Hello all,
I've been having some difficulty getting back into the straps once planing on my 80L slalom board. Getting the front foot in is no problems but then getting the back foot into the strap is much more difficult and i often find myself unbalanced and/or catapulted. Is there any tips for timing or techniques or common mistakes that people make?
Any help would be much appreciated :)
Cheers, Moose.
EDIT: I find it especially difficult when its choppy but when the wind is strong enough for it to be that choppy i can just get in the straps sub-planing and get on the plane like that.
I also found that the second foot is much harder than the first one. It needs more timing and speed. With practice it becomes easier. I grab the boom harder and put more weight into my arms (not into the harness - into the harness is for the first foot). Try to time it with the board going up a wave and before you are fully planing.
^^^ What he said! Push weight down on boom with arms & slide foot in before being fully powered up.
You should only be putting your back foot in once planning. Same for harness. Don't hook in till planning.
catapults can happen for 2 main reasons.
firstly you are not planning so there is to much pull on the rig and secondly, because you are not hanging your weight off you rig through your arms.
if you move back too early or hook in to early you are just compounding the issue and stalling the board making both straps and harness use harder
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What he said.
Sometimes I sheet in when overpowered to get into the back strap.
It reduces the power a bit and you are being pulled a bit more across the board and a bit less forward, so you want to get the foot in quickly, but it is another way of doing it.
The other overpowered ways are to turn upwind or pick a smoother patch of water to get the rear foot in.
The faster the better for actually moving the foot.
