Anyone want to see what the next level freestyle tricks are looking like:





Some of you might recognize the guy in the 1st video (Amado) who was in WA this year! There are not many other guys in the world riding at this level. The double air move (culo) he is doing on the way in is basically a double loop but taking off back winded...

I feel dizzy.

Amazing! - a lot of power required for these moves.

No way !!!!

Those guys are like cats. If you threw them in the air they'd come down right side up.

I finally got round to watching all these videos on the big screen. Very impressive. Mega skills.

It seems to me that trick based wind and water sports have a problem (both kiting and windsurfing). After about 60 seconds it's as boring as batchit. I was yawning. The missus was completely disinterested.

The backwinded double loopy thing was impressive because of the speed or the rotation. The loopy, skippy on the water things look lame. The mid jump reversals look like they made a mistake and got away with it.

I am thinking that surfing and snowboarding videos win because there are waves and mountains in them that are inherently beautiful. There's an implicit story line to hold interest. The trick videos are simply one trick, repeated over and over and over and over. Even the variations and different tricks all look like the first one.

Once you get over the initial "how the f... did he do that?" who cares about freestyle?

These guys are masters of their trade. I think if you have ever tried one of those loopy, skippy on the water things you can better appreciate just how much talent, balls and hard work goes into it and I don't think you would ever get disinterested in watching the videos. Don't knock it until you try it I say. It is a bit like golf. If you have never played it, it looks as boring as batsh!t on tv but if you have played it you develop a respect and appreciation for the skill and level of mastery the pros have.

Yes the guys are brilliant - but isn't it a fair point to say that freestyle (like freestyle in some other sports) may not hold the interest of most people for too long? I'm blown away by this sort of move - but if the only people who get really interested in watching these moves are people who have tried it, then the audience will be pretty small. So maybe it could be interesting if freestyle put more emphasis on moves that were perhaps less technically tricky, and perhaps more aesthetic or stylish in some ways, or used the backdrop more as Gorgo said.

Surely it's Ok for people to say that they find sports boring to watch, even if they don't do the sport themselves - otherwise we'll expect you to watch this the whole way through.......

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I'm inspired by the freestyle vids but also a bit frustrated - it's hard to see where I could ever enough time on the water in that sort of wind to learn anything like that these days. It's bloody impressive, though!

That video is nothing short of depressing. Here I'am, stoked about my planing gybe.

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NotWal said..
Those guys are like cats. If you threw them in the air they'd come down right side up.

Cripes I'm still learning to gybe..

OMG how epic was that Curling match.
I had to go reheat my tea half way through.

This is such an inspiration! I could watch this a thousand times and still be emotional with my eyes popping out at every transition they do.
The more I try freestyle tricks, the more hooked on it I become, despite the fact that this discipline evolves waaaaaaay faster than my learning capacity, which is probably about 0.5 tricks/season!!!! LOL
I just hope I could practice daily

.... BTW where´s the wind gone ???????

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Gorgo said..
I finally got round to watching all these videos on the big screen. Very impressive. Mega skills.

It seems to me that trick based wind and water sports have a problem (both kiting and windsurfing). After about 60 seconds it's as boring as batchit. I was yawning. The missus was completely disinterested.

The backwinded double loopy thing was impressive because of the speed or the rotation. The loopy, skippy on the water things look lame. The mid jump reversals look like they made a mistake and got away with it.

I am thinking that surfing and snowboarding videos win because there are waves and mountains in them that are inherently beautiful. There's an implicit story line to hold interest. The trick videos are simply one trick, repeated over and over and over and over. Even the variations and different tricks all look like the first one.

Once you get over the initial "how the f... did he do that?" who cares about freestyle?

Not really sure what the missus being totally disinterested has got to do with windsurfing. Maybe it's your lack of interest in new tricks. If you tried to Flaka a bit more often that might all change. Just saying.

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Gorgo said..
I finally got round to watching all these videos on the big screen. Very impressive. Mega skills.

It seems to me that trick based wind and water sports have a problem (both kiting and windsurfing). After about 60 seconds it's as boring as batchit.

Anything gets boring if it's repetitive. Porn for example.

I agree snowboarding is pretty to watch even just for the scenery and inventive cinematography. Let's not forget it was a primarily snowboard director/videographer/whatever that did The Windsurfing Movie.

Rigged too small last session and couldn't really get planing much. Decided to practice sailing back-winded instead. It was far more fun than I thought it would be, even though I spent most of my time in the water. Will do again.

