sir ROWDY said...
If it were up to me, unstrapped and strapped would be totally separate divisions ...
"Out of the mouths of babes"

I totally agree.
Only way to go.
But with the current enthusiasm for kiters to use kites to help them perform like great boardriders let the sport evolve from 2 distinct divisions.
If we go the totally 'unstrapped' way we can never develop the potential of mixing in all the possible wave based moves kiting can produce which surfing never could.
How can you possibly judge 'surfing' a wave to 'kiting' a wave with freakish freestyle moves thrown in along with all the talent that makes surfing great.
Lets have unstrapped for surfing purists where only the most basic airs will ever be possible but let those good enough take wave-kiting where only kiting can go have their sport as well.
Its a different playing field altogether. If we get our top level wave riders striving to build freestyle kite manouvres on top of awesome wave riding skill we have a radical new sport.
hhhmmmm ..... we could call it "KITEsurfing"

Problem is - its often difficult to get conditions to produce a result in a single division comp. Multiply all classes X 2 requires lots of good conditions ???