Select to expand quoteholgs said..Plummet said..
That's a good example of where the wind is too offshore for that kite design. Ironically when you get to cross off or more wave kites are terrible because there upwind is not very good. If the bws man was on an high aspect lei he would have been able to work the wave better because he could point higher upwind.
But switch to cross cross off to all the way to onshore and kiters have the advantage. Its only in cross off or worse that wind surfers have the edge....
Until kite wave hydrofoiling is perfected. The hydrofoil will stomp that upwind angle and own cross off wave riding.
JP and BW are going down the line, down wind. I don't understand why not being able to go upwind comes into whether BW can bottom turn or not.
I wonder if it's not more about it being harder to control board speed, kite power and having to keep the kite so high such on a large wave. All this especially hard with BW going backside.
Both of them great athletes with big balls who have been pushing their respective sports for a long time.
When BW is going down the wave face in that vid he is cranking hard upwind to try and stay close to the pocket. He's not going down the line at all he until bottom turns. The problem is that he finds it hard to get into the pocket because he has reached the upwind limit of his kite. That is why he is not doing bottom turns and smacking lips galore. All he can do is crank upwind to stay as close to the pocket as possible. This is the challenge with cross off.
Select to expand quotePeahi said..SaveTheWhales said..
Bjw the Windsurf foils are here and getting better designed for their weight and sail power connection point.. Wont be long till we see them with their very efficient race sails, absolutely flying.
Be interesting to know how they are going to stop, or do they just crash at the end as they always do.
You just backwind the sail, with a little more technique... easy enough.
Select to expand quotePlummet said..
When BW is going down the wave face in that vid he is cranking hard upwind to try and stay close to the pocket. He's not going down the line at all he until bottom turns. The problem is that he finds it hard to get into the pocket because he has reached the upwind limit of his kite. That is why he is not doing bottom turns and smacking lips galore. All he can do is crank upwind to stay as close to the pocket as possible. This is the challenge with cross off.
That makes sense.
But I'm still not 100% convinced that's his main problem here. Because at 01:40 he's going about 90deg more upwind than when he's riding waves later on. No trouble getting upwind towards the pocket on this wave except that Polakow is already there since he has taken off much deeper (crazy bastard). At 4:00 BW is deep enough that he could throw a bottom tun and smack the lip if he was fully in control.
Both are awesome sports, both can tackle massive surf conditions if the conditions are ideal for each. There are still several windsurfers up home, and a couple in particular who never miss a session in a southerly, and who can ride waves really well in the side to side off conditions. They do better than the kites when it is more offshore, but the kiters do as well and better when its side off to sideshore and onshore.
In that video Gerry posted, the wind is really offshore and its better suited to JP + JP is on his forehand. BW looked a bit overpowered once he was on the wave, but was also on his backhand.
Backhand, offshore, overpowered BW was doing well to keep in front of the pocket and stay out of the washing machine, but he could not turn back at the wave without then getting even more power from the kite and just getting yanked up and off the face.
When JP got onto the wave his sail has much less wind to deal with, plus on his bottom turns he lays it right down and is just riding his board with power from the wave, JP is dumping power all the time and just riding the wave. BW is fighting the power in the kite the whole time.
But more side shore and maybe a kite size down and BW would have been ripping too, Ben goes well on his backhand.
I think you are wrong. I'm not sure anyone windsurfs anymore.
Why would anyone bother?
Skill level required is off the charts compared to kite tricks...great for my repair business tho!! ??
