Funny you may mention this. I have been talking with Ian the organiser of the Lennox comp about this very matter recently.

My opinions on the matter at hand is that;
1. Unstrapped requires undoubtably more control, skill and finesse than strapped.
2. Strapped allows for more turns to be made in whatever part of the wave you like and for errors in riding to be easily corrected.

It is my opinion that straps are the training wheels of the surfboard. I don't think there would be to many people that can ride both well that would dispute this fact.

HOWEVER... That doesn't automatically mean because you are unstrapped you should beat anyone who is strapped no matter the circumstances.
You will still have to out-surf the other rider, you have to prove your skills in the conditions and provide a better mix of skill, style, power and technicality than the other surfer.

If you go out unstrapped and fall off every wave, you will LOSE.

If you go out strapped and do the most turns, you will not automatically WIN.

I think people (kiteboarders in general) seem to be of the mentality that the more turns you do on a wave the more points you will get... This couldn't be further from what it should be, however I have seen it happen at comps all to many times before.


Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but to the best of my knowledge I believe the judging format will be set for overall impression. i.e. Style, power, originallity of moves etc.
The WINNER will be the person with the best overall impression on the judges, not the guy who does the most S-turns and not the guy who is just unstrapped.

You need to make what you do stand out! I think this will make for a far more entertaining comp and riders will be less focused on tallying up points and more focused on showing what they can do and how they have the most fun.

Obviously Un-strapped will play a role in this decision of overall impression. Someone doing a regular turn strapped is far less impressive than someone doing the same thing un-strapped. So if you are planning on riding the training hooks, you better be prepared to blow up and make it count, merely utilising them to make the maxim of turns on the wave will not automatically declare you the winner.


p.s.
If it were up to me, unstrapped and strapped would be totally separate divisions because I feel it is to hard on judges having to make decisions on one or the other and if there were a division for each they would be far more focused on the surfing...

Yeah well grab anyone who has no knowledge of kiting, place him on the beach and ask him which one look more spectacular - a dude riding a wave or - a guy with a twin tip doing a big boost?...
We all know the punter is going to say the twin tip guy, so should we just make this a contest about boosting off waves instead?... NO.
Your logic is totally flawed. The comp isn't solely run to entertain the public and it isn't to decide the best rider based on what someone who has no idea about kiting thinks. The objective of a comp is to place the best rider on that day in the winning position and (in my eyes) to progress the sport.

Formats need to be more focussed on progression or otherwise you just have the best safe consistent rider winning, which is even more boring for judges/spectators and equally boring for competitors.
Comps should be about pushing yourself and bettering the sport.

Great call, count me in, I have an old skim board in the shed and if I back it with my old rooted naish kite with a tear in the trailing edge, I am pretty much guaranteed to win.
I can still go back and forth and clear the white froth.
Watch out, I am coming

Pearl has a logical point.
Large waves, powerful riding requires straps.

Surfers would love to have straps on their boards to be more explosive, I WOULD!
But its not practical to paddle and the exact strap positioning is random on a 6 foot plus board.

Tow surfers need high performance equipment, Smaller boards are easier to control at speed and they're a lot faster. Faster board speeds requires straps.

Last time I checked I believe we are being towed by a kite and we all have the magic opportunities to ride at blazing high speeds?

Sorry Rowdy and all other body draggers passionately involved, strapless riding belongs to the skimboard, wake skate, (low powered, low speed wanna pretend they are doing another sport) divisions.

sir ROWDY said...
you have to prove your skills in the conditions and provide a better mix of skill, style, power and technicality than the other surfer.

If you go out unstrapped and fall off every wave, you will LOSE.

I Think this is the key to good waveriding. the conditions determine the riding style alot of the time and then personal preference the rest.

I ride with some good strapped riders and they are explosive, I envy the way they surf, but then I am sure they have the same admiration for my unstrapped riding.

It will take a very astute non bias kite "surfing" judge to tell who is better.

Usually scoring is justification for the end result that most people would be able to decide without a score sheet. But it is necessary all the same.

I recon both strapped and unstrapped riding can be judged in same comp.

