IMO, the sport of kiteboarding is all about riding in the present.
That means adjusting your style of riding to suit the conditions. If the wind is strong, the mega loop and going big looks the snizzle, it certainly has no cred when the wind is light, except we still see guys trying! When the wind is a sweet 15-20 side shore and there are nice rolling kickers out comes the more tech style of riding more attributed to wakebaording roots and also we can smack waves and make it look sick.
Where the sport falls down in cred is when people don't ride for the conditions and attempt the same stuff no matter what the wind. Not to many riders can throw down heavy tech tricks in 30kts nor can you go big in 10-15kts.
The sport has so many options and so much potential, let it travel its own course and the good guys will always look good no matter what style it is called as long as they have style!!
Where riders like Aaron and Ruben are right now in the sport makes for an exciting time. These guys have come through the riggors of comp riding and are now paving their own way by adjusting to the conditions. Going huge with loops when it is seriously windy, riding powered wakestyle when suited and hitting waves when the conditions are on.
Lets not pigeon hole the sport, ride with passion np matter what you ride, come off the water happy in yourself and the rest will fall into place.
And of course learn, learn, learn, do not stagnate, try new stuff, be proactive towards your own progression not that of the whole sport!!
Cheers, Chris
thoughtful comments chris, does you opinion extend to different types of kites for different conditions as well? mabe kite manufacturers with further development be able to produce a brand of kite where every size is optimal and will have similar flying characteristics throughout the kiteable wind range.
Sorry Dave I thought a fully grown man like yourself may be able to problem solve a small spelling error, what I meant to type was "psycho". I hope this clears things up for you.
Thanks, I'll sleep better tonight...... Next time if you're unsure, you could try using simpler words like mad,crazy, more your level......
Since there's no wind and you're spending time on the internet, hope this helps....
www.bitcoincashplus.org/spellingbeethegame/
I love your cliche, semi-team rider, woody local , one eyed, immature, alpha male attitude. It actually is entertaining, although soo old....the karl langdon (eagles footballer, before your time) of West Australian kitesurfing.
Strange that you should say that though, the image Hadlow seems to be promoting now is along the lines of Lenten, if you watch that INVENT clip. He's going large and doing big loops up high, with handlepasses etc. thrown in. I quite like the thought of that as progression for the sport.
This sport has so much flexibility, so many options, it's hard to pick where its future mainstream might be. Something I like to see is wakestyle manouvres in waves. Saves all the trouble and board damage of kickers and sliders, plus they move. A backroll transition at the top of a wave and riding back down the face does it for me, or smashing a little one to pieces and using the pop for a low and powered front roll is also fun. But that's just me.
this is the future.
www.wakekite.com/
how cool is that? i just wish they would ride in straps in the demo
NOOOOOOOOOOOO. Wakestyle with dangles.
I thought supafly was a potent type of weed
reminds me of a flying fish
I fear the future is localism at any decent spot. I sincerely hope we dont go the way of some other sports.
the future is super edits on all topics. no verbs nouns or adjetives may be used only grunts. any other words or use of them may be seen as too controversial and you will be edited immediatley.
u cant make anything new, unless it is completley wack and unapealing. every other board sport influences kiting no matter what.
Kiting on 52m lines are fun. So I was thinking with 200kmph winds blowing 24/7 all year in the slip stream the largest kite you will need is a .5 meter and a crap load of lines. And when the oil runs out in 20 years you wont need to worry about air craft.
Ps, don't kite on long lines, if the kite falls out of the sky the extra lines can cause allot of damage, kite safe.....
Kitings pretty un-original when you look at it like this
If you wanna wake style just go wakeboarding
If you wanna surf style just go surfing
If you wanna boost big just go paragliding
If you wanna go fast just go windsurfing
If you wanna snowkite just go snowboarding
The thing about kiting is that we have the ability to combine these sports into one, plus we can go out in conditions that these other sports wouldn't suit.
so kiting basically is as unoriginal as it gets but you wonder why we have the most fun?
We stole the best from other sports and do it all!
I see in the future...
Apes will be our masters and will make us ride 2 line delta kites, whilst keeping the best gear for themselves. I'm pretty sure some massive LASERs will be involved.
Someone will work out how to make Solar Kites and Astronauts will be grinding the Lunar Buggy on the Moon.
Dubai will construct the world's biggest indoor kiting space and all their beaches will be concreted over to make way for our ape master's evil plans.
Oh, and "The General" will be banned, because the future will be humourless...