Good joke, but no reason to put anyone down for an informed decision. My participation here in this thread is more for the observable reality that most strapless riders are NOT NECESSARILY making an informed decision. And I can't claim that I was immune to that hype in the beginning. I was caught up in it "hook-line-and-sinker". If it was not by some odd chance that I made a decision to approach it from both angles (but I was still wrapped up in the hype of strapless), I would be arguing on the other side with those that do not understand the potential of strapped.
No question that straps on a longboard are a no go unless those straps are used temporarily during the ride. If you are talking windsurfers, remember that there are 3 connection points to the board, not two (two feet and the mast base connection).knotwindy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:32 am.....On long boards(like 9 ft) I have to move my feet to get the board to trim out. My guess is that on a 3 ft board I couldn’t move my feet or things would get out of trim. In between on a short board, with or without straps, I move my feet a small amount.....
As you go down in size, at least for me on a funboard (prone surfing) at 220-230bs (100kg), I CANNOT stop moving my feet until I am sub 6'-0" (narrow tail gun at 6'-4" or so, depending on tail width) where things definitely get labeled as a shortboard. However, I do move my feet as I first pop up and engage the first turn prone surfing. That is where prone surfing ends and kitesurfing begins. There is no "pop up" in kitesurfing. Thus on a smaller board while kitesurfing, there is no need to move your feet out to a rail or up toward the nose on a sub 6'-0" surfboard. The back foot does come up if you loose speed prone surfing too, but that is not necessary if you have straps kitesurfing, as losing speed does not happen for long enough to warrant a foot placement change. That is where the kite comes in. And it is very difficult to argue against using the kite if you lose speed, given that the wave is likely not powerful enough to have allowed you to continue using it's power to surf.
But here is the apparent hole in the logical progression of all of this - I can't ride a board less than 5'-6" prone surfing. Not to say that I absolutely can't, but I just cannot hope (and have never been able to) get up on a board less than about 5'-6" at my weight. So I can't compare foot movement prone surfing to kitesurfing at those lengths. But if I go for simulating prone surfing with a kite, I can examine the likelihood that smaller boards do behave in a manner consistent with less and less foot movement on smaller and smaller boards. And everything seems to line up. Sub 6'-0" surfboard strapless, and I can either move my feet or not. The same size strapped, and I no longer have to move my feet and I have the ability to use the straps to put forces on the board that I could never put on that same board strapless.
You use different muscles when pulling up on a board via the strap, as opposed to only being able to put downward pressure on your feet. If you are a prone surfer, you will notice a little bit of this when you go from "un-waxed EVA foot pads" to "the wrong temp wax" to "the right temp wax" to "super sticky wax". Your technique changes based on the stickiness of your connection to the board. And it takes time and practice to get the limits of what you can do based on how much you stick to the deck. At the end of this progression - deck hooks, then straps, allows even more options.
By twisting your feet in loose straps, you gain the ability to "lock in" as good as having tight straps, though you can get bumped out of them easier if you loose that twisting moment. And moment you create by twisting does change body mechanics, but I have found that it is possible to compensate for that. With my progression from lots of different kinds of waxes, back to tight straps, to homemade loose straps, I can now get a more locked in feel from the loose straps, with more control, than I could with tight straps. That evolution did occur for the most part after I moved on from kitesurfboards and prone surfboards that could be prone surfed, to the LF Kitefish. So criticism of my last statement on loose straps is warranted.knotwindy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:32 amThere is also more than one way to ride straps, not all the same. You can ride them tight and slam around like a hooligan or leave them loose and only use them as a slight aid in the chop and when boosting. Not that different than strapless most of the time.
And it is obvious that there are different degrees of understanding to even those who have embraced straps.