Hi i’m doin a degree on adventure education, we’re looking at product design, I want to research leash strengths and stretches etc, but need to prove there’s a call for the research so if you ever snapped a leash let us know how you did it or how much it stretched the more people that post the more accurate I can make my study. Also if anyone has manufacturers info on stresses and strains of leashes give us a hollar thanks very much!!
The leashes today seem to be much stronger and stretchier so no broken leashes in a while.
why not try some leash manufacturers? though it may be hard getting past the ‘our leashes are indestructible’ and get info. many see the need to make varying thickness of leash indicating that the thinner leashes may not be up the the challenge of big wave wipeouts etc…
how about contacting organizers of big wave competitions? dont really know much about that though so no idea how you’d go about it.
let us know how it goes!
T
Leashes that fail are usually at the joint, the rotating joint just gets corrode and eventually snaps.
Where are you doing this research?
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Leashes that fail are usually at the joint, the rotating joint just gets corrode and eventually snaps.
yep, mostly my leashes have snapped at the swivel joint. but some have broken midway along the cord due to sheer wave power, & at other times with older leashes the rubber has simply perished.
yeah i broke a leash last week
below the joint where it joins to the ankle strap
the leash wrapped around a rock at snappers
and it was flogged for three to 5 minutes on sharp rocks by three foot waves
until i managed to release the rail saver
good thing it was a compsand aye
As others have said, I broke one at the swivel joint on the ankle strap. The ball just popped out of the joint after a pretty light force. The swim in was fun in 40 degree water.
My wife broke this (brand new, fresh out of the packaging) leash in waist high surf. OAM actually replaced it FOC and added a second leash in to boot as they believed it was part of a flawed production run. Both those replacement leashes broke shortly thereafter in the same manner. I generally do not rely upon my leashes nor do I ditch boards, so I do no think I exceeded what it considered reasonable use.
Additionally, their traction pads always peel up, and their short-lived fin system was a disaster.
IMO, “OAM” stands for “Only A Minute”, which is about how long their products last. If you search the surfermag.com message board, you will find experiences and opinions similar to mine. The only positive reviews I have heard of regarding OAM products are of their travel bags.
Get this… It was a freezing cold winter day in NJ and I’m running down the wooden ramp from the boardwalk to the beach, board under my arm, leash dragging. I’m running downhill, so I can’t just put on the breaks and stop. My leash catches between two boards on the ramp, and I feel the board pulling out from under my arm. I reactively hold tight to my board, and try to stop, but I keep going 'cause I got too much momentum. Stretched to the max, my leash snaps and comes whipping by my head, and flicks my ear so hard I thought it got ripped off! A cold, stiff leash, a cold stiff ear. Lots of pain. Good thing the water was about 30 degrees that day to numb me pretty quickly.
Our company molds the components that house the swivels for Block, Crow Haley, Da Kine and Stay Covered Leashes. We also make some parts for Destination Surf and off again on again for OAM. Hackeysak we did not make the parts in your picture. Those appear to be SurfMore Leash parts that they OEM for OAM. We used to make SurfMore’s parts. But, now I believe they are being made in the Orient. The latest reincarnation of OAM is back to using our cord ends. But, someone elses cuff parts.
Now back to leash strength. Number one a leash is a convenience item. It’s purpose is to make surfing more pleasurable by not having to swim everytime you fall off your board. It is not a safety device. If you want a guarantee that your “flotation device” will not ever seperate from you while engaging in a hazardous recreational activity of surfing; you need to get one Coast Guard certified safety harness and tether. And, if your convenience item consistantly fails to provide what it promises vote with your dollars and buy another brand or model.
Leashes are like any other assembly only as good as the sum of their components. As was mentioned above leashes have gotten stronger over the past 10 years. Ten years ago the majority of the complaints would have been about pull outs rather than swivel failures. The good news is that I came up with an improved method for bonding our components to the extruded urethane cord. So, for the majority of the complaints listed above it’s a two dollar fix. Swivels are an off the shelf item you can replace through any fishing tackle like: http://www.billfishtacklesupply.com/Swivels/swivels.htm Most swivels fail due to abrasion from fine sand or corrosion.
Now if you want to get down to pull strength numbers the average new .270/8MM leash will fail at approximately 130 pounds dead pull. But, at that point the cord diameter will have stretched down to below .180" and approximately 3 times its original length. Much more than that and you’re going to start pulling joints out of sockets. The larger the diameter the more resistant to breakage. But, the weak link is always ulimately going to be at the end of the bond between the cord and the leash end. Some cuffs fail at the base of the tower to the pad. In the last ten years we’ve made over a million of these components and our reported failure rate has been less than 1/100,000 of a percent.
The biggest reason that leashes break is from fin cuts or ther types of nicks in the cord. Once the cord has any kind of nick in the surface the ultimate failure point drops to only a mild tug. With proper care and attention you should be able to get years of convenience out of todays top quality leashes. Just buy them from companies that put quality and customer saticefaction ahead of the almighty buck.
Tom, that is good news that you are now involved and upping the quality of the product. The breakage of that leash (and its replacements) happened about 3 years ago, so my comments might be out of date regarding the quality of OAM products. But you know what they say, burn me once, shame on you (OAM), burn me twice, shame on me. I gave it a go and I gave up on OAM.
