Binding fit as related to knee injuries

Just curious what the school of thought is. I am a relatively new wakeboarder and at the tender age of 40, want to protect my knees as much as possible. I have always been a little afraid to crank down on my bindings...my thinking being that if I fall really hard I want to come out of them to save my knees. A friend of mine rides and mentioned that he cranks his down so he will not come out on a hard fall. He is afraid if he keeps them loose maybe only one leg comes out on a fall and then you are asking for trouble. That makes sense to me now that I think about it. What does everyone think is best?


Thanks

I have really bad knees. I crank my bindings down pretty tight, I would rather take the faceplant. When I don't have them really tight, I have had only one leg come out. IMO, this is when my knees get twisted in weird directions.

Just going w2w will beat up your knees pretty good , too. The pain is worth it though.

Crank them down. Knees will not like one foot coming out. My daughter tore her ACL that way. I used to think it would be better to come out on a hard fall, but now I want to stay in.

I guess if you could guarantee that BOTH feet would come out everytime you took a hard fall, that logic could work. IMO, I'd rather keep the board on my feet at all times.....

I cinch them to where they're comfortable. I've seen a lot of knee injuries. The majority of the time it's when the bindings stay on.

i think that the more important thing in this convo is that i see ALOT of people that have their bindings WAY to "duck" footed. this can not and is not good on your knees and puts and unnatural strain and twist on them.

with the loads that are applied while wakeboarding and the duck feet it is only bound to happen.

Tim the board you ride can also make a big difrence on how your knees feel. Before I strated having knee problems I road a slow board "the pemier". A slow board can make you fall out the front, witch can make your chances of hurting knees a lot greater. Slow boards also tend to have harder landings. I switched over to the 3DS witch is much faster board than the Pemeir. And the landings are much softer. The board is not so fast, that it is had to cotrol. Thats something to think about.

Crank em. You're better off in than out. And like jonny said, keep the binding angles reasonable so you don't add strain to the ankles/knees. Try to avoid straight legged landings as well.

(Message edited by wake_upppp on November 23, 2006)

most people i konw didnt' tear it on a fall, but tore it on a landing. I landed out the front and hyperextended to tear my acl, and a lot of others do the same. crank 'em

Thanks everyone....will be cranking them down next time out!