Has comp riding changed?

Aaron Hadlow said

A lot of people ask me what I think of double handle passes and how freestyle has progressed in the last years.

Looking back through some old footage I saw a small video I put together 3 years ago in Brazil in Sept/Oct 2006.
It was never released at the time because of footage rights but here it is now to ask the question if competition riding has developed over the last few years.

I know my own free-riding has changed quite a lot but I find that the vibe on tour is still ‘double handle passes to win’. In some cases I can agree, they can be harder, but the kite has to be at a decent angle.
For instance is a Low Mobe 5 with the kite next to the water harder than a Mobe 7 with the kite above your head? Yes, I think it is.
In my eyes a lot to do with double handle passes is strength when you are talking about these kite angles, almost a pull up, is this good for our sport?
Once the kite comes down and people use body movement and speed opposed to dangling and time, then we are talking about the next level of difficulty, until then I don’t agree.

I know I helped bring these to the table a few years back, but for me they fizzled out and I tried something different, I didn’t see them progressing much further at the time and that lead to a change in my riding, adding technical difficulty in different ways. Lower kite, different grabs and movements, etc.
These days I don’t do doubles so much, I’m sure it shows, when I see one I generally think they portray a bad image for kiteboarding but despite not seeing them develop much in the last years I do think there is room for improvement, it just takes someone to do it. Sometimes I think maybe I should give them one last chance, but is it worth it?
I don’t think that people or judges notice kite angles that much, it is hard to tell the difference.
The thing is kite angles always rise in comp, the chances of landing gets better and better the higher you put your kite, I have seen kites at ridiculous angles, but I think it is still viewed as the same trick and difficulty anywhere in the region from 40 degrease - 70 degrease, only when one rider has it at 30 and another at 80 do people really notice.

For me I want my riding to look as good as possible thats why sometimes I’d rather not do them or I will pull a Front Mobe Blind instead of a higher kite and an air-pass.
I know I have done a lot of competitions with doubles, even in the recent few years and I will continue doing what I have to do to win events but it just shows me that tricks in a heat have not moved on that much and more needs to be done to progress the competitions scene.