hey guys

i recently switched to a freestyleboard an i opend my straps up quite a bit as it's what you do ;) but i feel that i don't really feel like i'm in the straps like this. when i ride a feel i cant really push as my feet are just loosely on the board. the straps on the side are as tight as i can make them. also when i watch videos of people riding with big straps sometimes the lift the front or both feet up when riding.. i don't really get in that scenario and i don't know if i just don't push enough or how i get to that stance..

thank you!

Are you actually using the board for freestyle? Or just using it for blasting? Loose straps are for if you're actually freestyling/wave sailing. If you've moved your footstraps inboard then you can afford looser straps, as your weight is more planted on your feet, but if you're feeling they're too loose then tighten them a bit. You don't have to go slalom tight, but don't loosen them so much as it feels like they might well not be there either.

^^^ agreed .. You can't push sideways much on a freestyle board with the tiny fin
If you stuck a 30cm in it and are blasting then yeah tighter straps

haha ok thank you i'll try;)

Try using booties, everything feels wrong .

I saw something (think it was Guy Cribb or Ben Proffitt) that said to open up the straps such that you can twist in them and still touch your knee to the board. When I set mine up like this I have to kind of pivot my ankle and grasp with my toes a bit to stay in the straps if the board leaves the water.

I'm a mediocre jumper though, but so far haven't had a problem on the boards I've used this guideline on.

put it like ben but the guy cribb video answered a lot of questions, didn't see that before, thank you!

Not wishing to complicate things, but I thought it might be wise to mention the possibility of Neuroma...a benign, noncancerous growth of nerve tissue that can occur anywhere in the body. A common type of neuroma is Morton's neuroma, which occurs in the ball of the foot between the toes. After actively windsurfing for 35 years (slalom competition and waves on both Maui and WA) my middle toes on one foot have gone numb... and it's starting to happen on the other foot. Numbness, not pain, but strange. The cause? The doctors don't know for sure, but it's most likely caused by me, ramming my feet into the footstraps for three and a half decades. Their thinking is the nerves that lie between the metatarsals have been agitated/inflamed so much that it causes a reduction in sensation in the foot. Do I regret sailing? Absolutely not! Am I changing my technique? Not really... apart from loosening my foot straps a bit, and using a bit less force when pushing my feet into the straps, I'll continue windsurfing... until I can't (due to age... I'm 73, but intend to keep at it for several years yet). I'm told, injecting steroids may help a bit, but I'm not sure if I'll go down that road.Just a thought for y'all.