Could Foot Straps on a Surfboard Lead to Broken Femur?

[kitegirls]

My friend was kiting in slightly overhead kinda junky waves today with her surfboard with footstraps and destroyed her femur. Trying to figure out if the footstraps could be responsible? Anyone hear of this / have experience?

[Hugh2]

Ouch, that sounds both painful and horrible. I meet folk in Cape Town who insist on riding strapless primarily due to concerns about getting caught with one foot in one strap in a tumbling wave. I personally still put straps on my board if I am determined to ride a directional in large waves, simply because I cannot get to the outside without being able to jump over the incoming waves.

[juandesooka]

Heard about this via grapevine.....friend involved in the rescue.

Footstraps on surfboards can definitely cause injuries, especially if only one strap or one foot comes out. Lots of force twisting that one leg in waves.

on the other hand, I broke my ankle riding strapless. ...freak accident, so I guess there's always some risk. Hope she recovers quick and back at it soon.

[purdyd]

With one foot stuck in a strap I am more worried about twisting and ankles, knees, hips. Never felt anything really in the femur area.

I could see hitting a lip late and having it smack you hard. That might be more in line with a femur injury.

Waves have lots of power, a little google search and you find people who have broken femurs while surfing.

I would say normally the board would come right off but straps could have been a contributing factor.

Obviously advantages and disadvantages to strapped or strapless.

Hope there isn't a bone issue with your friend as usually crappy waves aren't that powerful. When we get a long period south swell even small waves have a lot of power.

Hope your friend recovers fast!

[Toby]

Ouch, that sounds both painful and horrible. I meet folk in Cape Town who insist on riding strapless primarily due to concerns about getting caught with one foot in one strap in a tumbling wave. I personally still put straps on my board if I am determined to ride a directional in large waves, simply because I cannot get to the outside without being able to jump over the incoming waves.

wouldn't foot hooks be a good alternative?

[Hugh2]

Toby, I haven't seen anyone riding a surfboard with foothooks. The whole idea of straps is both to provide extra control when riding waves, and boosting ability to jump over them. I've ridden a foil board with hooks and didn't even like them for that.

[kitelife]

I avoid straps. Tried foot hooks but they break easy and do not work very well. This is a good video about EVA foam blocks -
Thinking about trying this for both foiling and (kite) surfing.

[PullStrings]

My friend was kiting in slightly overhead kinda junky waves today with her surfboard with footstraps and destroyed her femur. Trying to figure out if the footstraps could be responsible? Anyone hear of this / have experience?

Could be an high impact collision with surfboard rail......straps injuries will torque your ligaments to the max.... not usually breaking the strong femur bone
I've had my right front knee get twisted in a strap in overhead crap waves 3 months ago ( back foot was not in snugly and came out )....i'm much better now...at 95% healed
It was my LCL ...lateral collateral ligament

[tmcfarla]

Impact sounds more likely, but I don’t think torque can be ruled out. Care to share any details about her general physical conditions? If she is older or exceptionally thin-boned, or something? I almost never use foot straps for exactly this reason. Hope she heals up well.

[Matteo V]

.....The whole idea of straps is both to provide extra control when riding waves, and boosting ability to jump over them.....

Way more to it than that, at least for a board under 6'-0".

Strapless forces you to move your foot on the board, then pressure the board there. Need to pressure the board in a different spot? - then you have to move your foot again. All of this takes lots of time, and still only allows you to pressure downwards or sideways AND downwards.

Strapped allows you to instantly pressure the board anywhere - without moving your feet. The ability to pull up on a strap, pry up on a strap, pull the board sideways without downward pressure, or apply torque on a strap, gives the rider instantaneous inputs to the board as there is no time invested in foot movement. Most of the "pre-planning" required when strapless is unnecessary when strapped. Moves are quicker, and decisions or changing them can be made on the spot when strapped.

When I started getting into directionals, I desperately wanted to be a strapless rider. And I became very competent strapless for a while. Then I realized that the handicap of strapless was not adding to my enjoyment of kitesurfing. I like riding fast, and doing more than just simulating prone surfing when kiting. I still like surfing, but I don't try to handicap myself with strapless anymore. I do like that most other kiters do fixate and hype strapless, though. It keeps most of them out of my way, or at least lets me know that their approach will slow them down to where I can get around them and have more waves to myself.

And in my time with strapless riding, I had just as many leg/ankle injuries as I have had with strapped. Both are risky, but the biggest reward for the risk is strapped.