Hey Guys

Ive lost a couple of 50 dollar leashes and I want to make some.

Im guessing that a few trips to the boat supply store will do the trick, anyone done this and would care to share some tips?

Cheers

Hey Fitzy,

Cheers for the reply, but I meant a kite leash :)

ok,

i want to make one of these

us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/kitesurfari_1905_10173776

Thanks

but seriously - how are you losing them? On the beach? On the water? "Please explain"

Thanks for the responses guys.

Kiterdan, cheers mate, thats what I was after - looks like it may be the same price anyway. :)

Silviu, im aware of you saftey stance and I can assure you that im probably more paranoid than most. I wouldn't attempt this if I didnt think I could produce leash as safe as those mas produced.

Ill share my thoughts and get your opinions if I come up with a nice solution.

Cheers

if you use the quick release make sure you buy a metal ring to attach to your harness (to clip the quick release into). the quick release won't work if it is clipped into a peice or rope. ie. it won't release under tension from rope. Also there is a small keyring like ring as part of the 'quick release' that you need to pull to release it. I usually get a small peice of rope and a coloured ball and attach to the 'keyring' so that is it easy to release if needed. If you want a pic I can upload.

I had problems with every other leash system I tried, including the expensive kite specific ones. This system is working fine. It's just a bit heavy. bungy cord will break.

Strangle-pass leashes in the surf can be hazardous to your health.

Cheers Kurt

Dear Kiterdan,
In surf,
having a metre of rope (leash) dangling perilously close to your neck is quite unnecessary.
During a savage wipe-out,
you might discover that your windpipe is being squeezed tightly shut by your suicide leash.
lol
Appropiate name 'suicide leash', don't you think ?
The heavy force of a breaking wave acting upon a ditched kite will kill you,
if you happen to be wearing a leash for a neck-tie.
(Formal dress in the surf is not required, SMART casual is suitable attire.)

In reply to your question regarding the 'current' fashion of using surfboards in wavekiting.....
lol
Noobs on a tight budget did that 6 years ago because they couldn't afford to buy an overpriced twin-tip.
So they just grabbed the 6 footer out of the shed and spent the rent-money on an overpriced secondhand kite.

Surfboards, strapped or unstrapped, oldskool directionals, twin-tips (surfstyle or freekiting),
and even backyard ply-boards all have their place in the line-up.
But everyone of these boards will have their own particular set of shortcomings.
No ONE board is capable of doing everything.
That's the same for surfing.

"I haven't jumped/boosted in years, man."
That is the mantra-of-the-month spoken on many of our wavekiting beaches.
lol

regards waveslave

In my kiting (including kitesurfing) experience, I've been trough a lot of crashes, and the only reason I am here to tell the tale, is that always I had a safety release at hand.
Manny moons ago, the foils were the only traction kites (we did not had inflatables), safety leashes were not so effective on a briddled foil, so we were experiencing lots of models and solutions (all home made), but in almost all the cases, a safey release (to ditch the beast) on the leash was paramount in saving our heads and limbs!!!!
A piece of rope is a "suicide leash"
Why people keep using them, thinking that it will not happen to them?
I hope that at least they will have a pretty sharp knife with them (if they will have the time to cut the leash).
The best type of leash is the one that disable the kite! I know, you end up with the lines "spagetti".
I use one of those, and it is effective even in high winds - if I feel I will end up being "tea bagged", i just pull the pin and the kite is flagged. A littel swim back to the beach, half and hour to untangle the "spagetti" and that's all.
As I always say, safety is a matter of choise!
You can lead the horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink.

OK some people will complain about this 1

the quick releases on many kites http://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/kitesurfari_1887_7488095 is a bitch to use in a real situation were u want quick release. these releases are designed for use in yachts more specifically to attach to the spinnaker pole... not for use in attaching yourself to a kite that has the power to kill you. once under tension these shackles are effectively spring loaded when attached to a metal ring. if you were able to undo this when u are getting dragged backwards the shackle will hit your hand with a lot of pain following yet i suppose that's the least of your worries at that stage. if ya have rope or other **** holding the shackle it doesn't come free until u stop pulling on it.

Love my SS Surefire Spreader Bar...."bang" and it's gone....has been good to me so far.

The thing with these releases I feel is that they all seem to work ok, but one must practice using them.

I have made my own safety leash it's pretty simple and if you make more than one, cheaper, the first is about the same price.

1. By a meter or whatever length of rope you want your safety to be (when it is fully stratched out) + about 20cm extra. I purchased eiter 12 or 14 mm Spectra fluro yellow cause it looks good

2. Pull the middle of the rope out (the white chord) so that all you have is an empty spectra sheeth, can do it by hand it takes about 5 minutes. Make sure the rope you buy has an inner and outer chord and sheeth or else this wont work! almost all yatching spectra does

3. Buy some ockey or bungee chord from the store aswell. i used 4 or 6 mill i think, youll need less bungee cord than rope, easiest way to know how much bungee you want is to grab a rough guess in your hand at the start and Pull as hard as you can, basically you want to be able to pull the bungee JUST SHORT of its maximum stretch lenght and have it the same length as your rope , ie, so it the ends of your empty rope only are tied to the ends of the bungee cord, you streth it out until you can't streth any more because the rope becomes tight and the bungee is almost at or at full stretch

4. now you poke the bungee chord inside the spectra sheeth till it gets just before the end ~ 10 cms, you need to sow the bungee to this position, use WAXED TWINE, found in most sailing shop sail repair kits, it is very hard to poke throught the bungee without the bungee falling apart so I found initially if you soe around the bungee and then wrap twine around the chord and bungee as hard as you can for about an inch theres no way that puppy is coming off!, this is the "jesus bolt" as they say of all the sowing so make sure that if your gonna put more effort in do it here!!!

5. next, youll need to bunch the spectra sheeth up to make the other end of the bungee pokt all the way through to 10 short of the other end, again sow it so it stays there. ( this may be holding your entire body weight aswell depending on what style suicide you plan on having).

6. lasty put in two shackles or quick releases or whatever on the ends, using the 10cms left over, just loop it through the eyelet of whatever quick release you buy. and double gate stich the folded rope to itself. beware scissor quick releases as they are crap, they always end up braking.. i will be using a spring clip ( stainless steel of course) like the one on the NAISH releases. they are hard to get off in an emergency, but at least your kite wont fly off...

7. get some plummer duct tape to hide your messy sowing of the bungee and ends and walla, your safety is complete.

whats all this talk of suicide leashes in the surf? if your in the surf and you crash your kite your f#cked!! so just let go and retrieve your kite on the beach still in one piece, i do it all the time works fine.

Thanks Chop for the recipe. Going to need one of these for riding unhooked I guess.

Also, thanks Kiterdan and Richrelative for your ingights. Nice to get good info. from guys who actually spend most of their time in the waves. When I mean drop the kite, I mean releasing to 1 line, not total detachment. In larger waves I would want to be totally detatched though. The total detach is something I would want to avoid at almost all costs though....especially on a Metro beach. Kitng clear of all other users is preferred, then it is just you and the wild.

quote:

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Originally posted by eightfootplus

whats with the shackles and the three ring setups for QR? whats wrong with a small chicken loop with QR setup?

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Nothing is wrong, if it works for you when you need it to work