Boots - help please

[KiteCulture]

I'm not sure about that... When I've been wakeboarding, there were some pretty good falls and I can't see how the boat pulling you is any worse than a kite. When it comes down to it, you drop the bar in a fall leaving the kite with little pull. For those that unhook, there is even less pull I would guess. I've not tried it, but my suggestion would be to go out on a light wind day and give em a go. Nothing crazy, but get a feel for things and then build from there. I liked the way boots felt for sure, but also value the flexibility and ease of straps. What I love about kiting vs. wakeboarding is that I don't have to rely on bad drivers, need a spotter, wait for the lake to be dead calm, buy a $30000 boat....

Funny, but has anyone tried riding behind a boat with straps? It's awful! You feel way too loose.

pick up a cheap wakestyle board in the used section here and give it a go.
see ya on the water

[Twitch]

Good point you made KiteCulture. I also heard you are more likely to break your knees using boots when crashing. Is this a fact? What about when you crash and the kite pulls you in one direction while the board attached to your feet pulls against the kite? I guess your knees get stretched out badly.

If you ride boots you will tweak your knee most likely, seriously hurting your knee is a question as to how hard you want to take your riding. Ofcourse if your throwing down powered something is bound to get hurt but same as if your riding straps. I prefer my boots locked in tight so that one leg doesn't come out that's where it really HURTS. Either tighten up those boots or wear them completely loose so if you crash real hard atleast both feet can come out haha. Same with straps though you can really hurt your ankles and knees in the same way as wearing boots. My left knee is pretty weak so im always tweaking that one but nothing a day or two recovery doesn't fix and has yet to stop me from riding with boots. Your first pair of boots might feel really snug especially closed toes until they are broken in properly. Mine felt perfect after about 2 months of riding they were really tight to get in and out so keep with it you'll grow to either love boots or hate them and go back to straps. I'd say a good majority who try boots with a proper board wont look back so give it a shot.

[dyyylan]

Yeah, I never try anything beyond simple backrolls and stuff in straps these days because I'm always terrified I'm going to break an ankle. Once you get used to boots, straps feel so unsafe

[Tiago1973]

i've been thinking about boots too actually. Been riding snowboards and wakeboards for a while so I'm used to bindings/boots but just haven't been able to commit on the kite side yet.

Any tips on technique?

lycra socks helps me getting in and also being kind of automatically ejected if the fall is too hard. stupid thing, i know. lol. true story


also find relaunch a bit of a pain as the ability to swim is compromise, the bright side of things is you won´t waste time body dragging and looking around for your board. the point being - for the first trials be sure to get a kite that´s not a pain to relaunch. or don´t drop the kite but then where will be all the fun?


& finally if the swell is ~chest high i prefer using the boots loose, think the risk of having 1 foot in / 1 foot out is highly compensated by the ability to dump the board relatively quickly (just turn your back to the incoming wave, extend your legs and let it take your board off). but using boots in waves is not such a good idea anyway


think you will love it. i know i do