Hey, anyone have any clues about getting into your footstraps without getting bent out of shape. I find that once I'm in the straps all is well but Jaysus it must look horrid getting there. I usually am in the harness first and fumbling around with my feet not paying too much attention to my direction, thus resulting in catastrophic catapults. 
It will come with practice.
Until then, concentrate on putting your back foot equidistant from the front and rear straps, on the centreline. That way you have minimal weight on the front foot, and plenty of time to wiggle it into the front strap.
Then once your front foot is in, move your back foot aft till you can just feel the strap, and go for the quick stab.
Both of these should be done while not looking at your feet, a quick glance is OK but you want to be watching the swell so that you stay on a bit of a wave while you're doing this -- it helps you to get planing as you put your feet in the straps.
Just to emphasise - Always get your front foot in before the back foot , otherwise you'll have no end of hassles steering while you stand all your weight on the back foot so you can lift the front to move it.
Getting your front foot into the front strap before you hook in will definitely help minimise the catapults!
My routine goes: Planing, frontstrap, hook in, back strap... unless it's really blowing, and then I just waterstart in both straps, and worry about hooking in later!
You don't need to be hooked in to get in the straps - have a go at doing it the other way around if you're still having issues with catapulting. (front foot, back foot, and then hook in once you're comfortable)
You can always switch back to hooking in first later on once you're more proficient at finding the straps without looking, or smashing your toes on them when you miss!
your footstraps might be to tight, there is a trend now to gettin begginer footstrappers into bigger straps cause u dont have to "wiggle" your foot to get in..(u can always tigten them later but u probably wont mine reach my ankle).. never look at your feet.. make sure u are COMMITED to the harness (not just floating the hook in the lines).. never look at the board when gettin in the straps u will loose balance, pick a point on the horizon to look at.. and u WILL need to lean forward to take the weight of the back foot while its gettin in the bak strap, this will make u catapult but they are fun.. prettymuch the most amusing thing u will do on a windsurfer for a while! or u can take a trip to greece on www.clubvass.com and well teac ya properly!! 
I find that heading in one direction (portside?), I can find the straps easily....as soon as I start heading the other (starboard?), I nearly break my toes trying to 'smash' my foot in!!!
Front strap should be a natural movement, and I recently found that by lifting my back heel, I get into my backstrap, (toes first) faster, less drag in the water...and...away we go!!!
comes with practice as said, but now i find it as easy as spreading butter on bread, but a few things that helped, is wider footstraps help, (so when setting them up place the top one at the front setting, and the back screw in the middle or back setting), doing the shuffle along the board, and also a good on is sit into the harness so your wieght in going into the mast track and evens the board out,
thats for the back foot, for the front foot, get the back foot mid way between the front and back straps, along the center or just a little towards the opposite rail, and just shuv it in as soon as your on the plane, it helps if you do a litte carve down wind, and also if your back foot is sitting flat on the board taking all the work out of flattening the board.
remember not to look down for long periods of time because you loos balence. and have the straps set at the foward setting because it is the easiest way to learn, but once your confortable, set them back..
also if your finding it hard, try get on the plane, unhook, put your front foot in, rehook, than the bakc foot, makes it a little easier becuase you dont get put off by batapults as easily...
good luck
jordan
" becuase you dont get put off by batapults as easily..."
Yeh, if you become a sparky Jordo, don't get your wires mixed up mate
thanks for the replies, definately try that 555, and yeah decrep that was me
. Great day out for the pb's today, by the way, congrats ben. Elmo just keeps getting faster.
Anyway back on topic.
Paul it as great to meet you yesterday.
I have found one cause of the "getting into the straps problem" is that your boom may be too low.
Perhaps try raising your boom a bit. This will help to commit to your harness and take the weight off your feet so you can move your feet around the board alot easier.
Wishing you a fast recovery and see you on the water soon.
Cheers Bender
Hey bender.
Feelings mutual, thanks for the tip. Got a funny feeling that boom height may have been in question. I guess fine tuning comes with both experience and listening to valuable advice. See if I can't hone my camera skills right now. By the way, congrats on 37kn plus
The descriptions so far have described light to moderate wind. If you find yourself well-powered on a 5m (or there abouts), you might find that back-foot-first is better. ie: back foot straight into the footstrap; front foot just slightly to windward of centerline, just behind the mast track.
When it is really windy, the water-state and the gusts really affect your balance and so you waste quite a bit of effort just getting the back foot into the strap; especially on really short boards or speed boards.
Firstly, if you are putting multiple boards on the roof of your car the footstraps may be getting squashed out of shape which won't make things easy; if this is the case then I found putting s tennis ball into each footstrap stpped it.
Secondly, try the Da Kine Control Contour footstraps, you won't believe the difference they make for getting into the straps and how much more comfortable they are once you are in them.
I always go front foot first, I've heard some people go back first.......what's the diff?
i usually put my front foot in first, cos i have found that if i put my back foot in first and lift my front foot up the nose lifts up and i start fishtailing,
if i waterstart i put my feet in and then lift out of the water.
How do you actually put your back foot in for a waterstart. I find that if I try to put my back foot in the board is pushed head to wind as I wriggle my foot in and the rig dumps down on me. Otherwise if I dont try to get my foot right in the board rounds up as soon as I am up and any weight goes onto my back foot. I just dont seem to be able to plane away from a waterstart with my feet in the straps.
hi all ,after just conquring the foot straps ,my biggest prob was as soon as i lifted my back foot to slip into the strap i got catapaulted,a friend told me to do 2 things ,lift boom up and move the mast foot forward this put more weight on the front foot hey presto the rest is just practice regards bazz
heya willow - i agree with nebs again backfoot first / front foot first - makes no difference once you get good but the oldschool consensus was front foot first, so it's just practice practice practice, and in 12 months time you'll wonder why you even asked this question
Most catapults while getting into the footstraps are caused by straightening out your legs too soon . Get in the harness and planning keep you knees bent(stay low) front foot in first and keep pressure on the back foot, which should be just in front of the back footstrap, and keep the board in shape with your back foot,Stay low and get that back foot in quickly then straighten up your legs and shift your weight forward and up wind you go!!!
