no dangle if done proper.
See Mark Shinn, Adam Koch etc.

If you are not good in something, all is dangle!

like the comments about no contests. But diff people want diff things out of the sport.

If you are v competitive then i suppose you want to be sure your better than somebody else. So highly technical tricks are suitable.

There's many of us i guess who do it for pure fun, release from all the shit during the week.

Thankfully there's still loads of beaches to get away from everybody and do your own thing. i love our waves down here coz in the week i'm trying to compete against other companies so at the wekends if i have any competitive spirit left i'll use it against the conditions, not other people!!!

I with Nick here. Not into comps or extra large gatherings at all.

Give me an afternoon session with a few mates or a small social downwinder with a dozen or so guys anyday over the hype and wank of competiton.

-as many disciplines as the venu will allow.

-a world wave tour

-the races are fun & offer everyone a venue to compete together

plus:
how about weight classes in freestyle so heavier, but good, riders can compete on an even platform. for example,someone who weighs 175lbs doesn't have a hope in hell competing against a 140lb rider i lighter winds. the lighter rider will always have more hang time. how about more points for true style. might be tough to define but sometimes simpler but more styish moves deserve more merit than a gagillion twirls. this is kiteboarding after all, not gymnastics. we could learn a lot from snowboarding, surf comps & skateboarding comps.

you mean in very light winds!
Us heavier folks can ride bigger kites...so that equals in hangtime!

As many disciplines as possible...

Freestyle is OK but just going big for a few technical tricks, IMO don't make you world champion if you can't compete in all the other disciplines to a similar standard.
But then it depends on the competition as organising and judging is very difficult.
But I do think there should be a list of compulsory basic tricks, which the rider selects a set number to include in each of their rounds.

How it could work
Rider chooses a set number of tricks from a list of compulsory tricks (based on number of rounds) and for each round they reach, select further tricks from the list which get progressively harder until they reach the final.

Kiter-X is good idea as would be a downwinder race
Also Sliders and Kickers.

So maybe each event location could choose 3 disciplines - all judged separately then at the end of the season all results are calculated together.

ending with Freestyle World Campion, Kiter-X, Wakestyle, Downwind
and Overall Kitesurf World Champion best season score from all disciplines


just a few ideas....

This video is a good indication of some things that need fixing.

No more dangling. Some riders (not all but many) are completeing unhooked tricks and are stuck hanging onto the bar with one or two hands while they float back down 2 meters to the water. See 1:24 of video for an example.

No more flailing your board or body around in order to complete more rotations. Board grabs should be incorporated into tricks to show rider control over both kite and board. See 1:06 of Video for example.

Powered landings also need to be standard. No more high speed take offs and slow motion landings. See most of the video.


---

Events:

Wake (Kite not allowed lift rider into the air/ Sliders and Ramps on flat water)
New School/Freestyle (Tricks with kite loops and unhooked)
Old School/Freeride/ Down Winder (No kite loops, must be hooked in.
Idea is to ride fast and hard through the waves)
Wave
Directional/ Mutant Freestyle Event (this would kick ass!) bravo:
Big Air/ Hang Time
Speed
Boarder-X
Distance Race
Best Trick

J.

I'd like to see something like "Powered Freestyle": You can do any old or new school trick as long as the hangtime is greater than ca. 4 seconds (depending on the average wind speed during the contest.)

It shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a scoring system where you get lots of extra points for hangtime and jumping height. And maybe some extra points if the kite is 20 feet below the rider during a kite loop...

I think it is ahrd to have different styles in one heat.
It is possible, then the judging could be like this:

each one trick of: kiteloop, handle pass, board off, rotation with grab and one foot.
For these they get points, and height has minimum 50% of the score for each trick.
And the question is if the heat system with advancing is good at all?
Then you will always see the same!

I rather vote for splitting the disciplines, so you get the best of all disciplines into competing.
Then you will have world champions for each discipline and you can have an overall champion.

But don't tell a wave rider he has to do handle passes kiteloops to be able to ride his wave in a comp...same for me, I would go for hang time, but not enter if I have to do freestyle...

Discuss!

Kite -X setup. Including sliders, ramp, whatever,etc. Finish off course with long downwind speed run to finish.

Compulsory tricks (? decides) within marked comp zones, freestyle zone, the whole course timed, with time added or subtracted for certain criteria.

Criteria example: "dangle time/complexity", success/attempts at sliders, # and power of tricks in freestyle zone, completion of compulsories, and time. Set a max time of addition/subtraction for "qualitative" tricks. Example, dude/chica #1 can’t get max time for 10 boring handle passes, etc. Rider #3 does handle pass during 7 second “dangleâ€Â