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Old 03-11-2010, 06:11 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Location: Florida
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Default Still using board leashes?! (GRAPHIC PHOTOS)

Stopped by the beach on the way home to see if some guys were out. Actually have some nice side onshore winds for a change, about 16 to 20 kts.. Saw one guy on a 15 m Waroo using a surfboard. Seemed to be having fun but going downwind, perhaps overpowered? As he walked along I saw he had a 6 ft. standard surfboard leash. The waves were small around 3 to 4 ft. in a narrow zone. The rest of the area was pretty calm. Board recovery is so easy in these conditions, it is on the beach waiting for you by the time you get to it.

Who is still using standard board leashes? People who don't know any better seems to be the likely answer. I don't like reel leashes either but that's another story with lots of gore to go with too.

So, I asked the guy how it was going and asked about the leash. He seemed to have no clue that it posed any hazard at all apparently. I mentioned how they were good at bashing out teeth, impaling the odd arm, leg, even slicing your neck. We have had several fatalities directly or indirectly caused by leashes too. Its all happened before, too many times. Not sure it sunk in as he just went out leash still attached and rode some more and overpowered too. He even wiped out a few times setting up for a nice recoil which didn't happen this time fortunately.

So, for the record, there is no good reason to use leashes in "normal conditions" in Florida. Body dragging is easy under normal conditions. Some guys like them for distance races accepting the higher chance of injury, hopefully using a weak link to take recoil impact out of things.

To back this up, here are some photos to hammer home the point just how dangerous leashes are.


The leash can cause the board to dive underwater, load up with tremendous force like a diving plane and then rebound delivering a very powerful impact. These impacts have bashed out teeth, impaled riders on skegs, bypassed helmets severing spines, knocked riders out leading to drowning, sliced through helmets as if through butter and a great deal more. Another way leashes can cause injury particularly reel leashes is by keeping the board close to the rider to where a wave propelled impact can cause serious injury.

nasty photos follow ...













I believe this lady was in Australia. There was another real bad one in which a leash caused a rider's throat to be slashed open. Fortunately, they survived.





A closer look. Sorry for this if you've already ditched leashes. What about the folks that haven't? Probably have a lot more gory photos from board impacts in the archives, is it necessary to put them up?


Question, if you saw a new rider at your launch using a standard board leash, what if anything would you tell him? The guy tonight was at a normally busy launch, I would think someone might have mentioned this to him before. Who knows.
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Old 03-12-2010, 03:54 PM
greg meintjes greg meintjes is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: St Augustine, Fl
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Default leashes

We had a guy here in Key West about a month ago who was using a board leash , I did talk to him but he also just did not seem to "get it", this guy was not an absolute beginner, so I just wished him well and advised him that a helmet would be a great idea in case the board did recoil into him. One of the magazines recently justified using board leashes in certain conditions , I know that no matter what the conditions , I would not personally use a board leash .

Greg
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Old 03-12-2010, 07:27 PM
conchxpress conchxpress is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: South Tampa, Key West
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Default Leash Exceptions

There are times when I wish I had one. Like when you go down, your board is upside down, and you become a human lure trying to drag back upwind, against the tide, across one of the channels that you saw them taking bull sharks from on the Keys fishing show. Rule of thumb, never try any new maneuvers when you're in the channels between the flats.
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