I agree. Great board, lands nice. Oh and you might want to work on your technique.

dont know if it has been mentioned yet, but the WainMan JoKe eats up the choppy waters, and as far has landing jumps, it catches you smoothly. Depends on how hard you are coming down!! i dont think anyboard will help you with smack down landings!

If your knees are hurting from everyday kiting, maybe your board has to much flex?
it hurt my knees changing to a more stiff board will help
Good luck

Kite is more important than board for landing!
shoudl be used one with constant pull and predictable control that allows touching water without breaking eggs!!!!
must be until last centimeters.
if you have a kite that in the last 2 meter leaves you falling like a stone ,a soft , hard, long , short or any kind of board is the same.
I used to jump only for 6 7 years( the only thing was able to do) with TT ,
not extremely high like eddy lansick but half height more or less.
did so many I am fed up,some rare jump now with directional stiff board but soft landing is the same , no matter the board.
first the kite
second the abdominals
last the board for knees!!!
of course should not use an heavy door for it
ciao ,have fun !!!!!!!!

The kites not a parachute. Direct your kite forward just before you land, no matter what style of kite you have. If perfected, landings are soft and will help your knees, back, and ankles. In addition you might want to try Da Kine footpads. They are really soft underfoot, like wearing slippers.

The footpads on my Mako King are the Bliss pads from '09 which are as soft and comfy and substantial as I could hope for. To compensate for the length, width and stiffness of this board, I purposefully land the board on the back foot with the nose angled up. I also redirect the kite before landing to provide momentum on the landing. I also try to land with a slightly downwind direction which tends to keep my body more "in line" and not leaning back.

But guess what? (Comment directed at technique boys) I still want a "softer landing" board. While I acknowledge that the kite plays a role in the landing as well as jumping technique the size of my board is the single biggest limiting factor in my knee comfiness. Not every jump is perfectly executed. It stands to reason a softer landing board will reduce knee smack.

The thing that keeps me scratching my head at some of the comments is my original post. It said I tried the Crazyfly Raptor Carbon board and liked it. Doesn't that lead one to think that I've got enough jumping skill and my knees aren't that bad?.

No

You stated you were an older man with bad knees.
There are piles of former windsurfers, now kiting with knees that are shot.
This is the impression you gave...

The Mako King is a terrible board to try to jump, I used to have a Mako 140, Mako 150, Mako King.
Any normal twintip will jump better than the Mako King.

You got a nice list of good boards to try now, ....from several people.

Your welcome.

also the - Xenon laluz , very light , flex > soft landing.

I haven't ridden a TT in 4 or 5 years but one of the biggest changes for TT's for me was introduction of the double concave bottom.

I rode the single concave bottom Underground FLX for a while and then got basically the same board with a double concave base.

For me it was a real eye opener to jump and land hard on both these boards. The double concave was like landing on a cusion of air under the board. Crazy how much faster I could come into landings on that board.

I remember reading a article that Underground thought the double concave parted the water when you landed.

Worth trying out a board with a spline running down the center and concave on both sides.

-Tom

OldNBroken and Kamikuza - while I realize it's hip to be "quippy" with your posts and cartoonish with your favorite little icons I am thankful to the guys (see some thanks on page 1) that actually answered the question with some logic and focus. One read through the thread and it's easy to see who the "mature" kiters are and those that just don't get enough laughs in the real world.

There's plenty of threads for releasing your Barney Fife senses of humor into. Oops that shows my age...