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King of the Air 2019 - all info here

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Hugh2
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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby Hugh2 » Thu Feb 07, 2019 5:52 am

Both Nick and Jesse changed kites in that semifinal, but their North prototypes do not have the sizes shown on them, so even though I was close to them right on the water I could not figure it out, I'm guessing it was only a meter difference. And it was not obvious it made any difference to their riding. Nick just did not seem to be on his game. While no surprise given they are friends and now on the same team, it was very sporting near the end of the heat that Nick offered Jesse a high-five knowing Jesse had won the heat, and Jesse returned the favor in the air. The crowd loved it.

Longwhitecloud, if you want to score mostly by technicality, of course Liam did well, although he also crashed several of his attempts. But seems to me that's what the world circuit of freestyle is for, this is different. Mark Jacobs in the "expression session" before the semifinals was similarly bold and technical (and also on the inward tack), doing a backroll board off right on the beach, but only landed the fifth attempt, even wiping out a spectator with his kite on one failed attempt. While the crowd was appreciative enough of these efforts (and it helps now to know that Liam is goofy footed, perhaps partly explaining why he did most of his tricks coming towards the beach), he simply did not get much air on them at all. And the graph above shows clearly that the meter near the beach recorded up to 36 knots during the competition, and I can assure you it feels even stronger out on the water. So while not as nuking as it can get here, there was enough wind for the competition, it was the waves that were lacking, no really good ramps, and mixed up short intervals, making launching difficult. And yes, Jesse took the Mystic Move-of-the-day prize.

So I'm with Plummet on this one!
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zloilyoha
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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby zloilyoha » Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:38 am

longwhitecloud wrote:
Thu Feb 07, 2019 12:18 am
My scorecard

1. LIam 2. Jessee 3. Kevin

It was close no doubt. Liams kungfoo pass with a late pass squeezed the win and his mlbr was pretty big. Jessee and Kevin I scored v close, but gave it to Jessee for technicality. Kevin's one foot and roll board off loops were late on the dangle so i couldnt score them as super technical, his kite had way more paragliding going on, on way down, way less risk and technical, using a handle too. Variation at a high level - Jessee won.

Judges need to separate late tricks from during the loop and late. And as for "double half cab"... no such thing, as soon as it got named by accident - it was was taken back as a trick name as it was incorrectly named.

But you know what... with the 70% height - kevin won - because with that completely dumb ratio you may as well ride boring low risk (relatively) with a handle on things. He wasnt that much higher than Jessee by 70/30 . -why bother being technical... Also there is no way the judges have time to calculate the 70/30 on the fly, but i guess they have done the sums to see how dumb it is.

fully agree with you mate! except my own leaderboard where Jessy is number 1

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby a99 » Thu Feb 07, 2019 1:17 pm

For me also Jessy was no 1. Of course Kevin have smoothest landings but still Jessy do much more difficult tricks and variety.

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby mrbig » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:08 pm

I was there yesterday for the duration of the event and also watched the recording again today. I wanted to see more detail and do a comparison after the fact.
IMHO, from the video alone, you can't come close to appreciate the height Kevin got on the day compared to the others.
With less than ideal wind and choppy water he consistently managed to boost the highest and managed to stay super smooth and controlled.
Yes, dangles and passes are no doubt risky when adding megaloops but it not really big air and even if you know what's happening it can look a bit disjointed.
Besides, megaloop front roll board off at proper height looks pretty damn impressive and is not easy to pull off. Ask Marc Jacobs.

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby Flyboy » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:31 pm

Got to wonder how much of Kevin's success has to do with his kite choice? The Pivot presumably allows for floatier, more controlled airs ... & apparently he also manages to create more initial lift with it.

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby Huib » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:34 pm

mrbig wrote:
Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:08 pm
I was there yesterday for the duration of the event and also watched the recording again today. I wanted to see more detail and do a comparison after the fact.
IMHO, from the video alone, you can't come close to appreciate the height Kevin got on the day compared to the others.
With less than ideal wind and choppy water he consistently managed to boost the highest and managed to stay super smooth and controlled.
Yes, dangles and passes are no doubt risky when adding megaloops but it not really big air and even if you know what's happening it can look a bit disjointed.
Besides, megaloop front roll board off at proper height looks pretty damn impressive and is not easy to pull off. Ask Marc Jacobs.
:thumb: It was not a Freestyle competition but King of the Air.

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby baxterbradford » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:38 pm

Was anyone else appalled at the poor quality of the video on the live feed? The white balance was way out of whack being far too warm(yellow) and bright highlights in surf were completely burned out. This was for both days of competition. I'd have thought that for all the great footage Red Bull normally create, this showcase event should have had proper production. In the worst case, someone would have stepped in and remedied it from first day.

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby edt » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:55 pm

Fantastic competition as far as I am concerned the show that Jesse and Kevin put on means everyone won. There's no shame coming in second place in a competition like this as that second place would have easily won if it were any other year. Wind was great, competitors were on top of their game. The greatest show on the kiteboarding calendar.

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby longwhitecloud » Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:00 am

kevin jumps huge no doubt, i had a session with him in new cal and he cranks/whips/pulls the bar soooo hard on take off - longer lines
and a very high pressure kite helps heaps too to keep the wing efficient for lift.

As you can hold more power on a bow kite and these kites have become more hybrid (more similar shape to c kites) i can see why they jump big - i still love the acceleration of less bowed kite though, more exciting.... the paraglider style jumps look way less impressive to me.

Be interesting to see where this leads kiteboarding ... huge dangling or huge sideway.

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Re: King of the Air 2019 - all info here

Postby aTi » Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:53 am

longwhitecloud wrote:
Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:00 am
Be interesting to see where this leads kiteboarding ... huge dangling or huge sideway.
Would be interesting if judges could explain their vision : I can only guess, based on what we saw, that dangling is indeed not on their agenda!
And as far as I am concerned, I cannot say I disagree: dangling, either in freestyle or in big air, is NEVER stylish (again: my humble opinion only!).
Also: KOTA might give direction for big air kiteboarding, since it's what it is, but some prefer freestyle, with a good old C shape, and that is a whole different game. That's also why perhaps KOTA judges didn't reward that much passes. The 70% high criteria is pretty clear after all.


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