Moving the rear strap forward on a directional

[Hugh2]

I learned to ride directionals strapless on an old surfboard at Mokuleia in Oahu. When I bought a directional kiteboard, I took the straps off, riding at Cape Hatteras. But this past month in Cape Town, the conditions were too much for me riding an old surfboard strapless, so I bought a used F-one Surf 5' 11" board without straps. It was better, but I still spent far much time body draging in to recover the board on the beach (I'm too scared to wear a leash). I noticed quite a few riders using only a front strap, so tried that, but twisted my front foot a couple of times, so tried both straps. But the rear strap seemed too far back. The board behaved badly, bouncing around. When I ride strapless, I have my back foot in front of where the rear strap is. So I had Ray Long of Long Ocean Boards put a new plug in so I could have the rear strap be forward one step. That worked nicely for me. Ray says he puts plugs like this in all his new boards these days. Anyone else have this experience?

[Dirk]

Not at all. On my Naish Globals l have the rear strap in the back postion using the second to last insert. Surfing the wave you want to have your back foot over the fins somewhere in between the front thruster fins and the back fin. Look at the surfers.
And I ride on all angles to the wind like this especially when blasting along and jumping. Going upwind I regularly take the back foot out and put it in front of the back strap. That happens more in lower wind.

[Westozzy]

No hugh you are right, moving your back foot forward does reduce the bounce you were experiencing. More even distribution of weight across the SBs rail.

But once you hit the wave, you want it back and over the fins...hence why strapless ultimately is best.

I do both, but mostly strapped, and I have my back foot out of the strap and out all the time, just pop it back in when hitting the wave.

[Peter_Frank]

Hi Hugh

I assume you are okay at riding waveboards, but not extremely experienced (yet) ?

The thing is, that Dirk is correct IMO, that when you are good at wavekitesurfing, you move the rear strap really far back.
I've had to mount new plugs on a few boards actually, because on thruster boards, the rear strap rear screw(s) has to be over the finbox and not forward of the finbox, on almost every board (except for a few narrower bigwaveboards with less rocker).

The better the rider, the more far back the strap (typically, of course there are some riding very different)

The front strap is the key here - you often want the front strap quite well forward (but not as far as strapless, as the strap gives the board a better balance in chop at higher speeds so not needed to stand fully as far forward)

Moving the strap one hole (one inch) further forward or rear, makes a huge impact on the overall board feel and behaviour, so I always use quite a long time to get it just right with a brand new board, both the front and rear strap - it is interesting and very important IMO
Wont use more time now to tell about the front strap "calibration"...


When going upwind, or riding flat waves or in light wind - you stand in front of the rear strap of course.
But for good normal waves, you use the strap.
Also, when going out through some heavy breakers, if no channel, you just step into the rear strap too - and then out again when out or in between waves if long period sets.


BUT, if someone is experienced on a TT and have never tried a waveboard (or surfed) before, I always advocate to learn strapless in small or no waves, and then move on to straps later.
Many dont want to ride strapless though, so here I tell them to start with the rear strap at the most forward position

This way it will be much easier to make the transition from TT to Waveboard, as they are ridden almost totally opposite: You control everything with your front foot and the board edges on a waveboard - on a TT you have pressure on the rear foot (and bent a bit), so very opposite.

As new (strapped) waveboard riders tend to make the board bounce, and they are in risk of getting their ancle twisted if standing in front of the rear strap - it works great to move the strap forward at first

The only downside is, that when you GET experience, and ride on the steep face and doing aggressive cutbacks perfectly timed in the curl - you want to be as far back as possible
So you get "grandma" cutbacks if the rear strap is too far forward - they dont feel (nor look) good
But it is MUCH easier to ride this way, for starters.

I think you are somewhere in between (I dont know, you dont write), that you can surf, but still not into the full power cutbacks that often ?

I might be wrong, but I think you should just mount the straps at the front plugs (well, now you have new plugs), and then you will discover after some time (or years), that you want to move the strap further and further back.

When you get the strap "trim" just right both front and rear - you'll actually find that you can ride almost all types of waves IN the straps feeling bullseye, but takes some time to "know how to"

Peter

[Hugh2]

Thanks for the responses, and Peter, you have pegged me right. I grew up on the beach, but sadly never learned to surf, so now at the age of 58 I'm trying to learn with a kite. And indeed "grandma" turns best describe my attempts at cutbacks. I think I will stick with the forward placement of the rear strap for now, but make an attempt every now and then to try the fully back position, especially in medium-size waves. Otherwise it is all good and lots of fun trying to learn something new.

[windrupted]

All cutbacks feel slow to me when I'm attached to a kite. That is because your turn needs to swing around with the kite, and kites turn pretty slow compared to say, Rob or Kelly hacking a big hard gouge out of it. Compared to that, all my kite surfboard turns are more like Grandma. I hate straps, most wave riders around here (being ex surfers) consider them training wheels. But if i did, they would be exactly as you say, well forward of where the mounting points are on production directional kite-boards. I would say that is because most of the kite industry people came from windsurfing, and have long been addicted to foot-straps. A surfer only puts that back foot briefly on the tail to try to "blow the fins out" of the lip, then he's right back in the middle, pretty much dead center where the sweet spot is. A hard cutback is all back foot, so it needs to be over the side fin.

But strapless is way easier in the long run, so unscrew them and throw them away, you'll feel so much better. And it's just so much easier to ride the wave without having to wear that paper bag over your head.

Sorry, that last bit was a dig at all my buddies who still use foot traps....