Freestyle is the best stroke to use when swimming back to the beach after your kite lines have been mangled themselves.

One word sums the difference up...

**** Committment ****

the initiation beeech slaps will make or 'break' you into a freerider

I think of it as freestyle - Aaron Hadlow - freeride Andy Hurdman etc..

Then there's wakestyle and funride as well.

I tend to think Freestyle and "wakestyle" have more in common with each other.

Freeride to me is a snowboarding term where the idea is that you use the whole mountain as your park, using natural features as pipes and kickers, rather than hitting up the rails and purpose built pipes in the park. I would say I'm more of a freeride snowboarder. The prospect of face planting rails does not really excite me.

So Freeriding kite style suggests to me more use of waves and chop in your riding, more on a twin tip whereas, freestyle is more of a flatwater style. The trick is the focus of Freestyle, whereas riding the conditions, not necessarily doing tricks is the essence of freeride...

If you get on a directional in the waves, thats waveriding (To state maybe the obvious)

The Bodies amongst us might say Freeride is more of a "way of life" or "philosophy" than a specific style man...

and the egos!

freestyle is that one where you try to send your kite as far back in time as you can while trying to spin under the bar as many times as you can.

freerides just muckin about n having fun

wakestyle has nothing similar to freestyle..
ps wakestyle also use waves n stuff for natural kickers.

Freeride = cruisin - often downwinders - boosting, plonking in cr@ppy waves and havin great fun oblivious to the ills of the world. People who love to kite and don't give a fig about trends, mags, vids and matching gear are usually into this.

Freestyle = often staying in the on spot - preferably where a crowd of admirers are - and a craving for as much attention as can be gathered, by performing epileptic fit tricks in 1 foot deep of water, right next to families n kids who just want a swim. The 'Look at moi!!' is currently the hottest trick in this popular discipline. People who love to kite but love to love themselves even more are usually into this.