Saw a kite contest on TV last sunday, all powered up wake style tricks and just thought I really miss the high jumping flowing style of say the shinn era. Does anyone agree?
the powered up wake tricks to me just are not good to watch (I'm sure they are to do and bloody difficult) but the whole world circuit seems to be tuned to this style and i just don't dig it? am i just old school and out of touch or are there others out there wo enjoy watching the acrobatics and air time of yesterday?
Depends on the rider. Aaron is super smooth with the kiter low. Some people look untidy and rushed.
Hey mate
I think thats a personal preference, as to which style is better to watch. I myself like both. I think there are many people out there who would both agree and disagree with you.
I think the days of seeing top level riders doing old-school big air tricks in competition is over as they have pretty much pushed this style to the limits. Remember many of todays top level riders, (Hadlow, Lenten and many more who would be considered young by most), were top 10 competition riders back in 2003/2004, (even though they were only 13 years old) and had some of the best board-off, big-air dangle pass combinations going. They haven't ignored the old-school they've already done it.
I know where your coming from though, seeing old footage of Robby Naish jump 20 metres in the air, spin round several times with one foot out the board still looks fooking awesome!!! If you did this on your average beach you would be grabbing more attention than some one popping a perfect Raley 2 Blind, unless the beach was packed with pro-kiteboarders and wakeboarding fans 
One person who I believe would agree with you is actually Ruben Lenten. You watch some recent interviews with him and although he will hit sliders, rails and is pretty good at wakestyle, he finds it pretty boring. His thing is going huge, looping his kite like a maniac in the strongest winds possible.
I think one of the best things about kiteboarding is the freedom we have to go out and ride any style we want; Speed, Surf, wakestyle, freestyle old and new.
Depends who your watching, I don't thing competitions adequately represent anyones best riding.
It also depends what your into, as pointed out above. If you're not into wakesktyle you're not going to get a thrill out of watching it, same goes with wakeskating or waveriding... Not many people are involved in all the facets of this sport hence there is always going to be people claiming something is boring
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Hmm the last time I have seen an interview with Lenten (triple-s 2009 or 2010 I think) the interviewer tried to convince him to go big again, but he said he enjoys the wakestyle thing more. Maybe it was just an excursion that now led him back to the roots again..
I don't blame the talented kids for not practising quadruple boardoffs. A comp should be for the riders with the aim to determine who's the best, and if they want to progress the wakestyle aspect, so be it.
Yet big airs/kiteloops are probably the most characteristic thing about this sport and it does seem quite neglected. In comps you rather see course racing, boarder-cross or surfing 3ft ripples, which I personally find unspectacular-as.
If you like to see silly oldschool acrobatics/ballet to the max, check out Toby Breuer. He does his very own thing and some (most?) of his moves look downright hilarious.
If you don't like a style of music it all sounds the same. To me most squigglepass stuff looks the same. I really couldn't give a toss which way his body's spinning and which way the bar's passed, the angle of the kite, etc.
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watched it and turned it off, boring ,boring, dont deserve to be on tv. freeriding waves make it exciting at least. they dont need akite , get to the cable park !
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This thread seems familiar!
Maybe I've red it a few hundred times!
Big airs are in the past because there easy! Ride send the kite and float!we've all seen it, we can all do !
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If you are talking about competitions then the actual trick doesn't really matter. What matters is the style of the execution. A twiddly move with a crappy setup and landing is ugly.
Possibly the most beautiful move in kiteboarding is an ultra-extended, powered unhooked railey. My personal favourite to do is a high speed, toeside carve with a big rooster tail and full speed in and out of the move. It's not that hard to do but when it's perfect it feels great and I think it looks great.
There's video of Aaron Hadlow doing beautiful, powered unhooked mega loops with perfect landings. On the other hand there's video of Ruben Lenten doing massive unhooked multiple loops with crappy landings and the kite flopping all over the place.
Kiteboarding competitions in general, and wakestyle in particular, has always been the same as figure skating. All that keep the kite at 45 degrees stuff and different moves with different names depending on the bit of rail you grab, and wearing the proper boardies and trucker's caps and t-shirts over the wettie. Pure figure skating. It needs to be judged using the same criteria.
You should get points for technical difficulty, execution and style.
