I agree with the Door keep the straps loose easier to slide in and out I just run a single rear use it mostly for going across and upwind still don't feel comfortable going downwind in the back strap. After windsurfing forever it's hard to not want to use them.

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KDog said..
. After windsurfing forever it's hard to not want to use them.

Tight vs. loose. We've got examples of both here. Panducah with an "only the toes in" example and the Door's looser than a tennis ball! What's safest? One option is statistically safer the other, (what are the chances of the stats being identical?) but one person's experience is not statistically significant. Many have sailed for decades on the less safe option without injury and others have come to grief in a short time using the safest option.

Maybe as Kdog says it's your windsurfing background that is hard to break. Ex Wavesailors go for loose straps and ex slalom sailors tight.

LeeD has suggested recently that it's the intermediate setting that's most dangerous. That makes sense if you think about the mechanics of rotating out of them in an over the handlebar crash. If your footstraps lockup on a 60 cm waveboard with a 9 inch fin going over the bars, chances are the board will follow you.

Definitely a familiarity thing. I remember when I tried an AHD sealion pre-foiling, which didn't have any inserts, and it was hard to get used too.

Nothing is 100% safe (one of my winging buddies broke his ankle strapless), but I think Ian/LeeD might have it right, it's the intermediate setting that is most dangerous.

Funny they went strapless on the LT