He's a bit prone to losing his sense of direction and doing twirly whirlys eh??

I'm not a big fan of the twirly whirly's either- or the dreads for that matter - but hey, what would I know.

Some nice airs in there though.

The guy does seem to have a fluid surfing style, which I think is really interesting, as he doesn't unhook, and free flowing body movement seems to be the reason most commonly given for unhooking.

Best I have seen

Im a big fan of the 'twirly whirly'. Looks like progression to me, someone doing more than a standard turn is good to see.

From seeing this vid and more and more like it (or close to it ) recentlty it looks like KiteSURFING is really coming of age .Awesome ,love it

Sick vid! I thought it was pretty cool. I wondered why he was riding a slingy board and an Naish kite though? Seems odd even if you are only on flow.

p.s. As mentioned above, wait till you see Keahi these days, he does all this unhooked. I just can't vibe with the whole hooked in 2m chicken loop thing.

pat's an artist

Oh ok, cheers makes more sense then. I sorta thought he was riding for naish but if he's in between or to be on BWS I guess it doesn't matter haha.

The guy deffinetly rips and yes style is subjective .

People rode hooked in wakestyle in the beginning to, people tried to say hooked in was fine on a wakeskate to when it started, but I'm sure most decent riders know by now unhooked is the next level in everything. So yeah perhaps it is a massdebate but really it could be compared to massdebating over lemon party (hooked) or Adriana Lima (unhooked)... Lets just say I think most people know which one is legit.

p.s.
I saw he did one unhooked 3 in there so I'm sure he can do it anyway. Regardless of that the vid made me wanna get out there, I guess thats what vids are really all about anyway.

I don't worry about being "legit" (which yes by all means is one played out stupid word). I wake up and think f@ck yes, another day to shred life! I hope you do the same.

I merely discuss these types of matters when they are put forth because I want to see the sport progress.
The weirdest thing is that a lot of people (kiters) seem to try everything they can to hold the sport back or at least make themselves believe that something is not the future when it clearly is (i.e. unhooked/ strapless/ boots etc.). I think it's because they want to feel like they are nearly at the same level as the "pros", or they don't want to have to learn something new and believing that it's as legit as it get continues the delusion.

Maybe I am to opinionated? or maybe I'm just a kook? But I find it funny how we are at a point now where not many people question whether unhooked kite low wakestyle is "legit" and the future, when not long ago I constantly got hate on here for voicing that opinion to... Same goes with strapless, boots, etc.

To answer your last question - I think if you do not know the answer to that one, you need to go try it for yourself and find out.

ok said...

Rowdy why are u always worried about being legit?

In freeriding it all doesn't matter, but comps are all about measuring a rider's skill, or in other words the degree of legitness. Therefore you need to define some sort of criteria, otherwise Alex Rowdy would get confused and doesn't know which numbers to put on his scorecards.
If that's not the case anyway.

Yo sorry guys i put up a vimeo version that is better quality, didn't know how people found that link.
anyway here is the real link: (if some one knows how to embed, i dont)


More coming, didn't want to waste the good stuff on an entry video.

That's a pretty good vid. Anyone who can ride like that without straps has my respect. I have only been in surf a couple of times and am wondering what the difference between riding waves hooked in or not is?

sir ROWDY said...

The same difference that wakeskating or throwing wakestyle tricks is hooked in or unhooked. It's just the next level. This vid was sick though, made me wanna get out there.

No not true at all Rowdy. This is where any claim about progression and progressing the sport gets laughed at by young brains in old heads. Sensitivity of the BS detector nerve gets greater with age!

Patrick has a unique style and is someone that seems to be actually progressing the sport.

Kitesurfing waves hooked or unhooked is not the same as hooked in wakestyle, because you cannot truly do wakestyle riding hooked, can you? Like how would you do hooked mobes? Even a simple thing like a railey become a gayley if its done hooked!
Kitesurfing in waves hooked in, can and very obviously is, being done legitimately. Don't be mislead by forces in the sport with an agenda that is trying to control the sport and how we do it. Following these forceful influences is being like a lemming, there is a cliff coming but you won't see it until its too late.

To me being legit and progressing something you have a massive passion for is being true to yourself, sure watch others, but then go and do what feels right for you.

There is nothing wrong with riding in surf hooked in and as you can see people can actually rip as well or even better than people who refuse to ride hooked in. Riding unhooked seems to ruin many riders creativity, they end up pigeon holed into a certain look and style of riding.

To ride hooked in, in surf, needs a kite with a long enough centre line, that would seem to me to be the main difference between riders and kites, hooked and unhooked, in surf.

Just my 2c worth.

The whole hooked unhooked strapped unstrapped legit/unlegit talk is just bullsh$t blah blah blah-why dissect everything trying to pigeonhole all the time-bottom line, the guy looks like he's having a ball and he rips.

I'm not gonna argue it out haha, but technically Steve if you had a long enough chicken line or you had an aaron hadlow handlepass ring you could do it all wakestyle hooked in. You can do everything hooked in if you want. The only reason people say it's "gay" hooked in is because finally the sport in those disciplines has progressed beyond that.

Yeah perhaps there isn't anyone with really any better footage unhooked yet... But it was the same with wakeskating behind the kite, everyone just rode hooked in at first because they thought unhooked was to hard.
Times will change the sport will progress. I've seen Mitu and Keahi do this kinda stuff all unhooked, so it's not like it isn't possible and it definitely looks a whole lot better than whipping that 2m chicken line around everywhere.

It's just the logical step. Do you think people would have thought street skateboarding would have been the biggest part of skateboarding in years to come? lots of things don't seem obvious in the beginning. Give it time and talent.