WindDoll

Download using-the-footstraps or read it here.

Updated May 23 2008. Students in the clinic Wednesday May 21 wanted to know more about how big to make the footstraps and how to steer when you’re zooming in the harness and footstraps, so I added this information.

How many feet are on the board? THREE FEET! Front foot, back foot, mast foot.

Don’t try to get into the footstraps until you’re using the harness!

Footstraps Sizing: Footstraps are set loose for freestyle and wave sailing (your toes and an inch or two of your foot pokes out), so the rider can pressure the lee side of the board with her toes. Footstraps are set tight (just your toes poke out) for slalom sailing so the rider can control the board going fast. For starters, try a not-too-tight slalom setting (your toes poke through, but the straps are not hard to slide into) so you can experience the control the footstraps add to your windsurfing experience. If you’re using booties, make sure the straps are loose enough to get your feet out easily.

SLIDING IN

1. Sail along planning or almost planning on a beam reach. Stance NUMBER 7.

2. Hook into your harness and weight your booms. LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO.

3. Your feet will probably start out six inches to a foot in front of the footstraps. As you start going faster, gradually slide your feet back toward the footstraps. Keep sheeted in for power in the sail, body over the windward rail (not over the tail). Keep the board balanced. You’ll feel the front footstrap first (unless you’re really powered, in which case you’ll get to both front and back at the same time).

4. With your weight in the harness and on you back foot (your back foot should be on the centerline of the board between the straps), you can lift up your front foot and put it in the strap. Feel the strap. LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. Don’t change where your body is, just slide your foot into the strap. Your front foot may be behind your hips. Your feet may be close together. That’s OK. Pressure your toes. Maintain your stance.

5. When you’re planning nicely, keeping weight on your back foot, sneak it into the strap. Pressure your toes. (Advanced tip: When the nose of the board gets lifted by a wave, you can lift up your back foot and put it in the strap. You can create this effect by giving a little jerk up with the front hand on the boom. When the nose of the board goes up, the tail goes down, like a teeter-totter, and you don’t have to hold down the tail with your foot at that moment.)

6. ZOOM like you’ve never zoomed before! The faster you go, the less toe pressure. When you’re really speeding you’ll be pulling up with your front toes and weighting your back foot evenly on the windward side of the centerline.

7. Steering is more subtle. Move your hips forward toward the nose of the board to fall off the breeze and back toward the tail to head up. As you go faster you straighten your front leg and bend your back leg. As you go faster you move your hips back over the back leg.

TROUBLESHOOTING GETTING IN THE FOOTSTRAPS

I round up into the wind and fall over backwards.

a) You sheeted out. Maintain power in the sail throughout this maneuver. Weight your harness. (Are your harness lines too far forward?)

b) You weighted your heels. Point and pressure your toes to keep from weighting the windward rail and carving into the wind.

c) Use a big fin until you get the hang of it. Moving back on the board and sheeting in puts more pressure on the fin and you need to be moving for the fin to have lift to counter that pressure. The faster you go, the more lift in the fin. (You’ll know your fin is too big when you’re planning along and you can’t hold down the rail.)

d) You don’t have enough power. Getting in the straps can help you get on a plane, but you have to have enough power so that the sail pressures down on the mast. Put just your front foot in and keep your back foot on the centerline between the straps.

I’m afraid I’ll get launched when I put in my front foot.

a) Open your hips toward the nose of the board with a NUMBER 7 stance.

b) LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO.

c) Lean back over the rail and weight your harness; keep weight on your back foot.

d) Stay on a beam reach and remember, your foot under the strap will help hold you down.

My footstraps are a million miles from my feet.

a) Use a board set-up that’s appropriate for your level. Straps should be inboard. (Straps-on-the-rail is for advanced slalom sailing and requires speed and a fin with lift.)

b) If you’re putting around on a huge beginner board with a baby sail, you’re not going to be close to the straps. You need a smaller board with a bigger sail.

c) Move the universal back to get your sail closer to the straps.

d) Adjust your trapezoid. (Mast base to straps to harness lines/hook to boom height at the mast.)

I can’t help it. When I move my feet it disturbs the board.

a) To get your front foot in, you must weight the booms. (Raise the booms and/or move the universal back and/or shorten your lines and/or use a seat harness.)

b) Your back foot is harder to do; if you can’t keep pressing down on the tail while you sneak your foot in, either

a.      Use a wave

b.      Or pull up on the booms, but do it quickly because this disturbs your steering and the board’s planing.

GETTING OUT OF THE STRAPS

Get out of the straps just before you drop off a plane-in anticipation of slowing down. Don’t wait until you sink the tail and crash! Sometimes with booties your feet get stuck so if you’re wearing booties, don’t wait until the last second to get out of the straps.

1. Slide your back foot out, maintaining pressure on the board, and put it just in front of the strap.

2. Weighting your booms and your back foot, slide your front foot out and put it just in front of the strap.

3. Maintain your NUMBER 7 stance and stay sheeted appropriately.

Getting out is usually easy because you’re slowing down and coming to a stop, so you don’t need to be so careful with the board to keep it on a plane.