I'm pretty sure that our sport will face severe problems if we do not leash our kite. What do you think?

i doubt if it will ever be important enough to be law. but it should be a condition of riding anywhere.

A leash law might be too specific. Any serious problems will be countered by a general kite ban, skipping the "leash" part.

It's up to us to self regulate and insist on leashes to prevent the incidences that will directly cause a kite ban.
OR
Agreement and negotiation to implement mandatory use of leashes could be one of the ways to lift a ban for example, after the fact.

Agreed 100%! Our local association recently advised the authorities while they established some enforceable kiteboarding laws. This means we may be able to have them simply add a leash law after the runaway kites cause enough havoc (instead of simply banning us).

We all have to take responsibility before it get's to this stage... remamber not all accidents are caused by no leash. As for leashes in a crowded area..... Doesn't affect me because I don't KITE in a crowded area, unless it's with other kiters. If you kite in an area teeming with swimmers then you are just asking for it... and besides swimmers around here usually clear the beach once a good onshore wind blows so if it's crowded then it's also likely to be crap.... everythings made easy

However here in NZ the authorities seem very laid back when it comes to kitesurfing and I'm pretty keen on keeping it that way....

There is no reason to not use a leash.

In my opinion there should be a kind of leash that took the structure os the kite so that it wouldn´t pulled anymore. I know it sounds difficult but I allready heart my self a couple of times cause of the leash. I´m talking about the handle leash of course...

greetings from portugal