Strapless vs Strapped KSP judging guidelines

[waterhead]

it appears that it has been determined that strapped and unstrapped will compete against each other for the KSP wave-riding tour.

curious what the kiting publics opinion is on this.

do you think strapless and strapped should compete against each other or be separate disciplines?

[aeberl]

NO

[prayfawind27]

that should be a slap in the face to all strapless riders , i'm just learning Strapless and having a very difficult time mastering,they make it look so easy in the videos,but that shit is faaaaaar from easy, i envy and respect all the riders that are killing the surf strapless, riding straps is so easy even a Cave man can do it, personally i feel like wearing straps in the surf is like cheating, kinda like wearing a harnes that has a spreader bar goes around your body and you go into a handle pass competition with rider wearing a regular spreader bar.

[magic%20Ed]

Who cares, waveriding is not about a tour. Compare the lame tour action against the individual rider vids...

[TommyDuotone]

At the elite level, they all should compete strapless, or have 2 separate events . Most of the top wave riders in the world prefer riding strapless anyway, correct? And, if you can only ride with straps efficiently, then maybe you're not ready to compete. I know many ex-windsurfers will not agree with me, but personal opinions are what forums are for.

[BraCuru]

No problem with mixed tours in my mind. I am on a stage to uderstand that strapless is more demanding and requires more time for learning but once it is mastered then you might do the same powerfull wave riding.
Kitesurfing is about fun. Stapless is fun. Straps restrict it.
Straps will disappear sooner or later from wave boards. They will stay only for spots where it is safer to use it.

[Peter_Frank]

No problem with mixed tours in my mind. I am on a stage to uderstand that strapless is more demanding and requires more time for learning but once it is mastered then you might do the same powerfull wave riding.
Kitesurfing is about fun. Stapless is fun. Straps restrict it.
Straps will disappear sooner or later from wave boards. They will stay only for spots where it is safer to use it.

Strapless is fun, strapped is fun, strapless restrict it. Thats how I see it.

Many different ways to look at it

I dont think straps will disappear

We have the same problem here - there is not enough competitors and organisers, to make both a strapless and strapped tour.
So both compete at the same events

But the argue that always goes on, is how to judge - whether you should give more points for the strapless and/or unhooked if doing the same moves - because it is more difficult (that is one way to argue), or if it should solely be judged by how aggressive and good it looks, no matter if handicapped in one way or the other - as it is the riders own choice how and what to ride (that is another way to argue).

And noone can really agree on this, unfortunately

Peter

[OzBungy]

My understanding is that the judges are told to judge what the riders do on the wave. The presence or absence of straps is irrelevant.

It is implicit that they are talking about surfing moves on the wave face.

The point of view of strapless riders is that it allows you more freedom of movement to better surf the wave. If you're expecting to get extra points for riding strapless because it is harder to do then it is clearly not a better way to surf and you are a guy. They should use their superior skill and their chosen method of surfing to surf better and get more points.

Similarly, a strapped rider cannot throw in a big boosted air and get points for it because the rider is not surfing the wave, they're dangling under the kite.

My personal opinion is that a top rider, riding quality surf, without straps is a thing of beauty.

A lower level rider, riding without straps because the cool guys do it, is a guy.

Furthermore, I think there should be a licence for people to ride surfboards with kites. I am a bit tired of dodging out of control gumbies who have no idea trying to ride their surfboards when they can't gybe, can't ride toeside and probably can't even ride a twintip properly.

[Toby]

let's see what happens at the first stop of the KSP...for sure we will see videos etc, and riders will have skippers meetings and discuss further. Then we know if this is complete bull or works just fine.

[longwhitecloud]

Can i enter kneeboard kiting?

but really, if it's mixed discipline for me it's not worth the effort turning up, but have a good time anyone that does. it's a lot of money to spend to try and be awarded " Champion of strapped and strapless kitesurfing" sounds bizzare!


some kite surf footage from a roadtrip i did njoi!