Its certainly less strain on the knees, but there is still strain so take it easy. i.e. light winds.

Get some good wax or resort to the two deckpad solution on an old tufflite surfboard.

You can try a Mal (8 foot long) for really light wind stuff. Not as challenging as a short board.

hi sorry to hear about your knee.
there are some awesome knee braces out there this is one you might like to do some research on.


hope this helps!

When getting back on the water from a fractured fibula last year I had the same idea ie. using a strapless surfboard.
I found it interesting that I seemed to jar my leg more when riding strapless than than when strapped. My injured leg was my front one when heading out over waves and chop and when strapless I tended to push down on the front leg when going over waves to avoid getting air and coming off, whereas when you are strapped you can actually lift the nose a bit and land on the tail more.
However with your knee injury I think you would be better off strapless because as Corey mentioned the last thing you want is to have one foot stay in the strap and twist the knee.
Riding a surfboard strapless is way easier than most people think, but be careful, I reckon I would be looking for some kind of knee brace just to be sure I didn't cause any more damage.

Your injury is pretty impressive. I can't really compete with that, but I mine happened when I came off the back of a wave on my strapless surfboard and the fin aimed for my head and I protected my head with my hand.

rusty7 / bjw just curious were you using some kind of leash?

roder lol, leash! .....you got to be joking, those things can cause real harm. Thanks for the good wishes everyone, very much appreciated. WHat happened was, I was coming in from a session pulled in on the bar lifting me a little and kicked off the board done it 100 times ,never a problem. Somehow the the board stood up in front of me catching me under the knee cap and flipping me onto the beach with the board still hooked into my knee. I was lucky i was with a very experienced crew as i was still hooked into my 13m ozone edge laying on the beach all f^%ked up. One of the boys got the kite off me and landed it then they organized the ambo and gave me the appropriate amount of crap. I only thing different I did was wear booties as the water was a little chilly and i was feeling a bit pussy. That might have caused the problem. As the board didn't come off cleanly.
BJW I will have to run a file over the fins. Thats an awesome cut.

Hi Rusty,

A strapless surfboard is great if the water isn't too choppy, otherwise you'll be riding with a lot of bend in the knees and your front knee going up and down like a piston over the chop. Remember a surfboard rides on the water not through them like a twin tip so you will feel every bump if it is choppy. I like straps when it's real choppy because I can hop over some of the steeper chop and land on the "down ramps" to smooth out the ride.

If you ride somewhere like currumbin at the point, it should be apples coz the water is well protected and fairly smooth.

Be careful and ride a kite size smaller than normal at least, you don't want to be edging against a surfboard too hard.

Good luck with the recovery

KH

What about a wakeskate on flat water as a restart?

For strapless surfboard, agree with the "feel every chop" comments and if the wax is not good, it is easy to do the splits on a strapless surfboard, which may cause you some pain!