Motion analysis of a kitesurfer employing a vision-based measurement system

Abstract

Kitesurfing is a relatively new phenomenon with rising popularity worldwide – a recently developed extreme watersport considered a high-risk injury sport. It combines elements of several other sports, in particular, sailing, surfing, windsurfing, wakeboarding, and snowboarding. The main purpose of authors’ research in the present paper is to use a vision-based system for measuring a kitesurfer’s body movements in order to analyze the group of activated muscles during take-off and basic freestyle trick. The authors put a special emphasis on the handle pass trick, as it is very effective and, at the same time, one of the most destructive tricks for the kitesurfer’s shoulder joint. Another issue examined in this paper was how to perform kitesurfing tricks in laboratory conditions in order to measure kinematics in natural environmental.