If you can plane and get in the straps, congratulations, thats a major learning hurdle cleared.
Once in the straps you can only do the following with the straps:
- apply toe pressure by lifting your heels
- apply heel pressure by lifting your toes.
In more advanced stages you can do other stuff but lets disregard that for now.
When you apply toe pressure by lifting your heels you are leveling out the board. In normal sailing a certain minimum amount of such pressure is applied to make sure the board sails flat and not tilted over towards the windward side. Increasing the toe pressure to points beyond that needed to keep the board flat will cause the board to turn onto its leeward rail, thereby making the board turn downwind.
When you apply heel pressure the board will turn onto its windward rail, thereby carving upwind, the opposite of what was described earlier.
A good exercise in the early stages is to carve "S" curves in the water with both feet in the straps. This will give you the feel you will need to later learn carve gybing as well as better guide the board through the water.
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Secondly, it is always mentioned that you ride the fin with your back feet what do they mean with that?
The back foot can be used to trim the angle of the whole hull,its simply more effective and subtle doing that with the back foot. At speed, the fin will provide considerable lift, the back foot pressures against this lift to create more "drive". This is a subtle and steady pressure, applying too much will result in the fin being overloaded and spinning out.
One of the biggest difference between fast and slow sailors is the precise use of foot trim. Its good to consciously develop these skills as early on as possible.
