I like to go fast. I've been riding strapless for a little over a year. However, coming from kite and windsurf, straps feel normal... but I haven't put them on the wingboards yet.I do wonder though. How do you guys feel about speed with straps vs strapless? I haul fast strapless just fine, and it's nice to know that when I eat it, I'm coming off the board and separating from it no problem. I have no experience falling at speed with a foil while strapped in. Thoughts?

I think you'd be surprised how your feet naturally come out of the straps on falls. I almost exclusively rode strapped for several years (still ride strapped most of the time) and the very few times I didn't come out of the straps were all on very weird backwards tacos, typically landing an air. You don't even think about it, but somehow you separate from the board while falling.

I prefer straps that are a little bit softer. When I want the straps to be tight, I can twist my foot slightly and it "cams" the strap around my foot, but when I fall or want to get out of the straps I can pretty easily step out.

Board landing upside down and foil tomohawking me (or my wing), or falling ahead of my board and the foil hitting me are much more common than strap-related issues.

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Velocicraptor said..
I think you'd be surprised how your feet naturally come out of the straps on falls. I almost exclusively rode strapped for several years (still ride strapped most of the time) and the very few times I didn't come out of the straps were all on very weird backwards tacos, typically landing an air. You don't even think about it, but somehow you separate from the board while falling.

I prefer straps that are a little bit softer. When I want the straps to be tight, I can twist my foot slightly and it "cams" the strap around my foot, but when I fall or want to get out of the straps I can pretty easily step out.

Board landing upside down and foil tomohawking me (or my wing), or falling ahead of my board and the foil hitting me are much more common than strap-related issues.

Thanks. Ok, so it's more or less like windsurfing then. I don't think much about it when kiting since the board is so small. But come to think of it, there's a lot more mass attached to you when windsurfing...AND... windsurfing in good conditions is as fast or faster than wing foil in flat water. I never had problems coming detached from my straps windsurfing.

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FoilWays said..

Velocicraptor said..
I think you'd be surprised how your feet naturally come out of the straps on falls. I almost exclusively rode strapped for several years (still ride strapped most of the time) and the very few times I didn't come out of the straps were all on very weird backwards tacos, typically landing an air. You don't even think about it, but somehow you separate from the board while falling.

I prefer straps that are a little bit softer. When I want the straps to be tight, I can twist my foot slightly and it "cams" the strap around my foot, but when I fall or want to get out of the straps I can pretty easily step out.

Board landing upside down and foil tomohawking me (or my wing), or falling ahead of my board and the foil hitting me are much more common than strap-related issues.

Thanks. Ok, so it's more or less like windsurfing then. I don't think much about it when kiting since the board is so small. But come to think of it, there's a lot more mass attached to you when windsurfing...AND... windsurfing in good conditions is as fast or faster than wing foil in flat water. I never had problems coming detached from my straps windsurfing.

IMHO the foil is more stubborn than any windsurf board except maybe a 1m wide Formula Raceboard.
Meaning that if you fall left but the foil is banking right it is not going to follow you easily or at all.

Also remember that you do not have a boom and mast to push the board away from you and pull your feet free.

That said, i ride with straps and so far so good.I need to hop to clear seaweed and you do get used to them,carve harder,go faster.

Something I learned to do to avoid funky in-strap crashes is to sort of tighten up my legs and ankles as I go down, this brings the board with you rather than letting it taco the opposite direction. The other advantage is that you can usually control where the foil goes and keep it away from your wing. The soft NSI vee straps with the screws set 7" apart work well for me, the extra spread lets you adjust your foot position a little and makes it super easy to get out when needed.

I did some slight tendon damage last year after a strapped in fall. Basically was a very slow speed foiling crash that had me fall over the back with the board foiling the other way. This effectively meant my foot locked into the strap with no momentum to throw me out and my body fell the height of my mast plus the water entry all while my ankle was cantilevering the board, did more than tickle and took about 3 months to come right.

Probably ready to give them ago again though as I liked the extra board control, especially in maneuvers.

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MrFish said..
I did some slight tendon damage last year after a strapped in fall. Basically was a very slow speed foiling crash that had me fall over the back with the board foiling the other way. This effectively meant my foot locked into the strap with no momentum to throw me out and my body fell the height of my mast plus the water entry all while my ankle was cantilevering the board, did more than tickle and took about 3 months to come right.

Probably ready to give them ago again though as I liked the extra board control, especially in maneuvers.

I have a friend here that injure his ankle pretty much the same way. I guess that's a concern.

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mcrt said..

FoilWays said..

Velocicraptor said..
I think you'd be surprised how your feet naturally come out of the straps on falls. I almost exclusively rode strapped for several years (still ride strapped most of the time) and the very few times I didn't come out of the straps were all on very weird backwards tacos, typically landing an air. You don't even think about it, but somehow you separate from the board while falling.

I prefer straps that are a little bit softer. When I want the straps to be tight, I can twist my foot slightly and it "cams" the strap around my foot, but when I fall or want to get out of the straps I can pretty easily step out.

Board landing upside down and foil tomohawking me (or my wing), or falling ahead of my board and the foil hitting me are much more common than strap-related issues.

Thanks. Ok, so it's more or less like windsurfing then. I don't think much about it when kiting since the board is so small. But come to think of it, there's a lot more mass attached to you when windsurfing...AND... windsurfing in good conditions is as fast or faster than wing foil in flat water. I never had problems coming detached from my straps windsurfing.

IMHO the foil is more stubborn than any windsurf board except maybe a 1m wide Formula Raceboard.
Meaning that if you fall left but the foil is banking right it is not going to follow you easily or at all.

Also remember that you do not have a boom and mast to push the board away from you and pull your feet free.

That said, i ride with straps and so far so good.I need to hop to clear seaweed and you do get used to them,carve harder,go faster.

I can see that. I don't remember ever having problems ejecting from windsurf boards in many years of wave sailing, freeride and freestyle. Windsurfing, I would run my straps tight, so my feet wouldn't go in too far. Except wavesailing. Wavesailing I'd run the back strap looser so I could go deeper and lean over more.

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FoilWays said..
I like to go fast. I've been riding strapless for a little over a year. However, coming from kite and windsurf, straps feel normal... but I haven't put them on the wingboards yet.I do wonder though. How do you guys feel about speed with straps vs strapless? I haul fast strapless just fine, and it's nice to know that when I eat it, I'm coming off the board and separating from it no problem. I have no experience falling at speed with a foil while strapped in. Thoughts?

With a sufficiently angled front foot strap, you can go faster, and also ride out of situations which would normally be a crash. Because you can try pull the nose up, to ride out of a flat foil breach and avoid a high speed touch-down and getting thrown off the front. Assuming the strap is mounted with enough angle (toes pointing more fwd), and you don't stick your foot in too deep in the strap, then when your body inertia is taking you out the front, your front foot is lifting the strap and naturally wants to come out. The rear foot will be pushing down hard, until you get ejected out the front. Also, when you get thrown off the front, you can keep sailing the sail to stay up for longer/further if you want to get away from the board, with a long enough leash. The thing I often forget to do before landing is to pull my knees up, or roll my front hip down, before I hit the water, to avoid a painful ball slapper if unlucky with a little wave.

I just realized I started this thread back in September... I've been riding with straps since and I'm up to the same speed I was strapless and pretty happy with the whole thing.

Definitely straps for speed but go as big as possible. You should be able to fully rotate your foot in them. A couple have broken feet running them too tight. I try to keep both feet in when I crash as long as possible, stops the board going flying and hitting you.