During kitesurfing, should I wear a board leash?

You’ll be able to enjoy the sport more and, in some situations, be safer if you know what to wear.

Depending on where you’re going and the type of kiteboarding you’re going to do, there are different things you should wear ION kitesurfing clothing. Remember that not all of your time will be spent kiting in the water. To wear before and after your time in the pool, you must have the proper attire. Additionally, you’ll need a spot and a way to change into your wetsuit. Additionally, you might need some dry clothing for wearing afterwards.

Almost every aspiring kitesurfer asks at some point whether or not to use a board leash. My opinion is that you should make up your own mind about this subject after reading my arguments for and against.

Why is it needed?

In order to keep you from losing your board, board leashes were created. As a novice, you will frequently fall off your board and crash your kite. When you have a board leash on, you don’t have to worry about your board vanishing as you struggle to relaunch your kite, which relieves one of your worries. However, leashes have a number of additional benefits that may be even more beneficial to aspiring kitesurfers than the original purpose for which they were designed.

For a novice, the biggest benefit of wearing a board leash is that they won’t have to waste time following their board around every time they fall off or let go of it while learning to board start or enjoying their first runs on the board. As a result, you may find that you have a lot more time to work on your riding and board starts than on your body dragging. If the conditions are not optimal or the water is quite rough, this straightforward piece of equipment can cut your learning time by hours or even days.

A board leash also gives you two hands free to manage the kite at all times, which is an additional benefit. This can be a significant benefit if you’re trying to pull out over large waves or if you’re still not quite comfortable using the kite.

The natural world is its own guardian

Having said that, I firmly believe that Mother Nature creates her own entry points and that if you are at a stage where you are having difficulty body dragging to recover your board or getting out through the waves while flying the kite one handed, you should not be practicing with a board at all and should be working on these skills instead.

The main issue here is that, as humans, we are all overly fixated on getting on the board and riding and have a tendency to rush through learning these (cool) skills before going back to refine the other (less impressive) skills (like upwind body dragging, eh? yawn) later in our kitesurfing careers.

As a result, you will have massive gaps in your skill set that will be problematic in the long run.

Introducing kitesurfing’s cruise missile

There are some more frightening side effects associated with using board leashes.

A guided missile is similar to riding with a board attached to you.

When you fall off the board quickly, stress can build up in the line, and when the leash stretches above its elastic limit, there is only one direction it can go: straight back at you. This can result in some extremely serious mishaps, therefore if you want to use a board leash, you need also have a helmet and an impact vest or buoyancy aid to protect your essential organs.

I recommend doing a quick internet search for “kitesurf board leash injuries” before you decide to purchase one of those because you might think, “That’ll never happen to me and the advantages sound great, I’m going to get me one of those.”

Tender Bits Must Be Watched

Leashes might also make it difficult to get out of the water. The board has a propensity to be snatched up by the waves as they recede off the shore if you linger in the shallows. The board is then picked up by the following wave and slammed into your heels, shins, or other delicate areas! Be quick when getting out of the water with a leash when there are waves, or remove the board first.

In bigger waves, you should also have a leash. It is possible for the board to get behind you and then get slammed into you by the next passing wave.

Naturally, these incidents can still occur without a leash, but because a leash keeps the board closer to you, the likelihood that they do so increases.

Are There Reel Leashes (Dog Leash Style Leashes)?

 

Some reel leashes, which resemble dog leashes in construction, can be extended out to a distance of around 30 meters before quickly snapping back into place. This eliminates the risk of the board being slingshotted back at you. I’ll go out and buy one of those, you might be thinking.

Any leash can get wrapped around you, your bar and lines, or both. The latter is especially dangerous because it effectively strangles your control of the kite, frequently locking the kite onto full steering and sending the kite into a roll as you fly down the beach—conveniently, the ideal position for a kisser-punching.

The likelihood of this happening is increased because these dog leashes are longer than regular leashes. The thought of riding with possibly 30 meters of slack line nearby scares the living daylights out of me already.

