the sport just because people aren't pushing it to the fullest just yet would be totally stupid. Take KPWT or old PKRA formats as an example of this. Or Lou for example, doing KGB's in comps when people were beating him doing a double backroll hooked-in because people didn't understand or rate what he was doing... do you really think he couldn't do a double backroll...

Boosting and looping will always be something fairly unique to kiting (although I disagree that getting air or looping your sail is entirely unique to our sport), however it will never be the progressive side of the sport, as doing big jumps or loops just isn't technically hard (unless you start adding in a handlepass and really all that is doing is playing Russian roulette with your ACL's). Big loops and jumps could be compared to ollieing a 15 set on a skateboard, yes it's quite entertaining the first few times but really requires little skill to achieve and after you have done it over and over the risk of you getting injured isn't because you are pushing your limits it's just because you (or something else) are bound to fail sooner or later. In my mind that's pretty stupid.

In conclusion, Kitesurfing like Kiteboarding will progress to a better level soon, it's just a matter of time and talent. Don't hold it back.