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A 91cm wide iSonic 147 slalom board with very outboard footstraps
rather confusing array of sets of screw holes in odd places.
Some of these can be really far forward next to the mast
and/or on the centreline. I have even seen them in front of
the mast! These ‘placebo positions’ are not entirely helpful
as they encourage the feet to be in the wrong place and
cannot possibly control any lift from the fin. They do not help
the board to be sailed well and users of them might feel that
they have ‘nailed the footstraps’ when actually they haven’t
really started. Avoid using those positions unless you simply
like the look of footstraps on your feet when you glance down
– and in that case you could always glue some straps to your
feet to give the appearance of being in them wherever you
stand – including walking back up the beach or hanging out
later in the bar…
If you’re not sure how the inboard versus outboard thing feels
then I really encourage you to mix it up a bit and to give
some different settings a go – both in straight line and
carving mode.
Three straps or four?
For freeride boards above 100-110 litres with a wider tail
(especially modern shorter/wider freemove boards) you
should be using two rear straps to control the lift from the fin
as you flatten the board. As you step down to a freewave
board around 100-110 litres then you have a choice of
either single or double rear straps. Much less than that and it
will be just a single back strap as the tails get narrower. A
wave-oriented board with a narrower tail will have a loose
uk
WIND
SURFING