I am not into racing (yet) so forgive me my dumb questions:

1. A racing class organisation IMHO should be there for the Kiters, not against... How is it possible that on the internet it is complaint after complaint about the IKA? Is it just the small proportion of racers that disagrees that is blogging the net?

2. The idea of rules and a class is creating a level playing field. One argument for this could be to prevent that the kiter with the largest R&D budget wins. Why don't just allow all commercially available kites and boards? This doesn't disturbe the LPF.

3. If unsatisfied with IKA.. Why don't the riders just race under a more democratic (for and by kiteracers) racing class organisation? The kiteforum.com racing class for example...

My observations are:
Because majority involved racing riders sort out any problems during IKA events: face-to-face or off-the-event by their national associations.
Internet? It's perfect for protesting but not acting! Therefore you might meet more protest than love songs


If I read the latest correct it's proposed as you wrote.


Be the first. Experience it and explain your failure later

'As I thought that was a mistake and was clarified asap by Markus.
Check out the link given by Gunnar now. The rules state now:
For an IKA KiteFoil kite-board to be eligible for racing it shall comply with the rules in this section
B.1 LICENSED MANUFACTURERS Reserved for future use
B.2 HULL IDENTIFICATION Reserved for future use
B.3 KITE IDENTIFICATION Reserved for future use'

I'm happy about clarifying the rules and cancelling these restrictions
looking forward to meet you guys at a foil event in 2014!

Mayby not the exactly right topic to post this question, sorry, but:
Why lots of riders at foilboards competitions use helmets? Is this because they all are beginners (if so I would adwise to use a boardleash too) or is this sort of kitesurfing even more dangerous than using raceboards with 3 long and sharp swords???

in france I think it is law to wear a helmet and since most foil riders are from France.....

The crashes on a foil board are a lot harder also, I have heard it likened to wakeboard crashes...

Adam Koch compared falling on the foilboard to falling off of a six foot ladder in a recent video. I'm guessing the helmets are in case you get hit by the board/foil though.

The danger of raceboard fins is a lot less than you would think. The typical raceboard crash is the board catches/stops and you go flying past it. The only injury I've seen was someone grabbing for the board in waves and cut their hand.

The foilboard on the other hand seems to keep going after you fall off. From the videos it looks like when you fall off, the board keeps going and jumps up out of the water:



Helmet seems like a good idea

Swell havn't you heard that leashes are out ! Total no no !
Nico

Why do we let the IKA destroy everything we build. Why have IKA racing its a bunch of crap.

They claim they are trying to make things accessible to more ppl but which is BS.
because of their stupid rules I wont be allowed to race what I currently have but would need to go spend $10,000 on gear. don't forget these aholes now basically tax the manufactures per kite registered. what a bunch of BS.

Why can i not compete with my foil mounted to a crappy old surfboard riding some old ass crappy kites. All they are doing is write a bunch of crap on what you are not allowed to do and then enforce a tax for them on what you are allowed to use.

Wow Stefaans, you must feel very strongly about it. I think most riders agree, the IKA should just leave out most (if not all) equipment restrictions.

The normal argument for having equipment restrictions (i.e. avoiding an arms race) is in my opinion not valid for the amount of carbon fibre or other exotic materials one can physically put in a foil and kite. The rules are only achieving the opposite of what they claim: as you said, you now have to invest much more in order to be able to compete.

And kiteboarding is still very much an individualistic sport with racing only a small part. We do not need to level the playing field to make it fun. It is far more fun to see how far the equipment can be developed. I would rather have "outdated" gear that can do say 30 knots, than have the latest and greatest competitive gear that can only do 20 knots because the development was so much halted in order to level the playing field.

In sailing where material costs are much more, and racing is a much larger requirement for having some adrenalin pumping action and having fun, strict class rules are understandable. In kiting however, we should leave the rules wide open, and only far in the future when (and if) it ever becomes obvious that it is becoming an arms race then introduce equipment restrictions.

I think most kiters would agree, but I could be wrong?

Well honestly does really matter. Nobody cares about the IKA they can suck it!
I'm lucky to be in San Francisco where we do whatever we want and race what we want. Faster is better attitude here. We probably have 20 events here a year where mybae 2 of them will be IKA.

Yeah the non IKA ones are the fun ones