I have been hit in the mouth by my surfboard before and it wasn't fun...

I have read every thread on reel leashes and everyone says they are too dangerous but I can't figure out how to reconcile these opinions with the fact that over twice as many people in the world (surfers) use elastic leashes on a daily basis with waves that spin them around and round, upside down much like a kite crash would.

Wouldn't that make the chance of contact with the board the same as kitesurfing crashes? So why what makes kitesurfing leashes that much more dangerous?

Unless your'e in piranha infested waters or surfing near a dry coral reef you dont need one. It's not that people hate on reel leashes they are just concerned for novice teabaggers with enough to worry about

Gorgo said..
BTW You need to read the threads on these topics a bit more thoroughly. All this has been covered to death decades ago.

I did, I read every one and they were all full of people posting gorey pictures and labelling people as kooks. Virtually no one went into detail, too busy putting other people down first i suppose.

When I have crashed the board always stays on the water about 6 feet away from me. Even when it tombstones like under a foot it never flings back out because the rope isn't stretchy. I wonder if people who don't use leashes just start a chinese whispers game of "oh no that's dangerous" without ever testing it out and then a few unlucky people have come on here to confirm those whispers. I mean people buy these leashes all the time and only a few ever get hurt so... there must be some "excessive" hate on these things as seeing them more harmful than they are worth.

No one is hating on anything mate, it's just advice
if you don't want to learn from the experience of others you will need to learn for yourself
the day you get smashed by the lip and held under with your kite leash attached to the back of your harness so you can't punch out and the board leash get tangled in your lines...
let's just say that situation could've been avoided

Swavek said..
I read a lot and decided to buy the non-elastic gentle spring loaded leash. I have another 1.2m non elastic leash attached to the spring loaded leash (otherwise the spring mechanism makes it more difficult to position the board for water start).

I use the reel non-elastic leash when I am learning to gybe on the strapless surf board. There is no waves - just chop, I would like to learn gybing before I try the real waves. I neglected my surfboard skills as I was fed up with the amount of time wasted body dragging to my surf board. My success ratio for gybes is very low , 1 out of 10 if I am lucky.

Only once I got the reel leash I have the patience to practice gybes. I think the reel leash has its place when used by competent kiters in the right conditions. I would not use the leash on the bigger waves.

I am with you on that one, I was trying to 180 to gybe the other day on my first session in the ocean. It was really scarey being so far out without a leash doing these kooky gybes.

So you have 2 leashes attached to one another? That must mean that only one leash retracts while the other one stays in the water flapping about. This is actually not a bad idea and could potentially minimized the dangers of board whiplash as I mentioned above.

I think what would be a safe bet is to double the length of the reel leash, then only connect it only when doing mellow stuff like gybes and not hitting chops getting air. Still, if you accidentally came off at full speed there is still a chance you will get thrown forward and the board comes at to you like it did to me, although having two leashes tied together will negate MOST of that whiplash as when you come off your board it only takes about 5 metres for you to come to a complete stop usually and that is about half of how long the dual leash would be.

I don't get the problem with bodydragging to a surfboard. I hate bodydragging possibly more than anyone, but the surfboard drifts downwind so fast I find with two short tacks in the water I am significantly upwind of it. Much easier than TT

For my stage of learning I think a leash would be beneficial. I can body drag fine, I make a point of practicing body drags before I go out each time, but I nearly lost my new board on its first outing as the kite hit the water and the wind had died down. By the time I got the kite back in the air (probably due to my lack of skill at this stage) I was a good 100m away from the board. A guy came out to me and I asked him could he grab my board for me. I knew roughly where it was as I was checking on it every so often but really without that guy I would have been screwed.

A lease would have let me concentrate fully on the kite and not worry about loosing a brand new board. What I was taught in the lessons kicked in and as I was told the main focus is your safety and kite, I decided to forget about the board until I got the kite up. But it is annoying and distracting in the moment as you see dollars floating away.

Had I used a leash the board would have been much closer, I am not at the stage of doing jumps, twists, etc and I think I wouldn't want a leash by then but for my stage of learning upwind it could save a load of energy having the board close by after a small fall. It has only got away from me once in the times I have fell as it usually stays on my feet, probably because when I go to fall I lift my feet and board from water to help it stay with me.

harlie said..
I don't get the problem with bodydragging to a surfboard. I hate bodydragging possibly more than anyone, but the surfboard drifts downwind so fast I find with two short tacks in the water I am significantly upwind of it. Much easier than TT

The problem is

A) It goes upwind (sometimes by quite a large amount 25 metres or so) in which case I have had to body drag all the way to shore, wait for the board to drift and walk up the beach a bit and by that time I have lost where the board is.

