OK so the topic got locked so ill ask this question again as (possibly to me only) it seems worth discussing:
Watching kite surfing is just above paint drying as a spectator sport!
Assuming you want kite surfing to be a popular sport for the general public (personally I do not) then it needs something that is going to give it mass appeal and a unique identity.
Now (so called) wake style is not going to do this, why? Well, because it is not unique, it’s been done already. Is kite surfing wake style going to get credibility from wake boarders? Nope as, lets face it, no matter how clever and technical it is, it is still a mere copy. Is it going to bring something ‘new’ that is going to provide kiting with the ‘wow’ factor? Well no again.
Aping surfing is the same deal, pure surfers are not going to dig it no matter how hard we try to bring them in. Why? Well, if you want to see a perfect bottom or top turn then look no further than Slater & co. The surf companies have been trying for years to make surfing popular to the mass market, they have succeeded with the lifestyle and clothing thing, but the vast majority of the public turn the TV off when it comes to watching professional surfing.
So what’s going to do it for kite surfing? Well the one thing that we have over all the others is the propensity to go huge. All the non kite surfers that I speak to all mention big airs as being the thing that really gets them going from a spectators point of view and Mega Loops totally blow them away. They literally have seen nothing like it before!
I was watching Catalyst the other day with a non kite surfing friend and it occurred to me that it was just about the best kite surfing DVD I have ever seen. Not because there was anything ground breaking on show, it was just that there was a balance between wake style, surf style and some (not enough) airs.
So my opinion, for what its worth, is that our sport will only gain mass appeal when we forget trying to copy other sports and use what is unique about or own to give it its identity.
The first global kite surfing superstar will be the person who takes wake, surf and big air styles and mashes them together in a way that kite surfing only really can.
Cheers
J
boosting of a wave, with a mega loop and then landing on the same wave again. Looks awesome!
A board off.
Not so awesome!
I think this is a realy good topic, because it needs to go down it's own path rather than just directly following the sports it has roots in (surfing, wakeboarding...)
And combinations of all of them look realy good
What looks good to the average punter is not necessaryly technically challenging or fun to do. Look at synchronised swimming. The sport became so technical in its drive to pursue excellence that it lost its viewer appeal.
ruben lenten knows where its at, he knows how to make it appealing, megaloop king, 20ft passes.
go big, get it televised and we'll be set for life.
Ruben looks like he is having fun, and that's what draws spectators.
when you see someone genuinely having fun it infects others and they want to join in.
It is the nature of kiteboarding that those boosting long and high are observed to be enjoying themselves the most.
the general public do not see the technicality they see a death defying stunt performed by a person with a big grin, and will watch the same thing over and over. get them to watch wakestyle tricks even though they could be seeing a different trick each time and they just see the same thing over and over and done by kiters with hard looks of concentration on their faces, they turn away.
Why on earth, does anybody who kites, want it to have mass appeal.
Think about it.
I could not think of anything worse. Seriously.
What's mass appeal?...... kiting with 10 times the number of kiters at your local spot, maybe 100 times... what if every family who went down the beach took a kite with them .
It's heading down the banned route anyway.
Windsurfing has been around over 30 years and it still doesn't have mass appeal. Who outside kiting, Windsurfing cultures knows who Robbie Naish is and he's the biggest name that windsurfing ever produced.
I think it's going through the same thing that windsurfing went through in the mid-80s. Hopefully, like windsurfing (and not trying to take the piss), it'll die down to the few hardcore guys after a couple of years.
Nothing beats kiting with a few close mates at a great spot without the hassle of crowds!
If you're in it to attract more people into the sport, either you're fairly new to the sport and haven't experienced what's it's like to have a spot to yourself, you've got a commercial interest, or you're in it for the wrong reasons.
SPREAD THE ANTI-HYPE...and you may just limit the number of do-it-yourself kooks on our beaches reducing incidents that will eventually lead to bans whilst enjoying a bit of space for yourself.
Wal
I agree to a point, although I doubt that mass appeal in a spectator sense necessarily leads to mass appeal in a practitioner sense. Plenty of people watched Evil Knievel but not many wanted to copy him.
Please BTW keep the topic of windsurfing for other threads people, its been done to death round here lately. 
Cheers
J
Just on a more humourous note, I reckon the best value of kiting is watchin your learner mates tryin new tricks while your on the beach cheering them on.
