The chances of board rebound with a reel leash still exist but are ideally reduced when compared to a fixed length leash. It think that board rebound could still happen in well powered wipeouts and if the reel jams as some have described.kjelleren wrote:I sail in cold water, where you could quickly lose the ability to use your hands if you are in the water for long. Having your board nearby is very excellent. I also wear a helmet and an impact vest. I'm sure that there are times where it would be best to unclip the leash. My buddy was overpowered the other day, and could not get back upwind to his board. He ended up on another beach about a mile downwind. With the leash, he could have made it back home before the building wind really became a problem. THe Reel Lessh definately reduces, but does not eliminate, the potential for snap back.
Gary
bartvanoers wrote:Hi Rick,
I've lengthened my Reelleash with a piece of ordinary 8 mm line (spectra core) of about 2 m. This gives a total distance of around 5 meters extended. It also prevents from the leash from being tight during sailing, which is much more comfortable. A better option would be to make it bigger to hold more leash. (I think it was discussed last year, but I'm not sure if Oceanus made any moves in that direction).
Another area where much could be improved it the mounting of the leash to the harness. I used the grab handle on the back of my Da Kine Fusion harness for this by sliding the handle through the loop at the back of the reel. This allows the reel to slide back and forth when used. It also prevents it from getting stuck (by having the loose rope wrapped around it) which was possible with the reelleash mounted on the side of the harness.
Also a possible improvement is acquiring better skills for landing a crash with your board still on your feet. Though it's not always possible it reduces the number of times a rebounce could happen. I'm still learning to do spins so I'm not sure if this one is an option for the more advanced kiteboarders but I manage to keep the board on my feet most of the time (though it's a quite small wavetray 142)
Why go through all this trouble? Most places I kitesurf have quite strong currents and surf. To make going upwind easier, I choose the tide in such a way that the direction of the wind an tide are opposite.
This makes it very hard to get back to your board by dragging upwind. Many people overhere in Holland do not use a boardleash in similar conditions and the result is that one or more boards are lost every weekend due to a rider being unable to drag back to his board.
Something else: Is there an update planned to the accident database? I was reading it today and the latest additions are of december 2002. Though scary, reading it every once in a while makes me even more cautious about safety.
Keep up the good work,
Kind regards,
Bart van Oers
"Don't let the bastards get you down" That's another quote and its out there because it is a truism - they will, just one.Then again, recent comments particularly about "honesty" and other historical questionable claims have really compelled me to seroiusly wonder if the exercise is worth all the effort and time expended.
That IS the patented "Reel Leash" I use, as distributed by NorthShoreInc.com I wonder if yours is an older one, with a sliding "dog-leash" clip (instead of a rotating "kite/board leash" one), because I've put hundreds of hours on mine (over 300 hours on one) in salt water, without ever rinsing it, & never had any problems with the clip. If you DO have problems with it, it's simply lark's headed onto the webbing, so it's very easy to replace it or swap for a different style (such as a stainless snap hook or caribiner)."tonycp" wrote:
The leash is an Ocean Technology (Oceanus?), San Diego leash. By the way, quite apart from any issues with blocking, the clip it uses corodes and gets stiff very fast in salt water - so i would not recommend this piece of equipment just on those grounds.
If that's what's causing your problems, that's what you need to correct. Mine only VERY rarely wraps around anything*, since it's nearly always in a straight line from the reel to the board plug. I'm wondering if you use it stock, or have added an exension or knot or something.Here is a hypothesis for what happened:
x leash wraps around the reel clip
1. The old ones had Velcro, but it came apart too easy. I suppose they could try using increasingly more Velcro contact area, until it was just enough, but if you cure the cause it shouldn't be needed.x I would like to do 2 things to the leash/reel -
1. mount it on heavy duty velcro - like ski safety release bindings, this should allow the leash to detach if the pull gets too great
2. make the reel a) float and b) brightly colored - body dragging back to the leash should be easier than body dragging only to the board, since it is likely to be downwind of the board.
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