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Straps opening for wave riding... a few doubts remain
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dllee



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 5328
Location: East Bay

PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Narrower spacing, but taller, just like freestyle.
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rigitrite



Joined: 19 Sep 2007
Posts: 520
Location: Kansas City

PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It may seem like having your straps more snug is preferable for wave riding, but the fact is, you will wipe out at some point, and will probably get worked. If your straps are snug and your foot cannot rotate inside the strap, then your foot/ankle/lower leg WILL break if you can't get your foot out and things go badly. The advice from pros Wyatt Miller & Tyson Poor is to have loose straps. It works, and has twice saved me a trip to the O.R.
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rigitrite wrote:
The advice from pros Wyatt Miller & Tyson Poor is to have loose straps. It works, and has twice saved me a trip to the O.R.

The first time Robby Naish tried it, he sprained his ankle because it was in the straps too far, according to the magazines. There's also the crash rate factor, the "No Fear" syndrome that will bite thousands of elite thrill sports athletes in every joint as they age, the youth/invincibility factor, and the ROI factor (we mortals are in it just for fun; the big dogs also get paid for their risks) .

The key word for me in the thread title is "reservations", especially after 10 weeks of knee rehab already just to get ready for surgery and facing another 12-14 months of rehab following reconstruction later this month. And I STILL don't know which footstrap approach is ultimately safer.
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colorit



Joined: 06 Sep 2004
Posts: 98
Location: No. Virginia/Hatteras Island

PostPosted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I assume you are riding barefoot? Is this true?
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manuel



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 1158

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, bare everything... except for my shorts.
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nw30



Joined: 21 Dec 2008
Posts: 6485
Location: The eye of the universe, Cen. Cal. coast

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Loose, never tight for wave sailing, as mentioned before, you'll break something.
Robbie Naish may have sprained his ankle, but it was the first time he tried it, but he stayed with loose straps, as do basically every wave sailor I know, and I know a lot of them.
Anybody can sprain an ankle no matter what happened, but you have to go with the odds.
The odds are way in favor of loose.

Another benefit, loose straps allow you to make subtle adjustments to your board, using your feet w/o removing them from the straps, good wave riding requires many small subtle changes at a rapid pace while working the wave.
Locked in feet will make your wave riding look like you're scared to be there, and you just want out.
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why/how do loose straps allow more frequent or more subtle changes than snug straps? Either way, we can fine tune our path extremely quickly and with great finesse by slight adjustments in the pressure in one individual toe and by how many toes we engage, from a few degrees turn to 180 degrees and from a right and left withing one second to a long' drawn-out carve ... all subconsciously from one foot planted in one spot in one strap.

I've never seen statistics on ankle or knee injuries by strap tightness. Where'd you find them?
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manuel



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 1158

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is my theory.

At the bottom, we basically want no sail, no wind. So we bleed all of it off and commit down the wave face. At this point the board has hardly any fin drive, it's more of a rail drive.

Ideally, we want both feet to be placed on the center line of the board adjusting the angle ever so slightly to place the board exactly where we want it. This is where quads allow for more precise adjustment because of the smaller leverage.

Without opened straps, it's difficult to find the balance because we are a little bit too much outboard. Also, the front heel not being "locked in" by the strap is too loose and cannot control the "wobbly-ness" of the board.

To use a jibe phase as an example, the balance is similar to the moment we switch our feet. When exiting the straps on smaller volume, to keep the plane, it's critical to place the feet right on the center line of the board to avoid upsetting the fragile plane.

And another analogy would be simply riding switch-stanced, much harder outboard than inboard.

Anyway, I don't want to drift off-topic, so if there are any wave riders that use tight footstraps, please sign in, or are we so scarce?

This is what I use pretty much, maybe a little bit more:



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dllee



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 5328
Location: East Bay

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You forget about straps placed so your foot is ON the front side bottom turning location, as in custom boards. Some wave sailors use that, and tighter straps, so they can old school get out on crashes in the impact zone.
Narrower spacing, bigger hoop works for more modern wave sailors, and for the freestyle guys who wave sail. Narrow spacing for control, big hoop so your foot can turn upside down even IN the straps, to protect ankles and foot tendons.
There is no ONE solution, as some sailors like whatever they've used for years...decades, while other's need new school freestyle straps.
No way you NEED heel hold down. Biggest bottom turns ever were DougMack's at S swell Waddel, late '80's, with tight footstraps and assym placements.
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swchandler



Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588

PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yikes, there is no way that I would sail with my feet so deep in the straps. I have to say though, I'm not really a dedicated wave sailor. However, I do ride the waves at a number of venues where I sail, but just not as a radically as a young wave sailor would. Also, I don't have any dedicated wave boards, so going off the top in crunchy top-to-bottom conditions just isn't in the cards for me. Nevertheless, I came to windsurfing from a dedicated surfing background, so I've got a lot of wave experience.

The way that I look at it, it's a matter to style. In surfing, longboards work differently than short boards. When surfing a longboard, often you want one foot close to the rail and another closer to centerline, and then you might need to significantly change placement to tie moves together. On the other hand, surfing a very small board with thrusters or other multi-fin arrangement, a lot of maneuverability is available from a fairly fixed stance. While surfing isn't windsurfing, I think that style and what you want to do while doing it still applies.

If you really want to pull off outrageous moves, most want to be closer to centerline. Some might want to be deep into the straps to accomplish that, whereas others might prefer to be not so deep in the straps and instead move the straps around and go asymmetrical with them. It's about style, the type of board is being used, what's comfortable and having control. Also, it must be remembered, people sometimes have radically different shaped feet. I can definitely say that my feet look nothing like either of the two pictured. I have short wide feet with short stubby toes. Although the straps are over the ball of my foot, my toes don't stick out nearly as far as those pictured in even the first photo. Still though, when in the straps I can crank the board around reasonably well in bottom turns and cutbacks. We all work with what we've got.
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