Are you using a waistbelt harness?

Check out Foundation Training.

I also had back pain which was mostly muscle.

I tried some different windwings and what has worked is windwings where the draft is further back in the canopy.

As a result when toe side I do not need to twist my body as much and overall foiling is more comfortable.

To minimise discomfort, short and long term, when riding toeside, just turning the front of my foot towards the centreline of the board around 30mm but keeping the heel of my foot in the same place helps.
It just feels like there's less stress and is more comfortable.

tightlines said..

kersh said..
To minimise discomfort, short and long term, when riding toeside, just turning the front of my foot towards the centreline of the board around 30mm but keeping the heel of my foot in the same place helps.
It just feels like there's less stress and is more comfortable.

Or better yet learn to switch feet so you don't have to ride toeside.
It takes a while to learn and may seem almost impossible at first but after a while it just feels natural.

I'll take your word for it!

If riding with the foot straps set the front strap so that your toes would point forward, then you can have the whole upper body almost facing forward while riding, and there would not be too much difference if you are riding in switch or not.



And when riding strapless you can easily have the toes of both feet facing forward, and then there is almost no difference.

I wing most days and have worked through a number of episodes of back soreness to the point where I am now pain free even after back to back 3hr sessions. What worked for me was 1. Getting my posture right on the water. Leaving the board flat and arching my back to get my weight outboard really made my back sore. Angling the board more to windward and keeping my torso relatively straight really helped. 2. After trying a number of wing specific harnesses i found these did not provide the support I needed for a big wing being pushed upwind hard. Bought a halo harness and that has worked really well to reduce back fatigue after long sessions. 3. Using a faster foil takes pressure off your body. I found a bigger hand wing with a smaller foil reduced load on my body and enabled me to ride longer with less strain. 4. I put the effort in to learn to swap feet and ride toeside both ways. The more asymmetrical my riding the more I felt I was loading one side of my body compared to the other.

Thanks for all the inspiration and tips.
a couple of visits to the physiotherapist (?) has relieved most of my pains, for now. Got some stretches for the last bit of rehab.

Will start with the foundation training. And, figure out if I can do some counter-rotation exercises at home. Those make sense to me.

I should improve my foot switch/swap. Biggest issue will be dealing with my preferred surf stance (regular), that means I'm riding switch coming in with southernly wind, which are most common round here.