Stijn (Stino) Mul has competed in some of the most prestigious competitions in kiteboarding, from Red Bull King of the Air to Red Bull Megaloop, as well as currently being a part of the GKA Kite World Tour and one of the founders of SpaceX Kitesurfing. We put him under examination from his fellow Cabrinha team riders and Big Air compadres.
LUCAS ARSENAULT
You had a strong freestyle background prior to focusing on the Big Air discipline. How helpful is the freestyle game to improve your Big Air, do the skills translate from one to the other?
Back in the day I indeed used to do freestyle. I was practicing double handlepasses and every year I would travel to places with 20 knots of steady wind and flat water. During those training sessions you learn a lot about how to position your body compared to the kite that is pulling you forward. I think that the body awareness is one thing that helps me a lot right now during my Big Air tricks. Another thing that I notice is that I used to preload pop with my freestyle session too. For those that don’t know the preload pop, it is a little bunny hop before you actually take off. This pop helps a lot with Big Air to get a little bit extra height during the jumps. The pop will ensure that the kite is more above you when you take
