What happens if the skysurfer cuts away the board?
For the safety of the skysurfer, the SSI Pro Tour requires that binding systems have a way to release the board in case of an emergency. This release, activated by pulling by a soft grip handle near the waist, undoes the heel straps and the board is cut away. How it descends back to the ground depends on several factors. Through years of experience and actual tests, SSI has determined a skyboard weight to size ratio of 0.7 gram per square centimeter of surface area. Boards that weigh less than this ratio are relatively light in weight to their comparatively large surface area. This creates a tendency for a jettisoned board to paddle wheel along the longitudinal axis, creating extra drag, much like a helicopter auto gyrates, for a relatively slow, floating and predictable path of descent. Boards weighing more than the 0.7 gram ratio are required by SSI to have their own small recovery parachute system, that when cut away, deploy to suspend the board from a lanyard. Most pros use boards
