Wakeboarding Question

[LakePerson1952]

I first need to say that I am mainly a skier but I do want to learn the wakeboard. I also need to say that I'm turning 59 soon so even the slaloms now are vastly different from those "back in the day". But the bindings, what we used to call "shoes", have undergone the biggest change I think - and many of the changes I question the wisdom of.

My question really involves the wakeboard bindings and why they seem to be designed to keep your feet in them no matter what happens. And from reading some of the injury posts and seeing videos where a large persentage of people seem to have on braces, it seems to me that it would be better to have a binding that is snug enough to do arial acrobatics but loose enough to allow both feet to easily come out when you fall.

This question really goes further than wakeboards too. I have skied with the new slalom bindings (full shoe front and back that are hard to get on or off) but I don't really like them and, at least for me (an advanced-intermediate skier at this point in my life), I don't think they help improve my skiing. When I learned to ski the bindings allowed your feet to easily come out. And we did some pretty substantial arial stuff. (Has anyone ever seen 3 slalom skiers braid their ski lines by jumping and going under until the braid was so close you couldn't jump over any more?). I've done ski jumps, and tricks, and gotten really big slalom air and have never had my foot come out of the ski when I didn't want it to.

Anyway, something to help me understand the reasoning behind these massive bindings will be appreciated.

[kaneboats]

I don't think the danger with wakeboarding is if both feet come out-- it's if only one does. That can do some serious damage. I think at the slower speed (relative to skiing), it is deemed safer to keep both feet in when you go down.

[bergermaister]

I agree with Kane - keeping both feet attached to the board keeps the board from jumping up and "biting" you when you do go down. One foot breaking loose can cause all kinds of problems whether its a ski, board, etc. I skied for 15 yrs before wakeboarding and I think it's applicable to both.

[jester]

From what i know and have had happen is if one foot comes out you are in trouble. My 2c is that a wakeboard is bigger and you are trying to jump the wake other then flyover the top of it so it can chech and if one foot comes out the board could rotate and there goes your knee and your summer.

[bzubke1]

You want your bindings to be nice and tight. If you take a hard enough fall you're feet will come out no matter how tight you have them. The pros you see with knee braces are from awkward landings or landing straight legged. I don't know anyone personally or heard on the forums of anyone who has gotten seriously hurt from one foot coming out although I'm sure it happens I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's the awkward landings that cause the most damage and you can't really prepare for that other than not trying tricks that are above you're skill level.

[saskyrider]

You want your bindings to be nice and tight. If you take a hard enough fall you're feet will come out no matter how tight you have them. The pros you see with knee braces are from awkward landings or landing straight legged. I don't know anyone personally or heard on the forums of anyone who has gotten seriously hurt from one foot coming out although I'm sure it happens I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's the awkward landings that cause the most damage and you can't really prepare for that other than not trying tricks that are above you're skill level.


While not serious in the way of needing surgery I had my back foot pop out on an awkward landing and it's kept me limited to surfing only this summer..... My ankle was sprained bad enough I needed crutches. I'm at 2 months and still can't even jog yet... Starting to get nervous about being ready for hockey season! I have purchased new bindings (ronix 1's) that hold my foot in better than my 08 Murray bindings. Having both feet staying in is very important... To me at least

[LakePerson1952]

I certainly understand that one foot coming out while the other remains bound could be a real problem. I guess the gist of my post was why not have the bindings flexible enough so that there is really no danger of any foot being "bound" in the shoe in the event of a hard fall. Someone mentioned that the WB is bigger and, so, might be more prone to accidentally come off when jumping which could be an issue. From reading posts about stretched ab muscles (which wouldn't happen if you slipped out of the bindings unless I'm missing something) it still seems to me that excessively tight is worse than loose. Maybe I just need to spend some time on the WB to understand.

[ryan_8099]

I have only gotten injured when my feet come out of my bindings. I am very skinny (145 lbs) at 6 feet with skinny ankles. The problem is I need to cinch down my bindings around my tiny ankle and I have fairly large feet. When I fall, it forces my foot out to bend down and it kills the top of my foot. My foot can't fit through that small of a hole. I was out for about 5-6 days and re injured it yesterday. I even made sure my bindings were looser and my foot still didn't come out of the boot easily.

[sicktc06]

I have my bindings tight. The tighter they are, the more control over the board you have. It's similar to snowboarding. The more control you have, the more comfortable you are on it. The knee braces are definitely for those who had ackward landings and land stiff legged, such as myself. However, I would look at a binding that is on more of a less stiff level and not a full blown stiff binding, such as the Ronix Cell's. I can vouch and so can 2 other people, that the stiffer bindings do a lot of damage if you don't land right. I broke my ankle and 2 others did as well on them. When I broke my ankle though, my feet didn't come out of the bindings. My friends had to get it out for me. Another one of my friends tore his ACL riding that board with those bindings. **Please note this hellracious, out-to-get-the-boarder board has been retired.... LOL!

[saskyrider]

Hey Sicktc06... glad to hear you got rid of the leg wrecker!! I should clarify... the ronix 1's that i bought are nice and flexible but hold the foot in well. I have only ever blown the board right off both of my feet a couple times and both times i was more concerned about other areas that were hurting than my feet/ankles... which i have never hurt before now.