For the average spectator this prob isnt too appealing but for myself there is nothin better than havin a beer after a session and cheering your mates on to do their first decent jump or backroll.
a unstrapped surfboard back mobe on a wave wouldn't be as impressive to an outside observer as boosting 40 foot even though the second is way easier... i don't even think a back mobe unstrapped would be possible let alone on a wave but i wanna c itif it happens
This topic has been done to death and it is not going to yield a result, but...
There is a difference between getting mass main stream apeal(what the big boost crowd are talking about) and receiving respect/acknowledgement from the wakeboarding/surfing crowd (what people mean when they talk about pushing the sport).
Big air will get recognition from the main stream but as others have pointed out do we really want this? I am aware it may inject more money into the sport etc. But why not "push" the sport legitamately and let the mainstream media catch up?
Food for thought,
Matt
Every one liks watching FMX and so few ever try it.
The select few Crusty Demon boys get paid so much to put on shows and so they should.
How cool would it be if people would pay big bucks to watch a few ellite kiters go off BIG TIME and make TV shows and events out of it!
No ones going to pay $$$ to what a guy do a flip de flip a few meters of the water no matter how Tech.
Or are they super keen on watching kiters in the waves it just looks like bad surfing no matter how fun.
They want see Big Death defying Airs with some stylish grabs and flips thrown in.
Jumping over the top of a line of house boats and off massive ramps getting absalutly freaken as high as possiable for the longest distance as possiable with a flip and or grab.
This is where I reckon the media will click on and want to produce shows on kiting and I can not wait!
I agree with some of the above, people should put less foccus on mimicking other cool sports like wake and Surf style and should foccus more on what can be done BEST with the kite and thats JUMPING BIG.
You wanna wake get a boat its the best/ you wanna surf go paddle its the best.
You gat some Air!! get a kite and go big!
IMO lenten is on the right track.
Fear is proberly the bigest reason people are so foccused on wake and surf style.
It takes Big guts to boost as high as you possiably can and throw a double back roll in in the middle with a kite loop.
This what the public want to see but not many have the balls to do it... so we focus on wake and surf insted.
Good kite surfers have the potential to be super stars and rake it in if they get with it.
Just my opinion.
Cheers
Luke
the thing is if you set a non-surfer down in front of a surf movie they are bored ****less within 5 minutes (probably as sleep!)
but I can watch the same movie 100 times because I can see every subtle flick of the fins, the stalling in the barrel, the foot movements and pressure applied to the board to make the perfect hack etc....
the future is, gives us what we want...
agreed Matt !
how many of us who like to wake (and even have a boat) have mates with a skippers ticket ??
when it's onshore, how many surfers still go and paddle ?
horses for courses and sports for the prevaling conditions !
if you really only do a sport for the sake of what others think, you should go have a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself who you're living for 
Mass appeal of kiting is a bad idea. Look how many people are out flapping around in the lineup when there are waves. Thats why many surfers have swapped to kiting.
There is already enough kiters in the water going back and forth that think they are killing it. No need to try and add more. Let alone a heap of clowns down there being dangerous.
Any sport thats on the TV has a small percentage that are at the top of the game. Like the Moto FX guys. How many people own bikes and never get both wheels off the ground.
As for the leading edge of the sport. It is guys like Ruben, going massive and doing tech tricks up there. Everyone loves to watch that go down.
Future ?
Well if polesurfing is anything to go by...
I guess GPS altitude-kiting must be the future.
Fat dudes going huge by sending over-powering kites to hell and back.
Then later, over a beverage or three....
geeking out in front of the computer screen tracking your trajectory....
Slave my man
Keep it nice now no reference to our windy brethren 
....and who you calling fat 
I am just Festivley plump, alright 
Cheers
J
As a few people said earlier... I wouldnt agree that making kiting popular is the best idea. I love the idea that almost every kiter I've met so far seems to do the sport just for that... the sport, not to show off! Making it popular always runs the risk of attracting people who do it for that reason itself. Escaping the crowds isn't really a big deal for me, I generally choose the less ideal locations when its busy for just that reason anyway.
Making it a popular spectator sport would undoubtably attract more people towards it, you can't compare it to something like Evil Knievel, because that totally neglects the fact that kitesurfing isn't anywhere near as dangerous, even if big airs becomes the 'popularising' force of kiting.
Also each to their own... Jumps, wakestyle, surf or cruising. I wouldn't really say that there is any ONE direction for the sport, and to attempt to make it that way would require that kiting loses one of its best facets; its versitility. Although I'd definantly say that the most unique thing about the sport, and what got me into it was the jumping, I still can't get enough of that feeling.
