Begginers + No Leash = Danger?

General Discussion
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to contemplate retriving another surfers board.

Well, the real solution to the leash question is to have either everybody use them or nobody…which I guess means there isn’t an actual solution to the situation…

It is amazing how saving someone else’s board from rocky points or other peril or inconvenience made for camraderie…shared experience, shared hard knocks, shared responsibility and showing a little caring for the fellow meat sack. I suppose now there are places where steroid-fueled carck-whores would stomp a loose board into little pieces. Once upon a time everybody wasn’t tied into a non-existant 6 foot bubble of self love. The hgih tide run down slippery loose rocks to save the tumbing board of a complete stranger was an occasionally hairy, occasionally stylish part of surfing long ago that those who participated did not suffer adverse effects from. Or at least none that they couldn’t recover from…

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The real problem, I think, is not so much beginners who don’t wear a leash, but intermediate surfers who don’t. Most of the beginners didn’t make it outside that day.

i couldn’t agree more. but, in that same regard, isn’t it really just “people who aren’t cognizant of their surroundings and their actions”. leash or no leash, people who don’t pay attention to what’s going on and act accordingly are dangerous. to the people who can’t control their board…that means wearing a leash. but what about the people who just don’t care?!..

last week, someone we’ll just call “kook” dropped in on my buddy…we’ll call him “dude”. dude was riding his brand new board (3rd session on it). he was on a wave, coming down the line, and this guy WAAAYYYY out in front (kook) just starts paddling for it. dude gives kook a shout as he’s coming up, and the kook ignores him…drops in anyway…RIGHT ON TOP OF DUDE! the kook got pitched on takeoff, and his body (not board…BODY) went right through dude’s new board…snapped it in half right across the middle. they go to the beach, and dude tells the kook that he’s gonna need to pay for the damage…$325 for a new board. kook tells dude to go _____ himself. now dude is pissed. dude takes kook’s board and snaps it over his knee. kook takes a swing at dude. swing and a miss…strike one. unfortunately, with dude, one strike and you’re out. dude does karate and jiu-jitsu when the surf goes flat. dude swings back and breaks kook’s jaw.

what did we learn from this?..

  1. don’t kook out.

  2. if you fail #1, admit your own kookiness and make things right.

  3. if you fail #2, you’re gonna need to buy a new surfboard anyway…but first you get to have your jaw wired shut, and you’ll be in far too much pain to enjoy much of anything for about 6 weeks…especially surfing.

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Its as simple as this to me…

I’ve been surfing a long time.

I can’t remember ever actually being hit by a loose, unleashed board.

I can’t remember my loose, unleashed board ever hitting anyone else.

Every time I’ve been hit it was by a leashed board (except for that one idiot in a 16’ long sea kayak).

'nuff said.

Solution? Do whatever your skill level requires. Which means not only keeping control of your board, but also spotting the kooks who can’t control theirs (leashed, especially) & staying away…

I stopped in at Malibu last Thursday on my way back north from the OC. It was clean, foggy, cold, and tiny. But heck, even at 1’, you can’t drive by a chance to surf the 'bu with single-digits of people out. Two guys were tourists - rental pop-outs and King’s english - with their leashes trailing behind them in the water. I actually had to show them how the soft cuff part goes around their ankle. Never done that before in more than 20 years in the water. Needless to say, the shoulder wasn’t giving them any waves, but hell, they can go back home & say they surfed Malibu on their trip to California (the sad part is, they probably would have done the same thing if it was chest-high, peeling, and 100 people out - that’s why I’m glad I don’t live at Malibu). One other guy out was old, but getting his waves. My friend Scout is a stylish surfer, beavertail & everything, she was working it. One shortboarder getting very little love. And one other bigger guy like me, taking off deep and enjoying working through the section & finding the faster spot inside. So as I’m getting out, he loses his board and it washes in. I drop mine, grab his, wade it back out & push it to him…

Everyone wins. Not only do I feel good about helping my brother surfer, but he is more likely to remember me as the guy who grabbed his board, next time I’m there. It could be called anything from kharma to respecting the pecking order. But all I know is that I’d do it for anyone…

And its not just some wistful yearn for the old days / old ways. I surf horrible with a leash, tripping on it, getting tangled up, feeling the drag, kooking out. But without it, I have more control because I’m focused on my footwork and nothing’s in my way. Don’t hate on the leashless! :slight_smile:

That said, if the waves ( and my board choice) dictate a session sans cross-stepping, nose-riding, and drop-knee turning (I mean its BIG) I don’t mind putting on a leash at all. Just as it gives me a better focus to go without in small waves, its just plain stupid to go without, in waves of consequence…but hey, if I wanted those waves every day, I’d live somewhere else. I surf heavy stuff maybe 5 times a year…the other 120 sessions or so, I’m very content to be mellow and leashless.

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more laws for surfing (regardingthe idea of a leash law) is the last thing we need. learning how and where to paddle out, i.e. not directly in the path of breaking waves, would solve the problem of people almost being hit by leashless boards. instead of paddling toward the shoulder a surfer is on, paddle backwards and duckdive under the whitewash. don’t be a fool and paddle in the direction the surfer is moving, paddle behind him (or her). done and done.

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ha ha

i dont have to worry about it

usually i have trouble to find people to surf with

there just to many people in west coast america

stop having sex for a few generations and it will all be sweet

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Ditto that Benny.

I’ve been surfing 42 years, and the only serious injury I’ve had from someone else’s board was about 30 some-odd years ago when a guy panicked, lost control of his board and shot it into me. Hit me in the eye, gave me a condusion, screwed up my vision. He was wearing a leash.

What’s the big deal about a loose board? Just another obsticle to not run into. I figure it’s my responsibility to watch what’s going on, not run into people (or things of any kind), and not get run into.

Leashes give people a false sense of security. They think they can just end their ride by bailing off their board, and give no thought about where the board goes. When I started surfing - pre leash, the kickout was as important as any other part of the ride. Styley fly-aways, elegant exits, and going over the falls fully wrapped around your board to keep from swimming. Surfers were better all-around watermen then.

I’ll put on a leash when the waves get serious, there are tons of rocks, I’m feeling out of sorts, or I’m going to try rad new tricks. Otherwise I’m mostly leashless. I rarely lose my board. Even when I’m falling I can keep track of, and control my board about 90% of the time. Yesterday I surfed for three hours, caught about a million waves, and didn’t even get my hair wet. If I depended on a leash when I started surfing I probably couldn’t say that.

I’m never really worried about loose boards coming at me (unless it’s one of Roy’s 18 footers). I can get out of the way, duck under it, or use my board as a shield if I have to. I’m more worried about boards with out-of-control riders on them - add 100 some odd pounds to the projectile.

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My friend Scout is a stylish surfer, beavertail & everything, she was working it.

i think i met her!!! (unless there are a lot of surfer girls named “scout” around that area?!) when i was in california last summer, we went straight to the beach after getting off I-10 (having spent the last 3 days on I-10, we were anxious to get in the water). checked a few spots, and malibu was closed for some contest, so we settled on topanga – knee to waist, with a chest high set every 5 minutes or so. it was pretty fun. a woman in the water – scout – saw me signal ahead to some struggling little kid on the inside to go ahead and drop in on the wave i was on. he made the wave, and we shared the rest of it. she liked that (apparently, people don’t do stuff like that around there too often).

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I’m sure it was Scout - she’d notice something like that. Early 20’s, black hair to her neck, quite small…probably on a blade-thin pink Wegener…

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that’d be her…wow…what a small world.