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If there was a simple solution to spend more time on the water with less equipment. A solution that increase your riding performance, safety & fun factor with 100%
Choice of hardware in sports is of great
importance. Especially when this hardware is in immediate contact with
the athlete and is directly related to sports safety.¹
Blog source: http://www.kitefinder.com/en/kites/blog/1468/boots-or-straps
About KiteMedical blogger: Leon Meijer Leon
Meijer is a sports physical therapist with fysiosportief in Groningen
(Netherlands) and a fanatical kite surfer himself. He and Roeland den
Boer (sports surgeon) together led Youri Zoon's recovery after surgery
on his shoulder.
Your equipment
In the kite surfing world, both the hardware and
environmental factors have a proven influence on the safety of the
sport. (2,3,4,5) The hardware must be designed well ergonomically in
order to provide maximum performance and to reduce risk of injury at the
same time. (1,4,6)
Connecting the kite surfer's feet to the board is done either with straps or boots.
Straps are most commonly used among kite surfers (92%). A 2012 research
conducted by Lundgren shows that 12% of the questioned kite surfers
uses boots occasionally to get a better feel for the board.¹
Boot
users mentioned during the research that their techniques and tricks are
different from the times they use straps. Furthermore, the researchers
found that straps don't see much use with wave surfers.
Nowadays (2015), boots are an increasingly common sight among kite
surfers. The kitesurfing greats like Youri Zoon & Steven Akkersdijk
all have their own specific reasons for choosing boots over straps.
Using boots allows you to transfer power from the knees, water and board
much more efficiently.
Using straps, you're not really attached to
the board. With boots however, you're secured to the board firmly. Boots
not only allow for a better transferring of power but also provide
control and stability. Another advantage is your feet unable to slide
out like they do with straps.
In short, with boots you can initiate Freestyle tricks harder using more power with more control.
It
is suggested that the damping properties of boots is better for the
knees and other joints but this really comes down to the materials in
each particular boot. Some straps have great damping properties and
surely many boots do a bad job at damping shocks or even not at all.
Just like running shoes, there is great variety in actual comfort and shock absorption.
But are we, recreational kitesurfers actually waiting for a development like boots?
What are the downsides of using boots instead of straps? Especially
considering the limits of the human body? What happens to our joints
when we crash wearing boots? Which body parts run the greatest risk of
injury? All questions without straightforward answers. Everything is
directly and indirectly related to:
age,
body weight,
build,
choice of hardware
kitesurfing experience.
What we can be sure of - whatever above mentioned factors might be:
crashes while wearing boots will hit harder than crashing in straps.
With boots, the board is firmly fixed to the body. This usually makes
things come to an immediate and full stop in the water, causing all
sorts of problems during the crash. Add to that the kite getting steered
through the powerzone whether willingly or by accident, nasty forces
will start working on the body (knees, back and shoulders especially)
In case the foot stays fixed inside boot, there is an increased chance of multi-ligament injuries of, for example, the knee.
When the kite or crash doesn't pull you out of your boots, or your
board doesn't break, all forces are released on the body directly.
It
is therefore of great importance that research be conducted on the
amount of force necessary to leave in place - for example, the inserts.
For this, a measured average breaking point should be found. Not giving
thought to such factors could result in kitesurfers either kicking loose
the inserts too easily or the inserts not coming off at all. It needs
no explanation both cases might result in injury.
Hardware decisions should be made depending on the kitesurfing style.
High jumps with a kiteloop? In this case straps would be the better
choice since the body gets to endure a lot during such crashes.
Is
the style focusing more on handle passes, unhooked actions or raileys,
more board control is demanded? In this case going for boots would be a
more logical choice.
All this is again influenced by before mentioned factors such as age, bodyweight, etc.
Youri Zoon
Looking at Youri Zoon, new factors come into play
while looking at the hardware used. Youri is truly a professional whose
physical limits are incredible. Add to this his amazing talent for kite
surfing and it's easy to see he's able to relay a great amount of power
through physical ability and technique. In Youri's case, inserts would
need to be strengthened so he can apply maximum force without the
inserts giving away. One of the inserts failing under such amount of
stress would release a great amount of force on ankle, knee and hips,
possibly resulting in serious injury (usually multiple).
