this is off the sbckiteboard mag website
www.sbckiteboard.com/
- they are doing a poll
I 'd be interested to see what Australians think
Remember the question is SURF STYLE..
Just post your choice from the list below
WHO HAS INFLUENCED YOUR SURF STYLE THE MOST?
Ian Alldredge
Bertrand Fleury
Moehau Goold
Josh Mulcoy
Felix Pivec
Reo Stevens
Ben Wilson
Other
Ben Wilson even sounds familiar to me..
Yeah, I studied his bottom turns quite religiously.
WHY ISN'T KOTP ON THAT POLL
His amazing skills and his strong grasp of the engrish language is what motivates me to get out there
So many good / progressive kiters not on that list, both old and new.
What about Lou Wainman?
In other news Ben Wilson has 50% of the votes so far - vote vote vote people! 
Mauricio . he was riding a strapless surfboard before anyone and killing it and he still is . he should be on there for sure.
yeah Mauricio on unhooked 2 or was it ten4? i dunno on one of them he was ripping
Yeah! WTF...
Seriously though the only kitesurfer to ever "influence" me was Maurico. It was right at the time I had been riding unstrapped a little and wondering if it was actually possible to really rip it up. I must have watched that unstrapped 2 section in Ten4 1000 times. The editing and music selection were sick and if you watch it now it is still a pretty good segment as far as "kitesurfing" vids go. There is a few clips of linking together good turns and airs, especially the last clip.
I know you probably don't care but seeing you asked, I'm gonna tell you what my opinion is of "the list".
Ian A: pretty good surfer. Has a nice style kiting (fluid) and I like the way he is progressing the air side of things a bit. I don't like the way he is hooked in 100%, Yeah sometimes it works well but I think a fair bit of his surfing looks restricted and awkward being hooked in all the time.
Bertrand: Average surfer. Has an awkward style kite surfing, (hes the king of kiteloops though!) I don't rate him in the waves really.
Moe: Pretty good surfer. Alright at waveriding when he wants to be, but I don't think he really concentrates on it much. I rate him as ok.
Mulcoy: Sick surfer! I really like watching Mulcoy surf and know a few people who have stayed with him in Cali and say he really does rip. He's alright at kiting although I don't really dig his style, pretty much a lesser version of Ian A.
Felix: ... What can I say, I could say lots of things, but I won't. I will say though he is good at stating his pioneerism (is that a word) at what ever he changes to next after everyone else is doing it, before stating that he will never do it... He rides alright.
Reo Stevens: Hooked in, strapped in, overated in my opinion.
Ben Wilson: I actually used to think he sucked, no lie, I thought there were a lot of Aussies more deserving than him (as is what i think now with most ppl sponsored for waves) but over the years he did improve a lot and when I saw him at my local a couple of years back I though he really did rip. He has a good style that I don't mind watching now and then. No disrespect to Ben I think he's a top bloke. He also probably has the best backhand pig dog in the business.
The real question though is where is Ryland? This guy is the only guy that has impressed me in a long time. Kiting with him at a heavy south coast break he did some pretty tidy under the lip turns on a wave you really shouldn't be doing that on. Not to mention on a board that really didn't seem like it would work either! His forehand barrel game is also pretty hard to beat in my opinion, full style points there.
Some of the best riding I have seen was Joel Beacus (spelling?) actually looked real light on his toes and rode the board and used minimal kite.
+ Ryland.
Not really a fan of the rest sorry.
yeah what happened to joel becus he was shredding hard at a couple of mambos circa 06 07 then never seen again. jaimie symonds also shreds,kav,stuey martin,tobes,paul j,ryland,pete gallop,mick dahl,ben wilson,bevo,cam barker all rip on their day
Hey Rowdy maybe you can post a video of you riding hey?
You must be pretty good...
Hey Guy's,
Ben Wilson good, Felix and Top Hat is good but our local guys offer some entertaining stuff, guys like Ryland, CoreyB and Will Phillips.
For a guy strapped Corey offers some world class material.
Top Hat seems like he has a bad attitude and Ben Wilson is a bit over the top with the publicizing - he lost major points the one year everybody received sms's during Kitestock 
.
But at the end of the day I would give my right tes+icle to kite like Top Hat.
Cheers
Rich
Lou Wainman did everything in 2002 that everyone else is trying to do today. Kitesurfing reached its peak 8 years ago.