Quite frankly i don't care about "mass appeal "and I sell kites and teach kiting .our spots are crowded enough and there is no need for more wannabe's who's first question is 'what i won't be up on the board in my first lesson" and are not interested in the suggestion that they spend a mere few hours on a trainer kite .
people are drawn to the sport regardless .I'd prefer those with half a brain that don't mind putting in the hours including a few walks of shame and don't expect the nintendo or p plater in a v8 experience
The future is anything that makes you think wow, that's way to physco for me to ever attempt. Things that looks slick that are powered and fast. For me I get wow factor from really really big loops (however they have to be the gnarliest ever or they look bleak in comparison), really really powered moves, anything using waves as kickers. Things that just look smooth and not dangly.
I think the future is having multiple aliases on this forum.
What do you reckon, Spacey ?
*Wink.
The most impressive kite surfing I have ever seen was a blow in tourist doing a downwinder at one of the local spots absolutely power carving head to double head high waves on his own little private syndrome (as us locals like to call downwinders) on what looked like a fairly short surfboard, Was driving back up to the other car at our starting point and had to stop and watch this dude , he was very impressive. Even when heading out the back he wasn’t sending the kite but his boosts off the waves where pretty bloody impressive too! i think the most impressive though was his ability to hit the right section of the wave and get two to three turns in on what i thought for the day was pretty much dumpers.. lol 
So I got to agree a little with monkeyman "The future is anything that makes you think wow, that's way to physco for me to ever attempt. Things that look slick that are powered and fast"
Kites becoming a lot more orientated to different diciplines, kitesurfboards with progressive flex,wave kites that may "give/depower" a little whilst unhooking. C kites making a comeback once many beginners get bored with what they are riding for freestyle wakestyle, flysurfers/foils becoming the mainstream choice for lightwind kiting and a endo KL to name a few.......
BTW....... what the hell is a physco (fisko)
Interesting topic!
Kitesurfing is a powerful sport in it's own right. For kiting to really mature into it's full potential it needs to exploit the attributes that make it different ie, the power of the kite.
I like to watch riders like Sky Solbach doing stuff in waves on surfboards, but I don't think kiting will ever get serious cred from surfers, nor do I think that the future of the sport will end in that direction.
Pure wakestyle is also never going to get real cred from wakeboarders unless you add some kite type dynamics into the mix which is what we are beginning to see now with L3's, F16 handlepasses etc.
I think that massive loops with handlepasses/rotations and grabs and such are the truest and purest form of kiting, becasue no other sport can emulate it. It's what makes it so different.
The fact that you can use the one kite to go massive, loop it with a back roll and land smoothly but fast, then throw a carve turn transition on the inside, bolt out, vault off a massive wave, throw a huge cheesy deadman , land back on the face of the same wave and throw a few bottom/top turns in and finish with a front mobe to blind off the lip, makes the sport as cool as anything else out there, if not more so.
Just becasue we can't do this just yet doesn't mean this kind of riding is very far away. Mix it up people, celebrate the diversity and go huge! We are still in our infancy regarding development. Just don't turn our backs on what makes us so distinctly unique, our huge air and kiteloops. 
Good winds,
Alot of people have identified the kite's power and height as what makes us different and that is totally true.
Kitehard has gone one step further and mentioned the diversity we have available and that is also key.
Wake style Hadlow twists get boring pretty fast, even if you can appreciate the technicalities, but a real varied approach like Darren just described has something for everyone and plenty of WOW for all but the most one-eyed kiters.
I think that's what makes those vids of the guy with the yellow Hammer in small surf so watchable (is it Corey B??) anyway, he has real variety with bigger airs, surfing carves and snaps, handle passes, powered landing and all fast and smooth and pretty seamless.
That's where it should be going to make it fun and WOW for everyone - freestyle kiters, free ride kiters, wave kiters and never-will-be-kiters alike.
Maybe the comp scene should get away fro flat water and go to small wave spots where they have flat sections in between the waves and kickers and faces everywhere.
My 2c. Great topic.
If you look at where Snowkiting is going, its all about using the kite to get away from the crowds and access untracked terrain. Also, you see guys doing absolute mad stuff like getting air, grinding the roof of a chalet and then using the kite to boost off the end of the grind and make a soft landing... Accessing the deep powder is what attracts me to that... so whats the equivalent for on the water?
I think maybe the rail/kicker aspect of kitesurfing hasn't been explored enough yet, and that is pretty cool to watch. Especially as kites get more stable and predictable, and guys get more fearless.
Lenten's style is what I like to watch the most.
