Not sure if trolling? Kiting is all about progression which keeps enjoyment. Your average joe enjoys a combination of mowing the lawn and dingle dangles. This gets too easy too boring u need 30 knots before it gets exciting where unhooked tricks is rewarding in all conditions. Whats cool to you isnt cool to others and vise versa

Triggerhappy said..
Perhaps someone could explain the attraction. It looks neither elegant nor stylish. It is perhaps difficult but it ain't look cool. Any thoughts?

I agree. Problem with kiting is that so many people are focused on "handle bar pass" when it's not about that at all, it's all about the rotation . You can make anything look bad, the hard part is making something look good and that's the challenge of all boardsports.

I think a rider which only does wake style is really boring to watch, need to mix it all up! Len10 style is the way forward.

I'm pretty sure the attraction to passing the handle is to enable the continuation of the trick you’ve initiated.

It’s a necessary evil of kiteboarding/wakeboarding/wakeskating, and needing towing device to actually ride.
Skateboarding/snowboarding/surfing, being self-propelled are immune from the “handle bar pass”, and free to spin to win without releasing your grab!

If you don’t “handle bar pass”, you will either
a.) wrap yourself in the lines
b.) ruin your shoulder joints
c.) not be able to complete the trick
d.) all of the above

I’m more concerned with the peoples attraction the "handle bar moustache"…
Especially by some of the blokes sporting them who hang around the beach carparks in Melbourne...

hargs said..

Triggerhappy said..
Perhaps someone could explain the attraction. It looks neither elegant nor stylish. It is perhaps difficult but it ain't look cool. Any thoughts?

I'd have to agree with Trigger happy.

I am sure there is a high level of skill involved in these unhooked moves but in my opinion to watch they all look the same and aren't very stylish at all. Sure it maybe easier but a huge tweaked out old school table top into a front roll off a decent ramp wins my vote hands down. And I've been doing this sort of stuff for ten years now and don't get bored one bit.

But as i said this is just my opinion - different strokes for different folks.

Fair enough, but really any trick (even your majestic high table tops) can look rubbish if it's done poorly with no style.

p.s. If you've been doing table-tops for 10 years now and you're not bored you must be a simple man to please, I wish I had that train of thought.

As I say with skateboarding, 70% skill 30% style.
Same thing works here, why do flippy tricks that all look the same when big ramp skating attracts more crowds? easy, there is soooo much reward from landing something technical

don't like my handlebar - i'll fight yous all

Agreed, wake style's pretty boring to watch, am not saying that it's easy, just that it's boring to watch and any way, why copy another sport and call it by the same name? Just go and do that sport instead and leave more room for kiteboarders, surf & freestyle!

It's dosnt matter what style your into, you just have to appreciate whatever style is being thrown down. Take Marilyn Manson, I'm sure he dosnt listen to beethoven, but I'm sure he appreciates what he could do!

puppetonastring said..

kiteboy dave said..

hargs said..

Triggerhappy said..
Perhaps someone could explain the attraction. It looks neither elegant nor stylish. It is perhaps difficult but it ain't look cool. Any thoughts?

I'd have to agree with Trigger happy.

I am sure there is a high level of skill involved in these unhooked moves but in my opinion to watch they all look the same and aren't very stylish at all. Sure it maybe easier but a huge tweaked out old school table top into a front roll off a decent ramp wins my vote hands down. And I've been doing this sort of stuff for ten years now and don't get bored one bit.

But as i said this is just my opinion - different strokes for different folks.

I agree.

The reason it's called a handle-pass not a bar-pass is because it's the wakeboarders like Best who brought it into kitesurfing. IMHO if it's done at wakeboarding height then you should just wakeboard cos it's all the same to watch... booooooring.

IMO its great for kiters to copy-cat the wakeboarders. Great skill needed so why not.
But IMO its limiting kiting potential if its all; or considered the most important; dciscipline.Wakeboarders cant boost (well not much) - kiters can. And when they do they can do all sorts of stuff wakeboarders couldnt even dream of.
Stuff thats skillful, awesome fun, great to watch etc etc. All the really good cool stuff.
Its what makes kiting different, exciting and new.

But give the wakestylers some slack - the skill level required is what motivates them and they dont care if it doesnt thrill the crowd.

Good comments from sir Rowdy here - spot on.

Word!

Spot on old chum

Jeezus...Guess what Kiteloops aren't unique to kiting either, it's actually called a fly-loop, kiters just stole and poorly copied it .

Guess what, jumping isn't unique to kiteboarding either ...

I assume some people in this thread are just trolling, whilst some are actually just stupid.

No style that's "copying" another sport (everything kiters do) is a direct copy of that sport. Even "Wake-style", which to the unlearned may appear to be the exact same thing as behind a boat or cable, well actually it isn't. Kiteboarding allows you to take inspiration from these sports and use those skills in a different way. Show me someone wakeboarding in wave kickers - show me someone wakeboarding behind a boat or cable that they can control by themselves and take them wherever they want to go... these are just the most obvious ones but there are lots of smaller attributes that make these sports totally different things.

The more you do Boardsports, the more you realise that at an elite level all the sports start to merge closer and closer together. Why??? - because all boardsports are built on the same foundations of rotations and good style, thus naturally they converge and draw inspiration from one another.

Just because you can or can't understand what's happening will obviously have an effect on what you find entertaining. I would almost rather watch paint dry than watch some kiters down the beach "boosting big"... that being said I've seen so much "wakestyle" in my life as well that I couldn't really be assed sitting around for that either most the time .

puppetonastring said..

But give the wakestylers some slack - .

nice pun

What happen to kiting how you want because you simply enjoy it and dont care what other people think of what 'style' you are doing. If your style of kiteboarding is developed by what looks 'cool' for spectators guess what no one on the beach gives a **** what you are doing.

Style +

Terje Haakinson HUGE method 360.... Jamie Lynn straight up method tweaked 2 the F_K

RIP Craig Kelly & Tom Sims