A week of foiling no-straps after previously using both straps all the time - stoked to find out that strapless is superfun and works pretty well even on the ocean in 25 knots and 2m windswells.

I reckon because foiling is so effortless and smooth we can choose;
strapless - move your feet or;
straps - keep your feet in place and move your body weight.

So if you've had a knee injury or just worried about getting your foot stuck gybing or downwinding perhaps give strapless a go.

I'll go back to straps at some point (either Slingshot half-straps or Valentine break-away straps ) - just that little bit easier to power-carve downwind and fly upwind with my feet secured.


For now, frothing over this setup





Today's downwinder with Mark F and Mark S
SW 20 knots, 1-1.5m windswells
Tricera 5m, Infinity 76

Good to see that you are up and back at it, has to be a good feeling.Never tried strapless but maybe this summer I'll give it a go.

Glad your back mate!
I have been riding strapless for a few months now and I am loving it! No straps under foot and you can put your feet inboard or outboard depending on the wind angle. I still move my body weight just as much to cover the fine trim but can now move my feet for course trim if required. I have been riding the Shred Sled and it has the sail really close to the foil. It took some adjustment but now I dig it. When I go back to my old setup it feels really nose heavy and I move my feet aft and out of the straps to compensate. I feel like I will be riding strapless until I have the urge to start jumping which may be never because I don't want to afford breaking gear or myself. Plenty of opportunity to advance into moves like foiling tacks and 360's. One thing I really recommend to anyone thinking about strapless is to get some sort of bumps on deck to help guide your feet into the right time zone without having to look at your feet.

Great to hear you are back on the water. Just a fast healer!!

Good for you to give strapless a try! Change is always uncomfortable

I found the more I rode without straps the more I made "subconscious" small foot movements to stay balanced; which I think, allows me to be more aggressive in the carves. I did not even realize I was making these small changes until I watched some board mounted videos of myself. I would even be in slightly different locations from reach to reach or when riding a swell versus flat water. Going upwind I actually have my heel on the rail.

My pitch for strapless riding has really been aimed at learners. As things just became easier for me once I took the straps off. Especially when it came to Jibing. Once you get the "feel" for windfoiling I think straps become an option.

Regardless great to hear your back at it, unfortunately I think we might see less of your videos

I need my straps on to carry the board to the water's edge.
I leave them on to reduce clutter in the garage.

Select to expand quote

LeeD said..
I need my straps on to carry the board to the water's edge.
I leave them on to reduce clutter in the garage.

Haha...I had the same thought. I only use front straps and its mainly to get the board out of my car and to the water. Pretty hard to carry a strapless board unless it has a handle. I do like having front ones to remind me of where my front foot needs to be for a balanced powered up stance

Personally, I wouldn't recommend for a beginner to go strapless. I think to start off, at least the front straps are required. By the way, I'm assuming that you're learning on a matched board/foil (not a Frankenstein setup of an old formula board, and a freeride foil).

For me, no rear straps is the way to go, but I learned to foil with all straps. Like others have said, it just gives you more freedom to move for upwind/downwind/riding swells. I think you only need rear straps for jumping, or if you have weird technique where you're pulling up with your toes. Probably racing too. Apart from that they're not necessary.

Maybe the ideal setup is front straps plus one rear center strap. I'm planning to try that on my next board

Well I'm inspired. Gonna try it. When I carry my board it's upside down by the mast anyway.

Well, I learned without straps, and would recommend that to beginners, too. I recently put front straps on for a bunch of sessions for a change. One reason was that I stepped too far forward when switching feet in jibes, and hoped stepping directly into the straps would cure that. That did not work out too well - most of the time, I simply stepped over the darn obstacle. I thought the straps were ok for straight line sailing, and helped when pumping since I could simply pull the board out of the water with the front foot. For tacks, though, they were a bit of a pain, and I still like tacking.
So I took the straps off again, and liked that a lot more. Even without straps, I shift my weight to adjust for lulls and gusts, but if it's a longer change up or down, being able to put both feet just at the right place is nice.

Glad your healing fast JJ,
I'm thinking about changing straps this year to Dakine premo. I have the original black slingshot straps but with my size 12s 6/5 booties I can barely get my back foot in(good for upwind) and the slingshots are a bit too floppy, I like more of a rigid strap, less chance of getting stuck imo. Really don't find the need for straps unless downwinding with sails bigger than 5m. Mostly comes down to personal preference and riding style at that point.

Started with front straps, then added back straps, then removed all straps. Now I'm back to just front straps.

If I get to try jumping, I may try the back strap again. With the new i65, I'm tempted to try jumping.

