jumptheshark wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:08 pmWell, Ben would tell you that his kites were the first true wave kites, with weight balanced for good drift in the design brief from the very start. The reality of all the footage of Ben killing it in waves is that its all in side off conditions. He kills it no doubt, but that's a pretty major factor when it comes to how you ride in waves. It's the direct opposite wind direction to 90% of wave riders worldwide.longwhitecloud wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:10 ampretty much...
not as much as the industry makes out though- watch ben wilson wave riding videos from 2006... better riding than 99.99% of waveriders today.,
modern kites do give a better compromise of going back upwind and spilling the wind out when you dont need it though while waveriding.
Not being critical of the kites he's using. The true anti hero of surf kiting Ian Alldredge was on BWS for years and rode primarily gnarly west coast cross on conditions.... and made it look incredible.
he is pretty sick, but you got to know that his advice sometimes doesnt apply to the conditions you have to ride in yourself... like using the same size board for kiting as for surfing.. just isnt going to end well if you cannot control your speed.
I have have sessioned with ian, he is one of the few (only) riders outside of NZ that rode with a really fast aggressive style on a surfboard at the time.. actually I havn't really seen too many ride like that since.
