Hi
I'm looking for some tips/advice on foot straps. I've just learnt to plane and I'm starting to try my foot straps. But everytime I get my front foot in I sink the tail and swing into the wind or I have to fight it the whole time to keep it down wind but I can't keep it on the plane. If anyone could give me some pointers would be much appreciated as I've watched every YouTube clip and still can't work it out.
Thanks

Hi Harley. Not an easy question to answer actually - so many variables. I gonna say that putting your feet in the straps is not something that you force. If your stance is working OK, then as you move back on the board with more board speed, your feet end up near where a strap is. If that isn't happening, you stance might need tweaking - boom height, mast foot position. Are you using a harness? With a harness, you can put body weight through the mast foot and your feet are "lighter". The board is disrupted less as you move your feet around. Hope that helps.

Thanks for getting back to me.
So i get up and going fine work my feet back till my feet are touching both front and back straps. All good at this point. I then put my front foot in felling ok but then I either need to over compensate bearing away to go down wind or I start pointing up wind.
I'm using a harness, I've lowed my boom to try to prevent dragging the mast back. I even tried moving my harness lines back but then my sail wasn't balanced and I was fighting it with my front hand.
I'm fairly short and stocky 100kg
My board im learning on is a 160L fanatic viper 75.
Today I was using a 6.9m2 NP expression sail with 30-35km wind so I have no experience but I wouldn't think im under powered? Anymore sail I dont think I could hold on.
I have my mast base at 150, I assume cm basically 50mm from right back. Mast base is basically 600m or 2ft from the front strap. I'm thinking maybe I need to move them forwards even though the next set of holes are only 200mm from the mast base.
Sorry for the long winded story.

You definitely wouldn't have been underpowered, that's a pretty big sail for that amount of wind. I just googled that board - everything above is related to when the centreboard is up btw. My only suggestion would be make sure your harness lines are balanced with about equal pull through both arms, which will mean you will also tend to put equal weight through each foot. The harness should be taking some of your body weight (so may be raise your boom?), this will make you lighter through your feet and you can shuffle them around without disturbing the balance of the board too much. Where do you sail? Maybe ask a local if they have any tips based on having look at you sailing.

Thanks for your advice I'll try put my boom up a bit more and see what happens. I tend to run my boom and harness lines at arm pit height and lines long enough so my arms have a slight bend. I'm fairly sure it's balanced i can hold on with one hand front or back. It must be just slight adjustments and I need more practice.

Hey Harley, have a look at this video by Guy Cribb - its long, but has some good tips on straps and using your feet.

Thanks I'm fairly sure I watched this but at that stage I wasn't trying to use my straps so i didn't take much in. There's a few things I can work on after watching that.

I can hear you - I went through this stage and a few tips from the sperts helped.

Maybe try sail forward a little more & as much weight as possible through the harness so you don't load the back foot - straight front leg & minimise weight through the front foot but use it to drive the board (straightish knee) - bear off a little so you can almost sail with front foot and harness - then gently slip the back foot in - you will probably go over the front a few times - we've all done it - but hey that's a step closer to learning to loop

check Guy Cribbs harness line guide - Harness lines in the right spot are really important - front line too far forward is an early planing killer and to far back is a catapult waiting to happen


Good luck

www.guycribb.com/userfiles/documents/The%20Truth%20About%20Harness%20Lines.pdf

Thanks
I will definitely have a look. I have had a lot of forward loop practice hahaha. After watching a clip today I think I need to shorten my harness lines so it easier to hold it sheeted in with the harness, lift my boom a little and I was probably a tad over powered 6.9m2 for my ability as I was struggling to hold it sheeted in so might have been fighting me trying to bear away from the wind. The rest is probably just practice. Joys of learning of YouTube.