board leash attack

[halfpipe62]

Glad your ok but lose the board leash from now on. They are dangerous as hell for you and other kiters around you. Here is a better alternative: http://kiteboardleash.com/index.php?page=gojoes

Once you learn how to land jumps and not lose your board you can take it off. Then you should be able to get right back upwind to your board.

[longwhitecloud]

+ cut throat with fin, fractured skull with helmet on, side of face ripped open, a few deaths + and many many more other injuries- and many of my friends have big neck/head gashes from the early days/ lack of knowledge.

with both surf and so called "safe"retractable leashes

knowledge is king

[FredBGG]

I also have a helmet with a hole where my twin tip fin went right through it an a scar on my head as a reminder. That would have been very very nasty without a helmet. Didn't have a leash there either.

Also caused by a wave?

No not a wave.
It was a freak accident when doing a jump. Just as I was jumping a shape ballistic gust hit and I was flicked up off the water in a wierd way. My board flew up above me and was smacked back down at me. My helmet and board met each other like in a head on collision. Those twin tip fins are like steel!

I say that the fact that freak stuff happens it's a darmn good idea to wear a helmet.

Hell you never know... you could come across a sword fish that has hair dresser ambitions

[FredBGG]

Glad your ok but lose the board leash from now on. They are dangerous as hell for you and other kiters around you. Here is a better alternative: http://kiteboardleash.com/index.php?page=gojoes

Once you learn how to land jumps and not lose your board you can take it off. Then you should be able to get right back upwind to your board.

I recommend the Go Joe too.
I've seen it in action. Works kite a charm.
Great little invention. Kudos to Ocean Rodeo for comming up with this one.

[FredBGG]

leash.jpg

+ cut throat with fin, fractured skull with helmet on, side of face ripped open, a few deaths + and many many more other injuries- and many of my friends have big neck/head gashes from the early days/ lack of knowledge.

with both surf and so called "safe"retractable leashes

knowledge is king

Long white cloud!
Great post.

[FredBGG]

A bit off topic... but I had a boxing match with a big wave this Sunday.
I was out in very low wind. Only guy out all day at Leo Carrillo and staying upwind in and out of the surf.
Anyway rode in on a sweet thick isolated head high plus set. Turned on the inside and a nasty lull hit. When you are riding in about 10/11 mph and weigh 225 lbs a lull really sucks when a wave called Mike Tyson is comming for your face.

Well I made the mistake of trying to go over it anyway. The white water saw really agressive and I did not make it. The board was pushed up between my head and the wave. I got wacked really hard. Made me dizzy enough to pull the safety on the kite as soon as I got on the beach.
Result... cut and bruised lip, bruises temple and forehead..... and that was through the helmet.
Without a helmet it would have been very nasty.

Next time I will bail with enough time to kick the board away and just go whitewater diving.

[kitezilla]

I wonder if all of the injuries resulted from some “variation of the theme”, happening in the few seconds after this picture was taken. The “theme”, which may be the common element of most board injuries, would be that of the “loading up” of the leash, due to the resistance of the board, causing the leash to stretch, and thereby gain “potential energy”…which then turns into the “kinetic energy” force, responsible for propelling the board toward the kiter?

I haven’t tested the conventional surfboard leash, but have tested the ½ inch single thickness, nylon webbing strap that comes with the Oceanic Reel leash for its ability to store up this “potential energy”…and the results were scary…I would like to know how the plastic tubing of the conventional surfboard leash compares to the ½ inch webbing.

Here are some facts:

(1) When I applied 85 pounds of force (with my weight machine) to a 44 inch length of the ½ inch webbing, the webbing stretched about 4 inches (11% of its length). When the webbing was under tension and I applied about 100 pounds more of force to the suspended weights, it made the 85 pounds of weights on the machine…bounce up and down about an inch.

(2) This ½ webbing has a rated strength of 1000 pounds. Like most strength ratings, this is probably an under-rating of the true strength.

(3) The webbing is about 4 times as long as my test sample, so I think that it is reasonable to assume that the full length of the webbing can be loaded up with at least 4 times 85 pounds of force or 260 pounds of force…and I would guess that the full potential load and resulting force of the leash would be 3 times that amount of force.
(4) Without doing the math to determine the momentum with which an 8 pound kiteboard has the potential to slam into the kiter’s body, I would conclude from the damage seen in those pictures that it is something to be feared and respected.

(5) The fact that many kiters have actually broken the webbing on the reel leash indicates that the situation actually occurs, whereby the webbing is loaded up with more than 1000 pounds of force. The expected deterioration with time may allow the leash to break at less that this force, so this should be considered also.

