C-Forum

Sometimes I think I need to have the leg straps tight. This puts my legs to sleep. What are your suggestions and thoughts?

From what I understand from the bulk of the community, how you outfit your boat is both a matter of personal preference and a function of the type of water you predominantly paddle. Most folks I know of who prefer low volume, creeky rivers and streams tend to prefer slightly looser outfitting, allowing for more dynamic movement of one's body weight around the boat. loose outfitting also makes the unexpected yet sometimes necessary exit from the boat much easier to employ. however, it can also make rolling a bit more challenging. On the other hand, folks who mostly paddle bigger water tend to prefer tighter outfitting because the boat is essentially connected to you and will respond much more quickly to the subtlest of movements of the paddler's core. this also applies to rolling, yet conversely to exiting the boat.

the bottom line is what works best for you is what is best. I personally don't know anyone who likes paddling with legs and feet full of pins and needles, so go ahead and experiment with how loose you can allow your straps to get and still have good control of your craft while remaining comfortable.

Open or decked?

Open:
Not tight enough, my knees lift when when I'm really going for it, or trying to roll.
Seriously though my thighs are anchored well enough and I don't get pins and needles, what I need is either to upgrade to 4 straps to hold my knees down as well, or a bulkhead to tuck my knees under. I don't want to snuggle too far under a bulkhead because I like to be able to wriggle part out of the straps on flat sections to stretch etc.

Decked:
Yeah, I'm lucky if I can get the spray deck on before I get numbness or pins and needles in my legs!
It's not so much about how tight the straps are, but how sharp the bend at the knees is and how much weight you are putting on your ankles, which are mainly a factor of pedestal height as far as I can tell. I remodelled the pedestal in the Maverick and was soon able to last a couple of minutes at a time (made the butt pad a bit higher and sloping from rim level at the back down a couple of inches to the front), now I just need to fix the deck after a bit of a broach on some rapidblocs and get used to the boat!

I'm relatively new to this, someone more experienced may say the opposite

There are those, like me, who kneel "loose" in larger boats, our active movements controlling the boat.

But when I am in c-1, I am in "tight" so that the interface with the boat is as direct as possible.

I have seen some very, very good OC-1 slalom racers who followed the "loose" philosophy. You don't have to be glued to your pony to control it. You move your (m)butt around on it and achieve all sorts of control.

It depends how many dimensions I'm working in - 2D (open boats, higher volume C1's) comfy wins.

3D (squirt boats, lower volume C1s) where I'm trying to sink the bow or stern and have complete control tight is better.

I look at it this way - in Cquirt I may want to lean all the way back to sink the stern and raise the bow out of the water. Tight straps allow this. Loose straps mean I fall out backwards;)

My Spanish Fly is like putting on a condom, but I play a lot more than creek.

for a slalom boat, I'm very tight. The pedestal a modified bucket seat, and is as low as I can tolerate for 10 minutes at a time , and I have straps and bulkhead very snug.

For larger C1s, higher pedestal, and straps with knee cups.

for OC - higher pedestal, straps and a kneeling pad so I can move around

I rig my outfitting so that when pushing hard on on the toe pegs I'm locked in tight. When relaxed there's a little slack.