I don't think boards or straps should be taken into account. It should purely be on wave choice, positioning, style and all the usual criteria. If it turns out that riding unstrapped puts you in a better position, gets you barrelled or what ever then that will be reflected. But to score based on looking at the dudes feet to work out if they are strapped in or not to me seems silly. Sure, as pearl said, where does the riding handicapped stopped. Just on straps, or should it be going on fins, boards size..... Seems a bad idea to me. Let the riders be judged on the same criteria and not some handicapped system. If riding with straps is a massive advantage, sure, use them in competition to win if thats what it takes, and ride unstrapped if you like freekiting if that rocks your boat.

I don't think you guys properly read what I wrote.
To summarise:
You will not win just because you are un-strapped.
You will not win just because you are strapped and provide more turns, than another rider.

The waverider with the best overall impression will win.

I know personally straps can cramp a good riders style and unstrapped can be equally challenging in certain conditions, you will obviously be able to use both of these to your advantage, in different conditions. However your perfomance on the day will be the defining factor.

This isn't actually the judging format as of yet and I am not going to be judging. However I know 2 of the judges, 1 will be a windsurfer who can kite and the other is a really good skater who can surf and is learning to kite. So at least those 2 judges should be very much un-biased.





p.s.
I don't really care who is on the beach, I will tell anyone straps are the training wheels, because they are, "wakestyle" included. One day things will be different but until then you at least need to try and progress the sport (if thats what you like doing), straps aren't the future and if they were I guarantee you the future would be full of PKRA danglers doing mobes above waves... now that paints a horrible picture in my head.
In fact last Lennox comp me and happy rode straps, we just mucked around did aerial 360s, 180s and other flips and spins just to prove how easy and silly it is. We came 2nd and 4th respectively. In no way do I feel what we did was progressive, it was learnt in a day and landed almost every try.

Don't worry I have expressed this view many a time to the locals at Lennox (who are my friends) they know how I feel everyone knows how I feel. Like it or hate it, thats my stance you can make up your own minds and decisions what to ride, both have their fun points.

iandvnt said...


A heat with a strapped rider vs an unstrapped rider therefore seems rediculous to me personally. Its subjective enough already let alone mixing them up.

Pretty much exactly what I said in my first post. However, due to time restraints I doubt they will be separated.

^^^ I also remember that and I have to disagree. Aaron is a good rider but 20 boring cutbacks every wave shouldn't win you a comp. That comp was even more backwards than usual because even the strapped up guys doing airs and unique combination of stuff didn't beat a strapped rider doing 20 turns.
My dad was one of the judges at that particular comp and said the other judges were meerly making a tick for every maneuver or turn made on a wave... thus progressive riding pretty much did nothing for you, the more cutbacks you did the more points you got. Aaron played well to the scoring critera, and took the comp. (although it wasn't communicated that this was the criteria).

Prawnhead said...

i like the lennox comp because the vibe is good ,the locals are friendly ,the pub is close and i get to bull**** to friends i haven't seen in a while!!

This my friend is what comps are all about, I'm glad someone recognises that these days.

your shout!! rowdy

^^^ lol - but kiters would never do that...

Fire up Rowdy!

Poida said...

Zeph said...

Hey Rowdy come down to Margs and tell Dreu and the boys they're using "training wheels"!!! you'd be laughed off the beach...
No One is doing turns like them strapless!!

You right zepth
It's such a beast of a wave
But if someone punted over the peak on a freight training double overhead day with 20kn sse strappless, then pulled in through the surgeons, then pulled a combination of top to bottom turns through the inside wall, I'd give them a 10.

It'd be a punishing learning curve

Come down south next time and watch Ryland destroy a slab on a 5ft something board with no straps... Thats about the gnarliest wave I've seen people ride and he did fine with no straps, just takes some skill.
Straps = training hooks.

Sure he pulled into some slabs... full credit... but he ain't smashin the lip as hard.. or as critical...as you can strapped.... go check some of the footage of Dreu in th world championships in Peru... strapped stylish no danglely ****..smashin it in the pocket...
Maybe it's got more to do with soft east coast waves and you are bored

So you are saying that strap do not give you the capacity to hit the waves harder????
You must not be quite the full can of coke mate
I give up, I will never win this argument.
Let me guess,do you wear bordies over your wetty