Broken V12 Footstrap

I pulled out of a wave a little too late as it started to break coming into the beach and ended up upside down, but tried staying attached to the ski (to keep it from bouncing on the beach) by keeping my feet against the footboard and tight against the footstrap. However the force on the boat from the wave/foamie caused the screws holding one side of the footstrap to pull out (which was really surprising and disappointing. I haven't figured out yet if they were loose, or if the threads got damaged or whatever. HAae not contacted Epic about it.)

What's the right thing to do in that situation? Maybe it was a bad idea to try to hold onto the boat with my feet, as perhaps my legs/knees/ankles could've gotten tweaked as the wave did its business with me.

Another downside of this is that I always attach my leg leash (which was purposefully not in use during my surfing episode) to the footstrap, because there isn't anywhere else to attach it, so the same thing could happen via the footstrap. There really needs to be a dedicated leash attachment point!

The screws holding your footstrap shouldn't just pull out unless they were subjected to huge forces, in which case you would expect to see some damage to your ski where they were ripped out.

Regarding whether to keep your feet in or out the straps in such a situation, the first rule is to either keep BOTH feet in or neither foot in:there is a very real danger of doing serious damage to your knee or ankle if the ski twists with only one foot in the straps. (I wrecked a knee in a windsurfing accident in big surf when one foot slipped out the straps.)

If the wave is small enough (and you need to make a judgement call on this) then keeping both feet in the straps is a good idea, as it will save you having to swim after your ski once the wave has passed. If its a big wave, take your feet out and let your ski go, as this way there is less chance of your ski (or your body) being damaged. You'll probably have a long swim back to the beach to fetch your ski, but that's far better than having a broken ski next to you! An untethered ski has far less chance of breaking.

I personally don't use a leg leash in the surf zone as you can't release yourself from your ski quickly enough.

One issue that may have been the cause of your strap failure is the use of stainless steel screws screwing into the aluminum Sliding bracket. Doesn't take long in salt water for that metal combination to cause oxidation of the thread and when some force is applied.....

I've often done the hold the boat with the feet in the straps thing, never had a problem and the strap looks no worse for it.

Funny thing is, when you do this you can often times come from full on laying down sideways in the water out of the bucket all hope is lost to sitting back upright with a slight surprise and paddle onwards.

It seems when I do this that the boat faces it's bow into the wave as it tries to wash me towards shore.
Automatic boat saver just by applying some foot power.

funny thing? I can think of a few other words.

Good advice, thanks! I'll let you know when I get a chance to look at the footplate where the screws came out, to see if it looks like a simple matter of them being loose.

Rob,

I also had an issue with the epic footstrap about a year ago when I tore the footstrap off one side of the ski. The screws and plate that spreads the load were still there however after having a closer look, one of the screws wasn't tight as the end of it was hitting the sliding bracket preventing it from tightening. Epic gave me another footstrap free of charge and with a bit more force, the screw could be tightend so the threads went by the bracket.

The adjusting bracket may have been preventing the screws from being fully tightened and could have been the cause for your issue.

As an aside, while there is a large temptation to try and stay with your expensive surfski when you come off in the surf, I agree with most others in that unless the surf is particuarly small, there is less chance for damage (to both you and the ski) when you don't have your weight attached to it.

I finally got around to fixing my foot strap - it turns out the threads in the footplate bracket were definitely damaged, so I surmise that perhaps the screws weren't in as far as they should've been tp begin with, and with the force involved, pulled out of the last couple threads. So I took the footplate off the ski so I could run the screws in from the back side to straighten out the threads. This seemed to work. When the incident happened, I lost the litte plastic piece with the beveled holes that holds the strap down, so I fabricated one out of some plastic shims.
I'll let Epic know about the issue. Thanks go out to all who chimed in above.