Aaron Hadlow about freestyle progression:
A lot of people ask me what I think of double handle passes and how freestyle has progressed in the last years. Looking back through some old footage I saw a small video I put together 3 years ago in Brazil in Sept/Oct 2006.
It was never released at the time because of footage rights but here it is now to ask the question if competition riding has developed over the last few years.
I know my own free-riding has changed quite a lot but I find that the vibe on tour is still ‘double handle passes to win’. In some cases I can agree, they can be harder, but the kite has to be at a decent angle. For instance is a Low Mobe 5 with the kite next to the water harder than a Mobe 7 with the kite above your head? Yes, I think it is.
In my eyes a lot to do with double handle passes is strength when you are talking about these kite angles, almost a pull up, is this good for our sport?
Once the kite comes down and people use body movement and speed opposed to dangling and time, then we are talking about the next level of difficulty, until then I don’t agree.
I know I helped bring these to the table a few years back, but for me they fizzled out and I tried something different, I didn’t see them progressing much further at the time and that lead to a change in my riding, adding technical difficulty in different ways. Lower kite, different grabs and movements, etc.
These days I don’t do doubles so much, I’m sure it shows, when I see one I generally think they portray a bad image for kiteboarding but despite not seeing them develop much in the last years I do think there is room for improvement, it just takes someone to do it. Sometimes I think maybe I should give them one last chance, but is it worth it?