Riding strapless: A multi benefiting practice

Why strapless? What are the benefits?

Riding strapless looks like a lot of fun both in waves and on flat water. It doesn’t just look like that, it also feels like it! Riding strapless is easier than you think and full of benefits. In the following blog, you will read about the benefits and technical details around riding strapless. You can also follow these tips and see yourself getting up soon. Strapless riding improves every type of kiteboarding practice by making you work on your balance and offers a different body workout. By focusing on new muscles, going strapless will improve your postural muscle strength and reactivity. It’s the same feeling as walking on a slackline. Some people are thinking maybe it is a hype in the kitesurfing world because it is not so cool to ride strapped. Ultimately, though, it is about having fun and expressing ourselves in the water. Anyone doing kiteboarding can go strapless. If you are looking for the “real” surf feeling, strapless is definitely what you want to ride. While it will take some time to learn, especially with large waves, going strapless will help your board skills improve rapidly and you will very quickly realize if your weight distribution, between your feet, is off. Sure, you might fall at first, but after you will regulate your body balance, switching from one foot to the other and adjusting more frequently, for example, to pass a wave; during a gust or when going toe side riding. If you have the patience to try and fail in the beginning, you are most likely to go strapless from the start.

Technical details and riding tips

Chose the right board

You do not even need new specific and expensive equipment, simply take off the foot-straps from your directional board. It also works with your twin tip. Yes, you read right, you can ride twin tips strapless, it is a bit like the skateboard style, but you can’t move your feet off the pads. To start riding strapless with your twin tips it will help you notice when you overuse the foot-straps. Some boards are specifically designed for strapless riding. The pad allows you to have better grab and cover a wider area of the board. That’s especially important when you want to explore the full potential of riding strapless. You don’t need a new board to practice, you can just add some surf wax in front and on the side of the front footpad.

Start on flat water

If you start riding strapless, make it easy on yourself and forget about the waves. Train first in the shallow flat water. Take your kite at 12 o'clock, go into the water with your board until you are waist deep. Put your back to the wind and with your front hand, point the nose of the board a little bit downwind whilst keeping the kite steady with your back hand. Sit in the water and put your feet on top of the board. Put pressure on your heels to increase the heel edge of the board in so that it remains under your control. Keep your knees bent and the kite at 12 o’clock. Make sure your feet are not close together. Have a wide stance on the board. Your heels need to be on the edge closer to you, so the board is tilted towards you. The whole foot needs to be on the board. Not just the heels. Pull the bar just slightly in so you have a little bit of power and you move downwind which will make the board glue to your feet. Don’t dive the kite as hard as during the water start with a twin tip.

Watch you front foot pressure

Particularly noticeable for anyone is if you are riding strapless your weight is more balanced than when you drive on twin tips. Try not to drive hard off your back foot, even though it will seem easier and is satisfying for smaller waves. If you haven’t really surfed without a kite, the tendency when bottom turning and then carving across the face will be to drive off that back foot. By focusing on balance of both your feet at the beginning, you will be able to join together multiple top to bottom turns, maintain control and open yourself up to variations down the road.

Work on the carving turns

The carving turns offers a smooth powerful movement that can offer varying challenges and exhilaration. It will not come as a shock to anyone that perfecting your carving turns is going to be essential for your kitesurfing enjoyment. It’s another perfect opportunity for those flat water days. Whether you're craving a super hard arc on flat water or slicing across the face of a wave, the carving turns are a must-have technique for any intermediate rider. Whether it’s carving a turn at the bottom of a wave, making a speedy carve to pick up a swell or the kick out when you need to escape that closing out sections before you get washed up on the rocks.You need a full hit rate so practice a lot.

Move your back foot

Experiment a little! When cruising or riding a wave, your back foot doesn't have to be struck in the same spot. An inch movement back or closer to the rail can have a big effect. Even cruising, try moving your back foot further forward to help you get upwind easier.It is fun, try it, sometimes the simpler the better, that is why so many people go strapless once you will have experienced all the possible displacement while riding, you will be able to know where to adjust your foot-straps or how to ride more efficiently depending on the wind strength. Riding strapless isn’t a limiting practice or even a hype. It’s just another way to ride and an amazing ability that will bring you heaps of fun and another opportunity to better learn the technical side of the kite.

So try it, there are so many people going strapless if you are convinced and want to learn or improve your strapless style during your next vacation: book a course in those schools…

Riding strapless: A multi benefiting practice