I confirm - after another follow-up North is doing the right thing and reimbursing me for the last knife purchased. Shouldn't happen again now that I have secured it with other means - a bit of a pain - but fairly minor in the scheme of things.

I have the same problem. After I lost the first knife I added a length of 2mm bungee to leash the knife. The length of the bungee sits inside the buckle cover.

The knife stays in the pocket through most crashes. It only comes out if I end up bumping against the board while milling about in the water.

It's incredibly dumb that the harness is about as perfect as you can get but the knife pocket is so poorly thought out.

There's nothing to really take a photo of. I got some 2mm bungy cord. Made a loop in one end and attached that to the handle of the knife. All you can see is a little bit of elastic looped through the handle and disappearing into the harness.

The bungy is 40-50cm long so it stretches out to a full arm length. I'm guessing if I was about to die and needed to cut something I would find the strength to stretch it out further.

If you poke around the knife holder you'll find a little gap on each side. I passed the bungy through that gap and tied the other end onto where the straps are attached (and the buckles and things). The excess bungy is pulled back inside that end bit under the fabric that covers the adjustment buckles.

That's it. The knife stays in place 99% of the time, including in quite vigorous crashes. It only comes out if I'm messing about in the water and bump the knife against the board.

Another solution is simply to get a knife with it's own sheath

www.kitebud.com.au/product/airush-ak-hook-knife-with-sheath/

Just adding a tip for everyone - get any candle at home and drip it onto the blade, so it seals it and stays sharp for when it hits the fan.

Most people don't realise their trusty Original knife they've had for years - won't work - in a kitemare.

If you buy a replacement knife it comes with a sheath. The knife locks into the sheath with a positive snap. and takes a solid pull to extract it. On the Stealth harness the feel is a lot softer and much easier to pull out.

I don't want to mess up the aesthetics of an ultra-high end, very expensive end harness by putting a sheath on it. I like everything about the harness, except the built-in knife holder. It's a pity they didn't properly test every aspect of the harness before putting it into production.

It works fine now that I have trimmed the tag and added a leash ... and added some wax on the blade.

KiteBud said..
Another solution is simply to get a knife with it's own sheath

www.kitebud.com.au/product/airush-ak-hook-knife-with-sheath/