DC

I have started to use Slingshot half-straps to prevent possible injury. Although it is not as efficient as the regular straps, I prefer due to ease of getting off. Where do you get the Valentine break-away straps; do you have a picture?

Nice to see you back on the water JJ!

A few points re straps or no straps. Firstly I think the combination of wearing grippy boots with eva deck pads and tight straps is a potential problem.

Pretty much every wave sailor I know has their straps setup big with the foot sliding in almost right up to the to the ankle. This allows for an easy and quick release even if the foot twists while inside the strap.

RE quick release straps there was a system back in the late 90s called Footsaver. They are talking about it in this thread: www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29186&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30&sid=0c16448a58ccb8c13657649274aec012

Those straps never really took off. Probably because the forces in windsurfing are massively higher than in freeride foiling which makes the release a bit unpredictable and potentially dangerous. Not sure if you can still buy them. Those half straps are probably a good compromise.

Interestingly one of the arguments I have heard about using straps on freeride foil boards is "that you can get more speed". I think that's very subjective. A couple of days ago I sailed with someone at the local. We were both on a Slingshot i76. I had a Slingshot Wizard 130 while the other rider had a Smik Mongrol with no straps. Going upwind and in a straight line we pretty much had the same speed. No matter how hard I tried using the straps to my advantage for a better board / foil trim the speed was essentially identical.

I do both too! Currently mostly using the frontstraps and single backstrap on my freeride/style board. The backstrap I only really put my foot in when I'm about to jump, all other times I'm more towards the rail. I wiggle a lot with my front foot too, the strap is set quite big, so I can move in an arc of about 30 degrees and often put my front foot a little further back or out towards the rail out of the strap.

Since I've been winging & kitefoiling so much (strapless), I feel I might have to give strapless windfoiling another serious go!

Select to expand quote

SA_AL said.. Where do you get the Valentine break-away straps; do you have a picture?

Thanks all


Steve Valentine (one of our local Slingshot Frothers) came up with the simple solution in the pix
Think it's got potential because there seems to be a large differential in footstrap loading between foiling and crashing.

Tested today with a 22kg breaking strain cable tie - could drive my front foot pretty well upwind with the strap intact then fell backwards and the cable tie snapped easily. Replaced the tie in the water in a minute with a spare I was carrying.
You can dial in more breaking strain using bigger or multiple ties.

Might be worth giving it a go if you've got knee or ankle issues.

Strapless is fun but given a choice I'd go straps for bigger conditions.

JJ, glad you're back on the water, and thanks for the encouragement to try strapless. My setup is only front half-straps. I'm hoping my foot recovers enough to foil soon, and I'll take the straps off to be as safe as possible.

Love strapless!!!

JJ,

Welcome back to foiling. Hope your knee is solid.

Look forward to videos of strapless downwinders.

glad to hear you're back doing what you love JJ

Today I was just stated with my new tabou pcket air 117l strapped and man... I could't believe how awful straps are.

Alhough, After coming from a hypernut 4in1 strapless all the time (this thing have straps in soooooooo racy pisition) I thought I will enjoy straps in the right place, but it doesn't happened.

Just adjusting your wheight to wind shifts feels so nice that I don't feel the need of straps anyway.

Downwinding;
Moving your feet is one method of carving which encourages strapless foiling (or no rear strap) and is a blast

Keeping both feet in the straps is also a super-effective method of carving, for me preferable in big winds and seas

JB's killer vid below clearly shows (better than I've been able to) how it's possible to carve with anchored feet using weight-shifts.
We don't need centreline straps - our weight-shifts just need to be more over the knee and inboard than his.

So I gave it a try and I really liked it. My board is a Fanatic 125 which isn't really designed for swell riding, but that's what I've been asking it to do. I found that my front foot migrated so my toes were on the centerline - where there are no strap inserts. Back foot right across the center line and no straps there either. My next board will be able to ride this way. Anyway, really like the control.

Full disclosure though, I thought it wouldn't be a big deal not having the straps because of the way I carry the board into the water, but it's really a pain not having them just moving the board around. So I was wrong there. Still, I'm leaving them off for now.

So I gave it a try and I really liked it. My board is a Fanatic 125 which isn't really designed for swell riding, but that's what I've been asking it to do. I found that my front foot migrated so my toes were on the centerline - where there are no strap inserts. Back foot right across the center line and no straps there either. My next board will be able to ride this way. Anyway, really like the control.

Full disclosure though, I thought it wouldn't be a big deal not having the straps because of the way I carry the board into the water, but it's really a pain not having them just moving the board around. So I was wrong there. Still, I'm leaving them off for now.