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Gorgo said..
I finally got round to watching all these videos on the big screen. Very impressive. Mega skills.

It seems to me that trick based wind and water sports have a problem (both kiting and windsurfing). After about 60 seconds it's as boring as batchit. I was yawning. The missus was completely disinterested.

The backwinded double loopy thing was impressive because of the speed or the rotation. The loopy, skippy on the water things look lame. The mid jump reversals look like they made a mistake and got away with it.

I am thinking that surfing and snowboarding videos win because there are waves and mountains in them that are inherently beautiful. There's an implicit story line to hold interest. The trick videos are simply one trick, repeated over and over and over and over. Even the variations and different tricks all look like the first one.

Once you get over the initial "how the f... did he do that?" who cares about freestyle?

I partially agree but one thing to remember is that these videos are shot by KUMA (actually a dude who lives in WA) and they are designed to be watched by other freestyle windsurfers. He is known for slightly quirky but simple videos just showing a **** load of tricks (some are like 10mins+, see here )

What you are comparing to is Snowboard movies with huge budgets that use helicopters and months of planning, combine that with a sport that is possible to learn in a few days and you understand why for most people its more interesting to watch. Another example is surfing videos, personally I would say surfing is inherently more boring than windsurfing (only wave riding, no jumping) but the videos are few more interesting to watch due to what I just mentioned.

Personally I don't care who cares about freestyle, I care and I guess some of the others here also do.

Yep - these videos are only made for other freestyle windsurfers really. Windsurfing isn't a mainstream sport and freestyle is a tiny niche discipline. Another thing is that video sterilizes things so context gets lost... The best experience of freestle windsurfing will always be on the water, no video and get close to it... and for video the best angle IMHO is like in skateboarding where you have a buddy sailing next to you or on a jet ski holding a camera close to the water surface - I'm think of bits of "stacked" and a few other videos by andre paskowski of gollito, gopro angles and angles from the beach don't work so well. KUMA's movies are really good though, obviously has a really good camera(s) and does good edits, I'd say interesting music taste , and probably couldn't care who likes and doesn't like the videos.

Freestyle doesn't have a huge following both in video form and actually on the water because it is incredibly difficult to learn and I'd agree that as an overall spectacle it can't match someone shredding virgin powder on a back country range or riding slabs in a tropical paradise shot with huge budgets. It is also somewhat difficult to appreciate 'unless you've tried it'.

A very large percentage of windsurfers struggle to get a planing gybe down pat over all of their years in the sport, the dedication and single-mindedness to progress one's skills to freestyle is a whole other ballgame. It either takes a good stint overseas in a good spot or years and years and years of toil back here in Aus to nail even the simplest tricks, most people don't have the patience or the will to crash and crash and crash and crash...then almost land it

It's the best thing you can do for your overall windsurfing skillset though. It takes sail handling and board handling skills to realms that can only be dreamt of if you just sail back and forth all day. The 'get out of s#*&' skillset goes to next level.

#harshbutfairanalysis

My equipment must be defective. It cannot perform any of those moves. I want my money back!

We really are blessed with this sport of ours. I used to think it would be great for windsurfing to be more popular, but now i think the opposite. The less people the better. Look whats happened to surfing, ques at snapper rocks, crowded breaks. We can sail some of the best places in the world almost by ourselves and we can go out in fairly average places and have a ball. Who would have even dreamed guys and girls would be doing this stuff off flat water or fairly ugly looking waves. Frankly, if the general population gets bored looking at this and would rather watch boris and bella win a cheese cake making reality tv, more power to us in the know. Keep these freestyle vids coming. I know i will never be able to do any of it, but i sure do see and appreciate the skill.

I am an old bloke, and I really dont get why more people dont try freestyle. Banging away year after year to perfect a carve gybe is pointless. Try something new - dragging a hand during the gybe, duck gybes, carving 360's , normal tacks, heli tacks, push tacks, duck tacks and build your skills, all these things will help improve other things. It doesn't have to be all the new skool slidey stuff, just try something different each time you go out rather than mowing the lawn (maybe take up kitesurfing if thats your thing....), nothing beats the feeling of doing a new move for the first time. Here in WA there are heaps of days when the waves are average, when the serious wave sailors sit around doing nothing, yet all the guys doing freestyle have heaps of fun. And I have yet to see a good freestyle sailor be crap at wavesailing, but its often the other way round. I was watching amado (and dieter) this season here, what they do is amazing and way out of reach, but they all started off doing duck gybes! just because you can't play Super Rugby or premier league isn't a reason not to try.