(6) When these leashes break, most often the conclusion of the kiter, and the resultant complaint from kiter is: “the problem with the leash is that is not STRONG enough’…Why don’t kiters conclude that the breaking of the leash was a good thing?

Answer: Kiters don’t wear the reel leash on their ankle or wrist, or I think that they would conclude that it was good that the leash broke, when it did. Instead the leash is attached to the harness, and the harness is attached to the kite… and the source of the force on the leash is the power supplied by the kite. The kiter’s role in this system of lines and power supply can be viewed as simply …”ballast”… so the kiter never feels the extreme forces from the resistance of the board loading up due to the action of it “tombstoneing” or “fish-luring” of the board in the water.

If all of the injuries, shown in the pictures, were due to this one factor…that of the extreme ‘loading-up’ of the leash webbing material, then, I suspect that most of these injuries could have been prevented by the insertion of a “tension-triggered” automatic release, into the leash design. Many different “fuse” or “breakable link” designs have been suggested on this and other kite forums…everything from a piece of string with a breaking rating of 50 kilos…to straps of Velcro…to 50 pound rated zip-ties…to plastic snap shackles…to a design, suggested by the forum member ‘Kamikuza’ involving the use of bungee and quick-release. I favor Kamikuza’s suggestion, and have created and tested such a device. Some time in the future, I will present the results of this design and the on-the-water testing of this project.

I wonder how many of the injuries, shown in the pictures would have been prevented by the use of a “tension-triggered” automatic release? I would like to see the “paper work” on each of these injuries…that is a description of the type of leash each victim was wearing, and a play-by-play description of what happened. I would be surprised if many detailed accounts of such incidents were available, however, due to the fact that this kind of incident happens quickly and is rarely witnessed. Also, things are happening too fast for the victim to remember much of anything, and head wounds may result in amnesia.

The loading-up effect of a board leash may be a major factor in most board leash injuries, but I suspect that there are other ways that a board leash can result in injuries. For instance, a friend told me that she broke a rib once when she jumped and the board came off and remained in the landing zone, resulting in a situation which would have been less likely, without a leash. I have heard of other incidents where the leash got wrapped around the kiter, or the board went through the lines, like a bobbin on a weaving loom, leaving the board in an awkward position.

I wonder how likely it would be to receive an injury from a board, simply swinging on the end of a leash, as the kiter performs a jump where the board slips off the kiters feet…it would seem more likely to happen on big jumps, air jibes, or beginners practicing back rolls.

When an injury from a board leash is made public on forums such as Kiteforum, rarely is there a description of the incident, and usually the incident is posted by someone other than the victim… along with the standard warning.

If a kiter chooses, for some reason, to use a certain type of board leash, there are some obvious things that the kiter can do to decrease the risk of severe injury, such as:

(1) Don’t hook up the leash until you are in the water
(2) Don’t use sharp edged fins
(3) Don’t attempt to learn tricks
(4) Use a board without sharp or serrated (from wear and tear) edges
(5) Wear protective gear
(6) Attach the leash to the board in a manner which minimizes the likelihood of the board “tombstoning”
(7) Incorporate a “breakable link” into the leash
(8) Attach the leash to the harness with a “push-away” quick release
(9) Attach the leash to the board with a quick release
(10) Use the appropriate length leash for the conditions, such as wave riding, long-distance crossings, flat water, etc.

These suggestions are only a few of many ideas that may be able to make a certain type of leash “safer”, but of course, no board leash will be a “safe leash”.

In arriving at other suggestions on how to make a board leash “safer”, the first step would be to gather more information on the actual factors causing injuries from board leashes.

Are there any kiters on this forum brave enough to come forth and describe the factors which resulted in your injury? I would expect that the fear of backlash from judgmental forum member wagging their fingers and commenting “kook, what were you thinking?”…would prevent a lot of you victims from coming forth…as evidence of this hypothesis, see the following posts!

[longwhitecloud]

"If all of the injuries, shown in the pictures, were due to this one factor…that of the extreme ‘loading-up’ of the leash webbing material"


Not true, using a kiteboard leash has caused drownings as far as i know from the board/leash getting caught up with the lines too. It can easily send your kite into an unreleasable deathloop if it all gets tangled up. This actually can have worse consequeces, as you get yourself into a situation you may have no way out of.

This factor is something to consider for those into heavy shallow surfboard reef riding too and just think "Go the board leash!"

If you are kitesurfing waves you were not confident to be able to swim in from if you bailed everything - that complicates matters even further. I say ride with your mates, don't hero it on your own, but each to their own, and always plan to rely on no one being around.

Ben Wilson would be able to shed light with his leash experiences.

[Bstevs]

why cant people just learn how to bodydrag lol

[Bstevs]

or ride boots