Cinch bindings super tight, or leave a bit loose?

Alright, after only really being comfortable carving around and riding switch for the past 3-4 months, I finally feel like my left ankle is almost 100% - I injured it when my right foot came out of my binding and my left came out only halfway on a bad fall. The board twisted around once I hit the water and torqued my left ankle bad enough that I couldn't walk on it for about 4-5 days without significant pain.

So the question is this: do you believe in keeping your bindings a little on the loose side so that if you take a digger your board comes off completely, and you have no worries? Or do you believe that it's more dangerous to have them loose, and you think cinching them up pretty tight is the way to go with respect to hard falls?

Thanks for the feedback.

(Message edited by tparider on January 29, 2005)

Ya know, I always wonder about this. On one hand I like them tight because it just feels better when Im out riding especially off the wake. On the other hand, I get nervous if they are to tight because I think that I am going to hurt myself if I take a bad fall and the board stays on my feet. On the other hand I hat when I go down and they come off and Im in the water for 10 minutes cussing trying to slip my feet back into them. Just pretend I never gave you any feed back on this thread.

I prefer mine tighter. If you take a hard enough fall, no matter how tight your bindings are, you're going to come out. It's kind of like rolling the dice every time you wakeboard.

From my experience, tight, means less chance of either foot coming out, which means less chance for the type of injury you're describing.

Good thought Thane.

I'm interested to hear other opinions on this...

I keep my Belmonts relatively tight. I like to feel locked in when I ride. And like Thane said, theres always a risk of the board coming off and you getting hurt, no matter what. I just concentrate on having fun and riding well, rather then worry about getting injured.

That's true Mark, but if you would have asked me last summer if I would have felt this way, I would have said no. But now that I have sustained and recovered from an injury, I'm a little hesitant to charge it....

I have some CD's and they have like shoelaces on them. What I do is tighten the part on top my foot and leave the part around my ankle a little loose. This way I can slide in and out without any problems, yet I still have tons of support.

anyone else? I just want to see what the general consensus on this is...

thanks

I like them loose. My bindings come off easy when I crash. And I can slip them right back on in the water with no lube. I sustained an injury from my bindings being too tight a couple of seasons ago. My foot came only half way out on a big crash. Had they been loose. booth feet would have slipped out and I would have been fine. Plus, struggling to get in and out of bindings sucks.

that's kind of how I feel too J-rod - but I'm just not 100% on how I want to do it these days...