survey of kiteboarding

[jungle1706]

Hi,
This is Scott Lin. I am an Industrial Design student from the Academy of Art University. I'm doing a design project about the knee brace of kiteboarding to reduce the injury. Could you take some time to finish the survey for me, please? I'll appreciate it.
______________________________________________________________
Name:

Email:

1. How did you get in this sport?

2. What’s your first experience?

3. What’s your favorite moment?

4. What are the potential risks of this sport?

5 What sorts of workout do you do to get better at kiteboarding?

6 What do you do for a living?

7. Did you sustain any injury during in this sport? If so, what was the worst?

8. How do you deal unfamiliar condition while kiteboarding?

9. What is the best time in the day or season to go kiteboarding?

10. Have you ever considered to use knee protection when kiteboaarding?

enzo1706@gmail.com

Thank you very much,
Scott

[windstoked]

Knees definitely take a lot of impact in kiting. I've heard of a number of bad knee injuries including some that required abandoning the sport.
What do all the other questions have to do with your brace design? Are you trying to develop a kiting-specific brace?
It sounds more like you're interested in taking up kiting, but have knee issues yourself. If so, I'd stay away from high jumping, freestyle tricks and rough water.
Foiling might be easier on knees, but I'm not sure as I've never done that. Any Foilers out there have an opinion on knee injuries from that?

[Aloha]

Hi Scott - I took your survey yesterday, thanks for hanging out at Crissy with us and good luck on your project!

Re Knees + Foiling: Personally foiling has been way easier on the knees - it is one of the reasons I got into it. One of my knees is beat up right now due to some soft tissue issues related to track cycling & has been in pain each time I kite on most boards: twin-tip, surfboard (strapless is a little easier), 70cm raceboard (forget it!) but on the foil - especially strapless - no knee pain.

There is a little more stress on your hips though: you have to maintain a slightly leaned forward / constant light tension position to stabilize the pitch of the foil which for me requires slight hip adduction / flexion on forward leg that I think over time creates gluteus medius load & cumulative fatigue. Adductive tension is a weird feeling for most people because it is such an uncommon position to have to stabilize. If you have any hip ball/socket issues I'd picture it causing potential pinch / pain as well. Add to it the fact that people with the exception of athletes who have been trained with specific focus generally have relatively weak / de-activated glutes compared to leg strength to begin with it might take a while to get your muscles to "learn" the foil without fatigue. Hope that is helpful!

[jungle1706]

Hi Scott - I took your survey yesterday, thanks for hanging out at Crissy with us and good luck on your project!

Re Knees + Foiling: Personally foiling has been way easier on the knees - it is one of the reasons I got into it. One of my knees is beat up right now due to some soft tissue issues related to track cycling & has been in pain each time I kite on most boards: twin-tip, surfboard (strapless is a little easier), 70cm raceboard (forget it!) but on the foil - especially strapless - no knee pain.

There is a little more stress on your hips though: you have to maintain a slightly leaned forward / constant light tension position to stabilize the pitch of the foil which for me requires slight hip adduction / flexion on forward leg that I think over time creates gluteus medius load & cumulative fatigue. Adductive tension is a weird feeling for most people because it is such an uncommon position to have to stabilize. If you have any hip ball/socket issues I'd picture it causing potential pinch / pain as well. Add to it the fact that people with the exception of athletes who have been trained with specific focus generally have relatively weak / de-activated glutes compared to leg strength to begin with it might take a while to get your muscles to "learn" the foil without fatigue. Hope that is helpful!

Hi Aloha,
It's a very helpful comment.
I really appreciate it.

best,
Scott