28 COACHING FUNDAMENTALS
A freewave board of approximately 100 litres is
designed to have either:
a) four straps outboard (for powered-up blasting)
or
b) two straps inboard on the front with a single
back strap (for waves or easy carving)
The strap-free photos below allow you to see
the positioning options clearly
Most boards will have 3-5 holes per insert. It is not
necessarily the case that you will use, say, the front hole of
the set for the front of the strap and the front hole of the set
for the rear of the same strap. The width of your foot (in or
out of a boot) and the spread should dictate which holes you
use. Trial and error can be a good thing here until you find
something that feels right for you.
Inboard or outboard?
The front and back straps can be positioned further in
towards the centreline or further out towards the rail of the
board. Generally speaking it’s better to have the straps more
inboard when learning to use them (whilst going at gentler
planing speeds) and more outboard when you’re ready to go
faster. Inboard straps are easier to get into yet make
flattening a well-powered board much harder. Outboard
straps are harder to get into yet are better at keeping a
board flat at speed as weight is positioned on the rail for
maximum leverage against the lift from the fin.
On the other hand you might consider inboard straps for
easier control of the board when carving. Using a short, wide,
carve-oriented freemove board or a smaller, lively freewave
board with inboard front straps makes it way easier to carve
smoothly into a gybe than a board that has footstraps pinned
to the rail. Yet, as already mentioned, having the straps
inboard for easy carving means less control when full-power
blasting at speed. So there’s a compromise to be struck here
depending on what your priorities are. You can always slide
your heel out of an inboard strap towards the rail a little if
you need more leverage at speed to keep your board flat. If
the straps are outboard, however, you probably won’t be able
to slide your foot further in for smoother carving.
Sometimes people learning to get into the back strap might
have outboard straps on the front (to keep the board flat in
stronger winds) and inboard straps – or a single centre
strap – on the back (to make getting in easier). This can work
for those who need the experience of using the back strap to
be as easy as possible yet caution is needed. When the front
foot is on the edge of the board yet the back foot is inboard
on or towards the centreline, this will direct the rear shoulder
inboard resulting in the back arm sheeting out which can
cause a loss of power. Once confidence has been gained
(assuming that the best place for the front strap is still
outboard) then the rear strap should be moved to the
outboard position as well. This will enable the body to face
the sail, allowing the back arm to pull the sail in properly.
A very wide slalom board will have only one option of a very
outboard setting. This is to allow all the body weight to be
positioned right out on the rail to lever the board flat against
the maximum lift created by a longer-than-normal fin powered
by a larger-than-normal sail. Getting into the footstraps and
carving this type of board, however, is not easy.
On some very wide, high-volume beginner boards that
double-up as entry-level intermediate boards you might see a
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WIND
SURFING