It goes without saying that the average kite surfer wouldn't need
inserts as strong as mentioned above. What’s worth mentioning however is
with boots much larger forces work on the inserts than with straps. A
boot has a steel base plate, which attaches on two points. Because your
foot / ankle is locked into the boot it forms a lever which can produce
large forces. This isn't the case with straps. As soon as you lift your
heel, there is no more lever and as such the forces don't build up as
much as with boots.
Taking into account all of the above, it is very important for
designers of kiteboards, straps and boots to keep in mind for which type
of kitesurfer the hardware is being designed. Extra strong inserts for
the likes of Youri Zoon, and a grade below, but still greatly
sufficient, would exist hardware designed for the average kitesurfer.
Having said all that however, it would be impossible to develop a
unique type of board, strap or boot for each individual. Every athlete
has their own set of demands and preferences when it comes to kite
surfing hardware and every athlete has his or her own physical limits.
To minimize risk of injury it is very important to make educated decisions on the type of hardware that fits you.
Sadly, little scientific research has been conducted so far to map out
the amount of forces playing on the body during kite surfing.
Boots or straps? What do I have to ask myself?
Now ask yourself this: are you performing tricks unhooked? If the answer is no, then straps will serve you just fine.
We asked Steven Akkersdijk for his opinion on beginner kite surfers wanting to switch to boots as soon as possible. “Are
you used to surfing unhooked yet? Which advantage do you expect to find
in using boots? Make an educated decision with these questions and the
information in the above article in mind.” And Youri Zoon on using boots: “Just enjoy kite surfing without injuries!” For medical questions
related to kite surfing, find Leon Meijer and Roeland den Boer on
twitter: @leonmeijer2009 and @roelanddenboer. References
Lundgren L, Brorsson S, Osvalder A-L, Injuries related to kitesurfing. World Academy of Engineering and Technology 77 (2011).
Nickel C, Zernial O, Musahl V, Hansen U, Zantop T, Petersen W, A
Prospective Study of Kitesurfing Injuries. The American Journal of
Sports Medicine 32 (2004), 921-927.
Petersen W, Nickel, C., Zantop, T., Zernial, O., Verletzungen beim Kitesurfen. Der Orthopäde 34 (2005), 419-425.
Spanjersberg WR, Schipper IB, Kitesurfing: when fun turns to
trauma-the dangers of a new extreme sport. The Journal of Trauma 63
(2007), 76-80.
Reilly T, Lees A, Exercise and sports equipment: Some ergonomics aspects. Applied ergonomics 15 (1984), 259-279.
New tour, big sponsor, new rules! Kitesurfing to a higher level? The 5 big changes in the new Kitesurfing World Cup set-up
The competition ladder
First
Trials, then Single and then finally the Double Elimination. This was
the old system that often led to confusion and required a lot of time
and therefore wind to run the whole event.
To get rid of the trials,
there will be only two qualification events from now on. The first
quali event will be the Tour opener of the new 2015 season, taking place
in Dakhla, Morocco. The second one will take place mid season.
Everybody
who's not already pre-qualified from last season is free to sign up and
fight for one of the open slots for the first half of the 2015 season.
Also there will be some wildcards for local riders and pros that were previously injured.
To further speed up the contest and make it more interesting, the Singles and Doubles merge into the so called "Dingles".
In
total 24 men and 12 women will compete. In the first round there are
three riders a heat with the best jumping directly into round three.
The second and third ones have another go in round two to secure their space in round three too.
From there on it's a classic KO system. Easy and quick!
The competition area
To
make the event more interesting to watch the event organisation heavily
reduced the competition zone. Tricks must be shown in a square marked
by buoys (about 50-75 m apart in width and length), making it easier for
the spectators and cameras to follow the riders while also improving
the judging. New is also that only one rider at a time is allowed to
show tricks in that area and interferences are penalized with heavy
point reductions.
While shrinking the trick zone and introducing the
'one-at-a-time' rule are major changes, the heat length was only
subject to a minor change: The first heat of the Dingles with three
riders will be 10 minutes while the one-on-ones will keep their well
known 7 minutes rhythm. We are curious if the riders can pop as many
tricks as in the previous years or if there will be fewer but therefore
more demanding tricks... Either way, heats will become more of a mind
game as the riders will have to watch the tricks of their competitors in
order to know when to enter the comp-zone.
