make sure they're loose enough that you can get your foot out of sideways but tight enough that you can't get your upper ankle shoved into it. You shouldn't look at a footstrap as a way to make your foot captive (easy to keep your foot in but hard to get it out)...look at it as something that you still have to use your foot muscles to hang into. If you ever feel the need to either reach down to open it up for your foot or if you have to wiggle your foot into it, you're doing it wrong.
I think that sums it up entirely. I have mine set so I can't get my foot in there much past my toe and have the start of the ball of my foot in there at most which means it's actually quite easy to fall out but I have to make sure my foot stays in. All in all it looks like every sailors nightmare (I regularly race against the poor girl in question) and the only thing worse would have been for the boat to fall over whilst she was still trapped
I asked Dazz, who started this thread and broke his foot, after the rather low trapeze-hook position.
I asked that because when sailing at sea and using the hookposition from the vid that is impossible. You are hit from the cat in the first wave you meet.
So, for me using a low hookposition, looks more something for flatwater sailing. Nevertheless I keep wondering why you want to chose for such a low position as is seen on the vid.
I mean he was hanging in an angle of more than 90 degrees to the hull.
Is that still usefull?? 90 degrees gives the most leverage, doesn't it. And even so, a footstrap is supposed to keep you from being pulled forward and not from pushed backward. So if there is a serious risk for that last, do not ever use the footstrap,
I think she was trying to get her weight all the way back and it was more a combination of boat stopping (nosedive) and then rapid acceleration combined with a wave as it recovered. Whilst that was shot overseas, the waves look similar to what she sails week in week out at home. Unfortunately our home waters are renown for a short sharp relatively big chop which can make getting boats down wind a challenge at times.
