Freestyle Basics: Straps, fin, trim – the right equipment settings for performing tricks

No: SpockFlaka & Co. aren’t dead. Of course, these classics belong in every tricker’s repertoire for good reason. Nevertheless, anyone starting out in freestyle wants to venture into the world of power moves as quickly as possible. Tricks like the Culo, Burner or Kono are particularly fascinating because they allow you to catapult yourself metres into the air from mirror-smooth water. But before you can say “Beam me up, Scotty!”, you first need to get your craft ready:

In this instalment of our freestyle series, Julian Wiemar shows you which setups are recommended for the mast foot, footstraps and fin, and how to trim your sail for maximum lift during take-off.

Loop size

Freestylers generally tend to adjust their straps to be very loose. The whole foot should be able to slide quickly and easily into the strap, right up over the instep, without any significant pressure from above. This allows you to switch quickly and gives you the best possible control over your board in the air. But be careful: if you adjust the strap so loosely that your whole foot can slide in, you’ll also need to pull the strap tighter to ensure you have enough support.

Unlike with freeride or race bindings, the majority of the hold for freestylers comes not from pressure from above, but from the tight, side edges of the strap, which keep the foot in position. This reduces the strong forces acting on the instep from above during manoeuvres (especially in switch stance), and the foot has a little play in the high strap so that, in the event of a fall (where you cannot get out of the strap in time), it can turn left and right without being crushed directly from above.

Tightening the strap automatically creates the steep, high-arched shape characteristic of freestyle bindings. If the spacing of the plugs on the board does not allow for this due to your personal foot width (as the spacing is either too wide or far too narrow), you can use washers, as shown in the bottom right, to push the edges of the strap inwards.

Sail trim

Modern freestyle sails can handle a bit of loose leech – but not too much. For a stable duck, the leech on a typical freestyle sail should be almost taut, as this reduces the sail’s tendency to move around when diving through the wave. If you’re using a wave sail for tricks, you can happily sail with slightly less luff tension – i.e. a loose leech – than is usually the case.

Finns

The days when it was all the rage to barely get airborne and slide as many 360-degree spins as possible into every manoeuvre are slowly but surely coming to an end – and with them, the days of the absolute mini-fins. A larger fin (between 19 and 21 centimetres) is now standard. To switch to switch stance at full speed, duck the sail and then catapult yourself as high as possible using the built-up pressure, you need at least a bit of grip. When conditions are very choppy, slightly larger fins are therefore used than in glassy water. As a freestyle beginner, you usually first have to learn to ride straight at all with what feels like a small 21-centimetre fin. Of course, this makes the board very sensitive, but a fin larger than a 21cm makes little sense for sliding, as the board otherwise rides as if on rails and responds less well to steering inputs.

Seagrass Freestyle Fins generally offer slightly more grip than ‘standard’ fins, so you can choose a size one or two centimetres smaller. Whilst seagrass fins have noticeable performance drawbacks in freeride, seagrass freestyle fins are usually a fully-fledged alternative that allows you to do anything. Many Baltic Sea trick riders who always use seagrass fins no longer bother to change their fins when heading to the North Sea – i.e. to a seagrass-free area.

Loop spacing and mast base position

Increasing the distance between the front and rear straps (a wider stance) can improve overall control. Placing the straps closer together (a more compact stance) provides greater bounce and faster rotation. The former is largely negligible with modern freestyle equipment, small sails and, above all, in flat water. So you can safely keep everything compact. On short freestyle boards, the mast foot can also be moved back, closer to the front straps. This makes the whole setup feel even more compact and responsive; moreover, the nose of modern boards can otherwise feel very short – it can also dip into the chop more easily, get caught and slow you down.

Give it a go: Stand on the floor and try jumping as high as you can from a standing position. You’ll find that you’d never stand with your feet more than shoulder-width apart when taking off. How wide is your stance on your freestyle board? You often see people standing too wide, particularly children and teenagers with short legs. Special freestyle boards for kids, with straps set closer together, are highly recommended in this case.