The judging criteria
Kite
high, kite low? Clean landing vs. powerful pop. The judging of the
tricks always felt very subjective and was hard to understand. Now it is
broken down into three main points:
Intensity (Counts 40 %): power and height – Reflects how big and powerful the trick is performed.
Technical (Counts 40 %): technical difficulty and execution – Reflects the technical difficulty of the executed trick.
Performance (Counts 20 %): smoothness, innovation and risk factor – Reflects the performance in terms of fluidity, originality and energy for each trick.
There
will be five judges watching every heat, each contributing 20 % into
the final score. Therefore two will watch the intensity of the trick,
two will judge the technical performances of the riders and one will
score the general performance of the competitors.
While the
riders can show new tricks and prove their creativity, the categories of
the tricks didn't change. We put together the official trick list
here which hopefully gets extended by the end of the season with new
tricks. Nevertheless, we are curious how the judging will effect this
years riding style and trick repertoire and hope that it becomes easier
for the audience to understand who won.
The contest types
The
enormous success of the Red Bull King of the Air proves it: Big Air is
what get's the adrenalin of the crowds (and obviously of the riders)
flowing! Therefore the PKRA decided to have Big Air contests at each
spot that delivers the wind to go big!
Also we can expect to see more wave events in this year with contests at each tour stop spot that has incoming swell.
In
the announcement there was hardly a word about Racing / Slalom, which
leads to the assumption that there will be hardly any rule changes.
The prize money and title
The
prize money for this years tour was significantly increased. Now it
becomes a big deal to win a tour stop with some serious prize money in
the pot! There is a 35 % increase in Freestyle price money, 100 %
increase in Wave and Slalom and 300% in Big Air compared to 2014.
The
prize money for the first tour stop in Dahkla even doubled, from $47k
to $90k. This will lead to greater competition and an increase in the
level in general as the riders will become more determined to win. We
are curious about the impact which this will have.
The 90,000
Dollar prize money in Dakhla will be distributed as following: $50k is
planed for the freestyle event and $20k each for Big Air and Wave. For
the freestyle part of the event, this will result in the following prize
money:
$35,000 for men and $15,000 for women. This results in
$7,000 for the male winner while even the riders who end up 9th (a place
shared by 8 riders) will receive $840. Below you can see the key about
the money.
This year the riders will not only compete for the
increased prize money but also for a new title: "The Overall Kitesurf
Tour Champion". Over the season points will be given for all results at
each tour stop in each category (Freestyle, Big Air, Slalom and Wave),
added up on an overall ranking. At the end a winner is crowned. If there
will be prize money on that new title is not yet confirmed. Of course
there will also the official World Champion titles per discipline and
division: Freestyle, Wave and Slalom.
"Ride with power" – the entree to explosive tricks
How to perform the power tricks Railey, S-Bend & Blind Judge made by Nanette van de Snoek.
Nanette travels around the world as a Kitesurf coach for Jo Wilson coaching Watch and learn!
How to pop in a few steps
Ride along with a good speed, making a big spray with the back edge of the board.
Build up to the right power so you can have your kite stable at 10.30 / 11 O'clock
Bare off downwind slightly by standing up, keep tension on the lines.
Sit back and edge hard by carving upwind.
Pop and release out of the water, leaving a big spray.
Your first loaded unhooked tricks opens the door to a huge array of other freestyle tricks.
Attention moments
Same rotation as a front roll,
however instead of tucking up and doing the front rotation, you stretch
out and spin around your own axis like a screw.
start with good speed, kite around 10.30 and hands close together
go for good pop and initiate a raley
look under the back armpit to initiate rotation
swing upper body and core around
spot landing to stop rotation and get back upright
Tips
Straight body is easier to rotate than a bend body
Lower your kite and bend your body to stop rotating.
This is one of the first loaded airpasses to start with
Attention moments
medium speed, kite at 10.30, hands close together
go downwind, carve hard & pop
throw a nice, open railey
push the front foot further back, create momentum by swinging it forward
look over back shoulder, pull bar towards front hip
pass bar from front to back hand
spot landing, set down toeside, stabilize
Tip
The longer you wait to let go of the bar, the more change the pass succeeds. Upgrade your skills or like to learn and travel? Please react or join ourcoaching holidays