However, my leash has a fuse line that will blow if any pressure is applied to it.

Leash attachment line (or fuse line) breaking when you get off the board quickly should prevent harm to the board. In addition to the implications to you, the board may also sustain harm if this line is too strong (you won’t know until you try it! ), doesn’t break for some reason (more likely), or fails altogether. Large sections of boards have been ripped out as a result, in my experience.

Continuity & Withdrawal

The second problem with wearing leashes is a more pragmatic one. You can shorten the amount of time you practice upwind body dragging by getting reliant on a leash. If you want to develop into an independent kitesurfer, you must first master this crucial ability. Believe me, I spent a year acquiring this specific ability, and the hours I lost and the boards I missed due to my obstinate refusal to learn cost me more than I’d care to admit.

Continuity and withdrawal

Despite the ridiculous name, Go Joe’s really works!

The Go Joe is intended to be attached to your board under the handle. Now, whenever you fall off the board, the Go Joe causes the board to automatically right itself. The Go Joe is caught in the wind and propelled quickly downwind, so it should land in front of you.

We After testing these for a while, we found that the bladders kept bursting, despite their great performance.

In Waves, what’s the story?

I would only think about wearing a board leash in this particular situation. In large waves, you’ll frequently be riding on reef breaks, cliffs, or absurdly far-off beaches where losing your board would result in it being crushed to pieces on the rocks or need a MAJOR effort to find.

In wave spots, there will be a large concentration of riders in one position (the line up), making it painful for you to drag your body through it and dangerous for others if your board goes loose and gets stuck in the waves.

From The Kiteboarder Magazine, here are some great tips.

• The board will get in your face if you use a 6-foot leash, and too much drag will result from a 9 to 10 foot leash. It seems that an 8-foot leash works best.
• The thickness of your leash should correspond to the size of your waves-thin leashes cause excessive drag while thick leashes snap when you have double overhead waves.
• Push the bar away from you as soon as you separate from your board in order to prevent the kite from loading up the board leash.
• To prevent the board from becoming a tombstone, bring your kite up to neutral as much as possible when you are separated from your board on the water.
• It is often helpful to bring your kite, as well as your board, to the same side of the wind window when retrieving a board.
• Calf leashes may be a good option to try. The strap’s size allows it to be attached just below the knee, elevating some of the leash out of the water.
• If you do not have a surgeon in your family or close friends, wear a helmet or chest protector.

A LEASH IS A GOOD IDEA IN WAVES

• It’s easy to go for anything in big surf, knowing that your board is always at your fingertips.
• During your session, you won’t spend half of your time fishing.
• In order to find your board, you body-dragged through your friends’ set countless times.
• Duck dive into the wave and collect your board quickly on the other side if the lip throws right in front of you as you’re heading out.
• By getting back on your board before the next set wave rolls you, you’ve got a better chance of riding it out.

LEASHES IN WAVES: CONS AND PROS

• It is possible to wind up with endless tombstones and whizzing boards due to poor technique.
• It is inevitable that leashes add drag when going upwind or when dropping in when it is light wind.It is inevitable that leashes add drag when going upwind or when dropping in when it is light wind.
• It is more likely for you to get whacked in the head since your board stays around you.
• The board and leash may become entangled in your flying lines if you and your kite both crash in choppy white water, which would be a very bad situation.

I personally wouldn’t bother with a leash unless I was kiting in a specialized wave spot that broke onto a reef or in a crazily remote location. I would merely accept that I would body drag a little and move on.

Final Thoughts

There is no getting around the fact that board leashes are a very negative product.

We once used them, but after two broken noses and several trips to the hospital, we vowed never to do so again. Due to the changes we’ve had to make and the increased emphasis we’ve had to give to fundamental kite skills, we’ve had to adapt (and improve) our teaching methods as a result, and the amount of time it takes for students to learn new material has actually increased significantly.