B) Can't visually find the board anywhere, even worse on a TT

C) Potential danger of floating in deep water for an extended amount of time... SHARKS!

drewpweiner said..

harlie said..
I don't get the problem with bodydragging to a surfboard. I hate bodydragging possibly more than anyone, but the surfboard drifts downwind so fast I find with two short tacks in the water I am significantly upwind of it. Much easier than TT

The problem is

A) It goes upwind (sometimes by quite a large amount 25 metres or so) in which case I have had to body drag all the way to shore, wait for the board to drift and walk up the beach a bit and by that time I have lost where the board is.

B) Can't visually find the board anywhere, even worse on a TT

C) Potential danger of floating in deep water for an extended amount of time... SHARKS!

never seen a surfboard "go upwind". Even if you endup 25m downwind of it the surfboards are pushed by the wind so fast.

Everyone goes through a period of loosing their board, either suck it up and improve or use a leach and run the risk

I can't believe in 2017 we are still having this discussion

AGoodVintage said..
Are the standard old surfing leg ropes any safer with a TT than the reel type?
Obviously, they are quite short but have very little stretch.

I don't think its the stretch that's the problem, its the difference between how fast you slow down compared to the board behind you. Same reason that tow ropes have gone out of fashion in place of tow poles. If the person in the car in front slows down and the person behind isn't on the brakes quickly enough you get to add to your repair problems

Even on a non stretchable tow line (as in kite, ski rope behind boat or cable park) it it possible to apply enough pressure to load up your board and boost huge! Doesn't it therefore stand to reason that some freak set of circumstances (like catching an edge or the nose of your board) can load up your board and boost it in the same direction as its' own tow line (which happens to be the leash and is attached to you) after you've fallen off and been dragged off by your kite? Slow recoil leash or not, when that leash reaches the extremity of its length and your board has "dug in" and you're still moving (just like the boat or cable) then your board is going to eventually "let go" and follow you. How fast it follows depends on how much force was on it when it eventually "let go" of the water.

harlie said..

drewpweiner said..

harlie said..
I don't get the problem with bodydragging to a surfboard. I hate bodydragging possibly more than anyone, but the surfboard drifts downwind so fast I find with two short tacks in the water I am significantly upwind of it. Much easier than TT

The problem is

A) It goes upwind (sometimes by quite a large amount 25 metres or so) in which case I have had to body drag all the way to shore, wait for the board to drift and walk up the beach a bit and by that time I have lost where the board is.

B) Can't visually find the board anywhere, even worse on a TT

C) Potential danger of floating in deep water for an extended amount of time... SHARKS!

never seen a surfboard "go upwind". Even if you endup 25m downwind of it the surfboards are pushed by the wind so fast.

Everyone goes through a period of loosing their board, either suck it up and improve or use a leach and run the risk

It's not the boards go upwind, it's that when you come off you get dragged downwind leaving your board upwind. And twin tips move about 1/3rd of the speed of surfboards.

Unfortunately some newbies are stubborn and don't take onboard good advice from experienced people. If you would prefer to be able to keep seeing your BOARD... ditch the legrope before you have a serious accident with the board and are unable to ever see it again. It'll be easier to find your BOARD if you can still see it, before it takes out an eye...or both! If losing a board is more important to you than your safety, you have the wrong mindset.
Learn to body drag properly is no1 before riding a board, unless you have a boat crew and retrieval team there for you. Good luck

Good advice. I had a leash on yesterday and found it so hard to pull the board back to me and keep the kite at 12. So you end up like a sitting duck as opposed to keeping the kite in the air in case you feel a chomp in which case you can send the kite from 3 to 9 oclock and get blasted out of the water away from the shark.

Also, if you are kiting with people then sometimes someone will bring your board back to you. It is just such a huge worry when you are waaaaay out the back in the deep ocean and you can't see your board anywhere.

so the lesson is buy a 2nd hand board and if it floats away its not as expensive :)

Can you still get these things?
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/Review/GoJoe-truly-safe-board-recovery/

On a side note, it wont be long before someone invents a tracking device. Wear something on your wrist like a fitbit watch or similar that shows direction and distance, with the tracker being embedded in the board. Id buy one if it were made.

gdmclean said..

On a side note, it wont be long before someone invents a tracking device. Wear something on your wrist like a fitbit watch or similar that shows direction and distance, with the tracker being embedded in the board. Id buy one if it were made.

They do, but it is not wireless yet....