Get into the harness before you go for the footstraps.

Get into the footstraps before you pick up too much speed. ie: as you begin to plane you should be getting into the straps

edit: also, be light on your feet. ie: put your weight onto the boom. heavy feet on a rail will make your board twitch.

My freestyle board is super twitchy in comparison to my freeride board. Plus my freeride board is 10cm skinnier than my freestyle.

Freestyle are meant to be twitchy and very very maneuverable.

Probably a lot easier to learn to get in the straps on a free ride board

This often results in you flattening the back strap so you can't get your foot into it which then means you cane along balancing on your front foot while trying to reconstruct the rear strap with your big toe so you can get your foot into it followed by the inevitable stack in over the front when you hit a bit of chop.
I can identify with flattened or twisted straps,,
I wear booties & sometimes find it takes while to reorganise the strap & get in..usually dont stack it though its a bit scary/frustrating..[}:)]

Try sheeting in rather than out to calm the board down. It reduces the power and slows it but you are pulled more across the board than forward, so less chance of a catapult.

usually learning on something large and stable allows us to put our feet anywhere anytime without really affecting the board. but get on a frisky board and the game changes.

so, i'm in the harness and just beginning to plane. the wind has given me enough confidence to weight up the harness, and as i commit at this moment i'll go for the front foot-strap. increasing my weight into the sail i ensure the board keeps tracking in the same direction - if it changes i haven't weighted the mast-foot enough (ie - either not enough wind or not committed to the harness). classic symptom; this unbalancing will put too much weight at the rear, causing the nose to buck up high, then points into the wind killing speed. but get this right, and timed with a quick step, i'll not upset the board at all. getting this right is one of the tricks of getting a board going in marginal conditions.

the rear footstrap is there when i really get going, so depending on conditions that might be straight after the front, or a little longer in middling winds. same theory - as i get going faster and feel more confident in the harness, i simultaneously commit harder to rake the sail and step into the rear (preferably not looking down at my footstrap!). i time it such that i'm not trying this just at the peak of chop!

a body-drag proves you don't actually need your feet on the board to control it.

a lot of it comes down to feel and delicate precise footwork...so keep at it and you'll be amazed at how quickly it becomes natural! getting confidently into the footstraps is the last phase of beginner-hood. you sound very close! good luck

I would not focus too much on using the harness, while your accelerating onto the plan especially on a freestyle board, which is basically has a slalom boards rocker line for the fastest possible acceleration combined with the turny outline of a manoeuvrable board (this partly what limits it tops speed).

If you actually got a freestyle fin in it you won't be able to load the fin up either, so you will need your weight more forward and on the front rails, than a board with a bigger fin. (thats the way it designed) I would ignore this last comment if your got a normal fin in the board. (I would get a regular 25cm+ for this board if in fact you have not already for your stage, you will have a board that rides much more like a regular freestyle-wave, or small freeride.

If you have plenty of wind by all means hookin first then, front strap, then back strap before the board takes off! Otherwise you risk ripping the nose off with a catapult! With my skate (freestyle board) it does not take much to remodel the nose, I call mine, my Michael Jackson board :-)

I will use the harness when there is plenty of wind, but I hardly bear off at all, and I am in the straps as quickly as possible. Otherwise I pump sail and try and pop the board, which you need to be unhooked for anyway, so your not learning any bad habits by any means.

I would concentrate on planning, but the front foot in quickly and depending on the wind strength let it accelerate a little bit before turning slighty upwind, bring the sail slighty back at the same time, which will allow you to put your weight more onto your front leg, so you can lift your rear leg, don't overdo it though. Then let the board accelerate and you could hook in.

racerX said...

I call mine, my Michael Jackson board :-)

Always chasing much younger boards?

dring44 said...

Haha, you re-model the nose with ur mast?

cant really imagine that happening, hope it doesn't..

your turn will come

steveBayside said...

I had a different strap technique which i used whilst learning to get into straps on small board (its probably all wrong, but anyway). I still use it if the wind is strong & gusty.

1. point the board v.upwind so its basically stationary/stalled, right at edge of the wind window.
2. put front foot next to mastfoot, full weight goes between front foot & thru the arms into the boom/mastfoot
3. bendf ront knee, straighten back leg and get your back foot into rear strap, but no weight on it! keep weight forward on the boom & front foot. back foot in strap stops you tipping over forward.
Your now in a sort of lunged forward position.
4. tilt sail forward and across your body to point board downwind

if wind is marginal, keep you weight forward and on the harness & front foot
(you can even lift upward with the back foot to flatten board, never sure if this helps or not). pump a bit. This position is not the most efficient for early plane though.

if wind is strong then back foot in strap prevents you catapulting straight off, and then its easy to get your weight further back on the board, hook in, and then to get front foot in.

when you fall off plane you can unhook and put front foot back next to mastfoot again.

you can put your bodyweight anywhere between the harness (i.e. mastfoot) and both feet, and so match any weight distribution you might have out of the straps

Also useful if wind is strong enough is to waterstart in the back or both straps

I started off getting into the rear strap first. Its possible to develop the technique up to a point where it is similar to (but not as good as) getting into the front strap first. I ended up as you say, getting the back foot in with little weight on it and keeping the board as close to the right trim as I could by weighting the mastfoot a lot and trimming the board sideways with my rear foot. It is possible to maybe get about 90%? as efficient as going to the front strap first.

I wouldn't say dont do it as it may help some people get into the straps, but I would say that as soon as you get the hang of it and get the confidence to get into the straps that way, its time to move on to going into the front strap first.

Very occasionally in severely overpowered survival type conditions, I might go to the rear strap first, but otherwise front strap always feels more efficient.