The leash my wife broke was from little more than a tug. The ones I broke were likely in more substantial surf. As I said, I don’t rely upon my leash and try to surf as if I did not have one, but on the other hand I do spend a lot of time pulling into and driving through hopeless jersey barrels 
The failure of all those leashes was at the junction where the cord passed into the sleeve; it did look like a bonding failure.
I wonder if their traction pads still peel off… the bond between the pad and adhesive would often fail (but the adhesive would remain on the board). Perhaps they took care of that issue too. It was a shame because I really liked the 2 guys who repped the product (I met them at the FL tradeshow) and I gave up a purchase at-cost arrangement with them because I was spending more $, time, and aggrivation re-sticking those pads down. I actaully feel a bit of guilt slamming the product here, but I’d also feel like I was lying if I did not pass along my (numerous) bad experiences related to it either.
I think the problem with their fin systems was the amount of resin required to install them- the few I’ve seen (for repairs) were due to shattered resin around the plugs- too much resin was allowed to pool, resulting in a lot of fragile pigmented resin bearing the brunt of the load. Not an easy system to pull and repair, I’ll add.
I actually have a recently-produced (less than a year, probably more like 7-8 months) OAM leash still in the packaging that I won at a raffle. Maybe I’ll give it a go and see how the new stuff stands up. But I’ll do that after our water temps warm back up in the spring.
oh yeah, DaKine leashes are the freaking BOMB. The swivels are really smooth and the leashes are bulldog strong. So, that is testament to Tom’s work, so I would think that this quality should carry over to the recent OAM leashes too. Knowing what I now know, perhaps I need to retract my statement, or at least qualify it with a “that was then, this is now”.
I’ve broken a few leashes. I mostly try not to use them, but from time to time they come into play. Last one I remember breaking was a Dakine, relatively new, in about 15’ (faces) Ho’okepa. The board broke in half on the wave too, so it’s safe to say the wave had some juice to it. I broke a FCS leash at Pleasure Point in 2-3x overhead (rare day). On both of those, the cord failed. I also broke a leash at the swivel at Freight Trains in about 6-8 foot surf. I don’t recall the brand.
Other than those, I could attribute failure to old age and extended exposure to UVs.
There have been a few times - once at Hanalei (when Titus was calling it 25’), a couple times at Wiamea, a couple times at big Lunada Bay - when I’ve reached down and removed my leash… cause I didn’t want to go where my board was gonna… “I think it would be better if we spent some time apart… good bye and good luck”.
Only ever broken one an XM leash.
Generally try to keep a track of them and change them before they’re too dodgy looking but the replacement XM i bought had stretched for 9ft to around 10.5ft(before being replaced) and the black chord that runs through the centre has cracked and the clear plastic had started to yellow, but it still held in head to head and a half hollow enough waves.
The only one I ever cracked was a knee leash at the joint on a chest high day as I pulled out off the shoulder on a river mouth, board went straight in to the rip and down the point around 2ft away from the rocks the whole way down, picked it up without a scratch. Someone was smiling on me
I haven’t broke one in along time…materials and couplings have came along way thanks to Dennis and Tomatdaum…they are the basis for the modern leash…geeez…I don’t know if they’ll like me or hate me for saying that?
Usually when I broke a leash ,it was in sizeable surf ,me going over the back on a kickout and the board going over the falls…or a sharp fin will end it’s life rather quickly as well…I have never had a modern coupling fail…but back in the olden days the tie-offs would come apart in cold waters.Herb
You wanna talk bungee cord leashes w/ leather straps…or cotton cord filled rubbertubing…had lots of those fail.Herb
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“leash is a convenience item. Not a safety device…”
Good point, many need to respect , if you can’t swim in, don’t paddle out.
Yeah, broke a few. Mine usually last about a year and they break in the middle (mainly on a very high kick out.) or the velcro just gets trashed and the cuff is what needs repleacing. Depends on the board as well. My 6’2 is light enough where I never think about breaking a leash, but on a big enough day surfing my longboard I can feel that thing stretch pretty hard when I wipeout on a bigger wave.
OAM are POS’s. I agree with a few of the comments made earlier. DaKine’s are okay but the leash seems too stiff where it coils a lot (usually around my feet).
Seems like their are a lot of variables (size of wave, weight of board, weight of rider, etc.) for an online cattle call.
If it’s any use, I’ve got a 6ft FCS comp leash that I’ve used for about a year thing is it stretched to over 9ft so I use it on the big boards as well. I didn’t like the FCS stuff as I had a problem with the velcro sticking on the early packs.
cheers Joe
I had a brand new (one month old) DAKINE and it broke right were the cord is attached to the rail saver. It was a a mere 2 foot wave. The part that broke is just a small string that had fraid. Spent $30 on heavy duty thick cord and it’s held by a thin string? They gave me a new one but I have to keep an eye on that string. Told a few others and they said “ya, mine broke right in the same place.”
My previous leash lasted lasted 7 years and I replaced it just because it was getting old. For that I ended up watching my board pin ball off a few coral heads and cut the hell out of my hands and feet getting to it. No more DAKINE for me.