It seems to me that KSP is a surf comp with a kite added in for towing purposes.If someone was to smash the lip and go into a huge front roll kite loop and land on the same wave straped in and given a lower score against a strapless rider that does a surfing style floater then thats deinantly a 1 dimensional comp.I ll watch free ride comp similar to the one plumett sugested any day of the week.
King of the air smashing front roll mega loops on the way out and arial wave riding on the waves back in.Now thats original and raw kite surfing.The king of the air is leading the way at the moment over the pkra and ksp because it does not imitate other sports.
Select to expand quoteADS 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.
If the wind is very light and the waves are good then it is more suitable for strapless. Someone needs to invent a kite that can go straight upwind to let the rider cut back upwind into the pocket.
When its windy and cross onshore, then it suits straps more. I don't think it would work to incorporate jumps like the King of the Air unless the waves are totally closing out. They could pick out freestyle moves that are going to flow with the waveride and start to incorporate them into riding the wave instead of just a plain aerial.
I can't think of any kite vids that I've seen to illustrate that, but this is windsurf waveriding with freestyle tricks incorporated into the aerials, but they still flow and fit in with what the wave is doing.
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.
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...
Select to expand quotesir 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%
I think aswell you look at the best guys in the world strapped and unstrapped and the un strapped guys are way better like aldredge, key hi, etc..Beer o clock seeyas..
Select to expand quoteAndreC said..
It may be a first but I agree with you 100%
It eventually happens to most people 
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Select to expand quoteAndreC said...
I think aswell you look at the best guys in the world strapped and unstrapped and the un strapped guys are way better like aldredge, key hi, etc..Beer o clock seeyas..
Who is key hi ? 
Vietnamese kiter? 
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!
points scored for arials on the way out for punting front rolls with board graps on the way out.
Select to expand quotediamond2001 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.
Select to expand quotediamond2001 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).
With a kite you have the ability to fly.With a surfboard you have the ability to ride a wave. Dont waist the opportunity to fly with he wave as its unique to kitesurfing .
Jumping with the wave is well documented on the ASP.Flying with the wave has not been explored yet on the KSP as it just copying surfing.
'King of the air' is the original contest with a kite and is more orientated to flying with a kite.
Kite surfing geting back to its roots needs to have more arial factor .The strapless riding is very progressive at the moment ,but smashing the lip over and over again is just getting straight boring! .
Kitesurfing has a level of arial freestyle that is very unique and needs to be explored.
Kitesurfing does not stop when the wave ends either .
Kitesurfing brings none stop action once the wave is finished .A boost on the way back out to the next wave is very common so lets add that in too.
I dont want to watch someone wait for half an hour wait for for the perfect wave to come up .I want to see some one doing a full kitesurfing circuit and punting and rolling .
Instead of smashing the lip lets see some big airs of the lip with slow front or back rolls with more altitude !.
A kite is there for some flying ability.
Otherwise you may aswell just have a small motor in the surfboard and just surf with out a kite .
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.
