The Windsurfing Team (Karin Jaggi, Bj?rn Dunkerbeck, Patrick Diethelm, Sebastian K?rdel and Richard Stauffacher) have handed out a severe beating to kiters at this years Engadinwind 2011 8)

More here:-
http://www.continentseven.com/2011/08/16/engadinwind-2011-windsurfers-beat-kiters/

Geez Lotowind has been strangely silent

Still served it up overall

Who's side are you on anyway...

sausage said...

Geez Lotowind has been strangely silent

I think now that he has been proven wrong he is busy trying to polish his own turd

Na, Im just trying to work out why you guys need to compare yourselves to kitesurfing?????Its two different things.
But you all seem to want my opinion so I wont disapoint.
If it matters so much to you guys,,,try and break the speed record,,,really dont get why all the threads over here are always comparing to kitesurfing?????
Why the need????

Yawn

Maybe this is why no young people get into poledancing??
They think they want to,so come to this forum to find out about it,
but only find endless threads of old guys whinging about kitesurfers and how windsurfing is no longer popular.??
Or that it takes till your a old and grey to even get half decent at it????Thats not gunna attract teenages to try and have a go.

good luck

It depends a lot on the conditions and format who would finish first. There's been little or no development of kite slalom gear. There were 3 slalom races and two course races. Speed courses for windsurfing and kitesurfing are different angles.

Karin Jaggi is a top level slalom sailor. Steph Bridge is the World Champion at course racing. They each won all the ladies races in their own speciality.

Two sailors finished second and third in the course racing, but no-one's interested.

lotofwind said...

terminal said...

It depends a lot on the conditions and format who would finish first. There's been little or no development of kite slalom gear. There were 3 slalom races and two course races. Speed courses for windsurfing and kitesurfing are different angles.

Karin Jaggi is a top level slalom sailor. Steph Bridge is the World Champion at course racing. They each won all the ladies races in their own speciality.

Two sailors finished second and third in the course racing, but no-one's interested.

and seeing as no-one is intersted,,
did you realise that the kiter wasnt a world champion like the dancer was,
he was in it for the fun of it, mucking around,and was only riding a novice TT,not a race board and still nearly won.

Which kiter are you talking about?

I agree with lotofwind, however a self-proclaimed turd he may be.

I get little in comparing speeds.
For instance when we drive to the beach we go 100 clicks,
does that make us sports people because we're faster than windsurfing or kiting? no.

Windsurfing is inherently better a sport because it's a sport, period. (plus we don't take all the room, endanger people and cause beaches to close, that sort of stuff.)
I'm happy with that.

I still think it would be interesting to have kiters and windsurfers in the Rotto race that they ran last year.

The times from the kiters seem to be similiar to what windsurfers did but it was only one way (less fatigue) and windsurfers haven't donethe race for about 15yrs or so.

Would be an interesting exercise and if annual it would encourage development and training by both camps due to healthy competition.

Slalom, Speed and Course Racing.

Slalom: I think it will be a long time before kiters are remotely competitive with windsurfers around a slalom course or in a Rotto style reaching race. Partly due to the inherent geometry and stability issues across the wind in bumpy water and partly because kiters have yet to pursue board development in this direction. Windsurfers can use the semi rigid connection between boom and board (via mast) to increase their resistance to pitching, while kiters at speed (so not on twintips) across the wind struggle with this at the moment.

Speed: On flat water at broad angles the numbers speak for themselves.

Course Racing is where it's interesting. Kite raceboards are undergoing a similarly rapid development curve as that in windsurfing which followed Ken Winner's winning the US nationals on his "flapper" in 1996. Boards, fins and technique are being reinvented and outdated every few months. I'd really like to see the top course racers from each sport have a go at windward-leeward courses in a range of conditions.

Windsurfers may be interested in this vid which, in between the fin pimping, shows Adam Koch at some nice speeds and angles.

Where's Col when you need him? He has a great video of Chris Adamson blasting past the kiters in the Rotto race
Can't find the sucker tho...

djdojo said...

paolo rista, mike gebhardt, alex aguera and others pushing the kite course racing envelope (in terms of gear and coaching support for the elite racers) were all pro windsurfers before they took up kiting. this point alone should nullify any "kite-racing sucks" sentiment, unless of course there are some serious insecurity issues ...

All those blokes know how to gybe and tack whereas the average kiter thinks a tack is a stupid looking boring move and a gybe is spelt jibe and its something from the 70s disco era.

KenHo said...

The "board-shorts over wetsuit" on the guy behind Bjorn cracks me up.
Is it compulsory or summat ??

I was laughing at Bjorn(isnt that something to do with ABBA?) posing for the camera doing a cool hang loose sign and wearing his too cool for school sunnies.Funny as.....
Why is his wet suit baggy?????

lotofwind said...

Mark _australia said...

I still think it would be interesting to have kiters and windsurfers in the Rotto race that they ran last year.

The times from the kiters seem to be similiar to what windsurfers did but it was only one way (less fatigue) and windsurfers haven't donethe race for about 15yrs or so.

Would be an interesting exercise and if annual it would encourage development and training by both camps due to healthy competition.

Still trying to work out why you need to prove,or feel better about your sport by wanting to compare or prove that your totally different hobby is better.???
Are you all that insurcure that kiteing is over taking????
Are you really that worried that more youngsters see kiteing as more fun??
Does that mean you cant enjoy going dancing any more?????
Why do you need others to think that the old 80's sport is better than todays sports????
Its like comparing e-mail to snail mail.LOL

No, I said the times were similar so it would be interesting and drive development of race gear

Stop putting words in my mouth, there was no 'them vs us' in my post. No insecurity. (BTW the word is "insecure")
Just like F1 vs CART would be interesting.

I refrained before, but seeing as though you felt the need to bring it: the kiter's time from Rotto to Perth was slower.
Slower than what windsurfers did 15yrs ago.

yeah but....... its kitesurfing.

Here's that vid for those who have not seen it.