Progression......

speed, going fast in gale winds.

board offs would fit into freestyle,

wave riding in 6ft plus without straps would be true kitesurfing and pure skill.

So what if you Unhook on a wave? its wakestyle?? lol.

My mate and I were having a conversation about the upcoming state wave titles in south aus and how to judge between a rider hitting it unstrapped vs strapped and decided it is almost another sport surfing the wave strapless......

So the conversation went down the road of what events are currently offered - a state freestyle title and a state wave title. Both are hard to judge because of the variety in styles... trying to understand what styles or riding types have evolved and what other peoples opinions of the categories are....

yep i agree actually, good ol oldschool.

The same can be said for Bindings vs Straps.
I agree unstrapped vs strapped - Straps vs Bindings , nearly different sports and both excel in a different variety of conditions, which makes it even harder to run a comp where they are run as one.......

My two cents worth,
With comps it's really quite easy. Set the boundaries and set the expectations within which to judge.


Wave Comp - Total waves judged in a heat= 6
Of which 3 must be unhooked and 3 Strapless
(depending on time and conditions of course)

Freestyle - Total trick range in a heat must include as a minimum:
Kite loop
handle pass
Board off
(or KGB, Slim Chance, Deadman, whatever really)

Set the expectation - set a standard. I mean you want the best don't you?. So wouldn't you expect the best to be able to do all to a basic degree?. Of course every rider would like to score higher in areas that they tend to be a specialist at and you can allow scope within scoring systems to enable that.

Stapless is different to strapped riding. Hooked in is different to unhooked in surf. As is freestyle hooked in and unhooked.

Pretty hard to do a board off unhooked for example.

But no less difficult than some unhooked handlepass tricks.

Pretty hard to ride unhooked and strapless in waves when it's 30knots too, in fact a bit daft to be honest. Especially when you can be strapped and hooked and just having a ball.

But in competition - My expectation is that the best can demonstrate all, not a problem - just give them the expectations on the day.

I was thinking more of can you define the difficulty of a move strapped vs the same move strapless......

How about a hooked in railey vs unhooked....

What are the categories that now exist ? Old School, Freestyle, Wakestyle, Wave, Speed etc....

No right or wrong answers and please no abusing somebody else for their opinion- the more opinions the better.

Freeride should be deemed as naked kitesurfing..........

Imagine the Ba**slap though

D

We think you're silly.

No, just Geoff.

He's silly.

There he is!!

unstrapped involves looking like a retard and lots of body draggin.
Go surfing if the waves if they are so good.
Otherwise ride strapped and smash the hell out of it, looping down the line and getting big air on the way out.

To the general public strapped in surf looks HEAPS better than unstrapped.

Personally I prefer twin tip strapped in big surf and ride it like a half pipe and unstrapped in little girly stuff if I'm feeling like looking like a "hero."

It's so not surfing with a kite, it doesn't happen, so why not use the kite and smash it as hard as possible????? aka: old school Felix on his booted wakeboard in double overhead surf!!

Don't see many boosts unstrapped do you! **** progression its only a marketing idea anyway... i mean do snow boarders now ride without bindings? Is the half pipe considered harder without them? Sure, but who gives a ****, judge them the same regardless and the stupid ballerina no straps will soon give up.

Just my opinion.

Who gives a fugg what the general public thinks looks better? Oh right, you do-sorry.



Do you ride in waves? Ah no, I see you live in Port Hughes-probably not.

That's crap-I'm a 30+ year surfer-it just depends upon how you ride-to me, my riding in waves unstrapped is HEAPS like surfing-particularly if you let off the power. Watch BW ride unstrapped/unhooked-it's about as close to surfing as you can get and still be holding a kite.

yep about as close, but it's not surfing. And generally it's cross off lovliness that not many people get that often. Also, you're never totally off the power either, you're picking up slack on a bottom turn or top turn, alittle jiggle against the kite running down the face to get tension etc. s

So should the unstrapped guy win the comp for being unstrapped and making a wave, or should all the strapped guys who make something of it win? I say it doesn't matter, get over this bull**** and judge them for the moves.

I too can ride unstrapped and feel the wave yadda yadda but I really enjoy riping down the line and having a boost for joy at the end of it. It just seems a little over the top, like wave sailing without straps, why do that???

The general public do care after all they come and watch don't they? A mate said my unstrapped looks boring while the guy boosting and landing back on the wave was unreal.

I do ride in waves, it's a long Peninsula.

Gavin's got it right..that is the formula.