Wakeboard question

You can position the bindings any way that makes you happy. There are not rules.

Depending upon how you set it up, it may make it difficult for you to ride switch (riding with the opposite foot forward) and make it difficultg to do some tricks. However, if you're 55 with a bum knee, I'm guessing you're just looking to get up and have some fun crossing the wake and jumping a little, not doing speedballs, tantrums and raley's.

Ideally, a board is best set up so the feet are identical. Both feet ducked out as far comfortable. If the rear knee hurts, bring it in till confortable. I would not bring the rear foot in any farther than perpendicular to the board. In other words, I would not recommend both feet facing forward. For folks who arent' going to ride switch, I think it is pretty common to have the back foot perpendicular to the board, and the front foot ducked forward to 45%.

BKH

You are hitting a very common problem with people starting out wakeboarding, you have too much weight on your back foot....Get more weight onto your front foot, keep putting the weight forward and constantly think about keeping your weight even over the board and this will help with your knees and stop the rear leg/knee burn, stand tall and keep relaxed, your legs should look even, don't ride with your front leg straight and your rear knee bent.

I started out cable riding where you are pretty much left to your own devices and I pickup up some very bad habits, it wasn't until a trip to XtremeGene in Spain a few years back that I had the coach screaming at me (in a very strong European accent) "You need more weight on your front foot" This has stuck and I still think about my weight distribution when riding.

Keep your binding ducked out on both feet otherwise you are never going to ride switch.
Learn to surface 180 and ride switch as soon as you can so that if you do start to feel it in your back knee (because you are back foot heavy) you can switch and take the strain off your rear knee.


BTW, I am guessing this is your problem as I have seen several people with this issue and I have bad knees myself so know that feeling