Lost my board last Sat at Shoalwater. Been offered the use of a wakeboard in the meantime while I sort out a new board, but am unsure whether it's even advisable to use a wakeboard for kiting. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing they could pass on?

Any advice much appreciated.

Yes its useable...
Just go for it for the meantime...when you get your new board your skills will have gone up a notch or 2 just by using the wake board. Its always good to use different gear .. it broadens experience.

Probably not much at all. It's loads better support of your ankles. And for knees, I've never had an issue due to whereing boots.

psychojoe said..

When I'm the air looking at a dangerous landing I kick my board away, can't do that with boots

Wearing boots just makes you commit to landing correctly instead of bailing. Tends to hurt a bit when you do cop an edge though

daniel_y said..

psychojoe said..

When I'm the air looking at a dangerous landing I kick my board away, can't do that with boots

Wearing boots just makes you commit to landing correctly instead of bailing. Tends to hurt a bit when you do cop an edge though

Yeah I'm thinking it will make me focus more on the landing rather than boosting as high as I can and then bailing if I don't think I can land.

Would love to go out in the surf but that's a couple of seasons away at my rate

curls said..

rtlm said..
Thanks guys,
I tried the wakeboard out the other day and it was fine. The only thing is that it has boots whereas I've only used straps before, and while I quite enjoyed the 'locked in' feeling of the boots I'm a little cautious about potential knee injuries, being relatively new to the sport. How much of an increased injury risk is there with boots compared to straps given that I'm really only doing small to mid level jumps with no unhooking or anything else like that?

When it comes to knee injuries I don't think the boots are the actual problem. If you ride really hard or do a lot of bad landings then yes eventually your knees will start to give. But that's regardless of using boots or straps. On the contrary I'd say riding boots is better since it saves you the risk of twist injuries from landing with one foot in and one foot out, as both feet are always locked in. Head injuries and concussions could be an issue though if you catch an edge with a lot of forward momentum.

way ive had it explained to me from some pretty good sports sciencey people is this......

if you do something that twists your ankle you get a twisted anke

if you do something that twists your ankle but your wearing something to stop you getting a twisted ankle you get a twisted knee

if you do something that twists your ankle but your wearing something to stop you getting a twisted ankle you get a twisted knee but if your wearing something to stop you getting a twisted knee you **** your hip


if you do something that twists your ankle but your wearing something to stop you getting a twisted ankle you get a twisted knee but if your wearing something to stop you getting a twisted knee you **** your hip yadda yadda you get the idea


this is why ive had several people completely positive i should never kite with my knee brace on. it just causes damage further up the chain which is harder to fix/more damage. when i pointed out several pros do this and they obviously have appropriate training/sports rehab people etc they were all pretty defiant that what they were doing was wrong. people i asked had famous football teams/national ski teams etc as there recurring work.

but yeah it kind of just made sense. just watch all the parkour kids and see how many ankle/knee braces they have on. just gotto learn to dissipate all that energy is all.

btw i wear boots just point that **** down wind well before you land and absorb the shock no different to when you have straps except you have one less thing to worry about (foot slipping out etc)

Kozzie you are sort of on the right track but there are a heap of other factors to consider. One of the main ones is that as you go higher up there leg there is more muscle and generally the ligaments are bigger and stronger so they can handle more stress. If you are going to damage anything in your leg the last thing you want it to be is your ankle, I know I have just had a full ankle reconstruction 18 months ago and I live with the pain every day. The main problem with the ankle is it is the most complex joint in the leg (multiple planes of movement as opposed to knee that only moves back and forward) The joint also has the smallest surface area and it also carries the most weight of all the bodily joints therefore when it gets stressed it can get damaged pretty badly pretty easily. You can get a replacement knee or hip athletes get these all the time but currently the same technology does not exist for an ankle as the joint is too complex. If you have any concerns wear boots it is not worth the risk to damage your ankle. I wear boots 100% of the time and don't miss straps one bit.

well the bloke i was talking to about this was the physio for the nz ski team and i was asking him about wearing a brace while kiteboarding. so maybe hes just stuck in that skiing set of mind.... either way he convinced me to use the brace only when necesary and to never wear it when rideing.

but what both of you say makes sense aswell. i think you can still twist your knee with boots on tho, crash landing a sloppy rotation into the water can put you in some pretty funny positions

cant imagine anyone would let a profesional athlete ride with a brace on if it was more hazardous to them and like every 2nd pro does exactly that last few years but they have very very few ****ups where theyll allow themselves to be in a bad position during a crash as a beginer i just ragdoll around like a spastic when i crash, much more entertaining.

actually i would PAY to see people ragdoll crash around all day kitesurfing then watching pros nail tricks flawlessly. wheres my sponsorship......twisties?