have you ever heard of a ding like this???

Heres the schoop,im repairing a ding on this one guys board. This isnt no ordanary ding, complete carnage. About a foot above the leash plug, the leash somehow twisted around the board or something and ripped a clean line right to the stringer, er about an inch off. It went dug into the rail and went in a good 5 in. I had to cut out the glass to get the leash out, it was stuck in there and all. crazy!!What if that was your ankle? or your head? what you all think? corbin.

board somehow get hung up on the bottom in some vicious swell?

more common than you might think. most of the time that is caused by the rider leaving too much of a string loop at the leash attachment so the “rail saver” is ineffective. did the leash have a rail saver, that strap of nylon webbing between the string and the urethane leash? in most cases, the string gets hung on the rail, and having no stretch, just rips right into the rail. once it starts, the leash follows. it usually looks pretty brutal.

This used to happen all the time in the days before urethane leashes. The prior leashes were surgical tubing or similar with a nylon cord in them. They’d stretch, to a point, then the nylon would tighten and there would be a “yank”. These old leashes seldom had rail savers, because they nylon-inside type was descended from the original surgical tubing leashes which had no yank. Anyway, in a wipeout the leash would wrap around the tail, then stretch. When the yank happened, it would cut into the board, sometimes more than once. Had a pal who demonstrated major bad judgement at a jacking Sunset peak one day. We all watched him get pitched in major classic fashion. He damn near drowned (second wave landed on his head); cut his board in three places clear down to the stringer; thought it was over, ditched the leash and washed/swam in. Didn’t come back out. Rail savers were invented to prevent these cuts, but as mentioned above, you have to tie them close to the board and NOT let the nylon cord on the plug drape over the rail. This is another reason I never use plugs - always a glass loop made from a scrap of cloth I’ve broken down to the threads. If you use two pencils to form the hole, there will be enough space that you can tie your rail saver directly through the glass loop. Plugs suck, but that’s the commercially expedient solution. Anyone remember drilling holes in their fin for leashes? I date myself…

No, doods. its crazy i would post a pic if i could but. His string was fine it was a ways away from the rail of the board, that had notthing to do with it. Im educated in the ways of leash strings and all that. The thing ripped in like a few inches up from the track pad, like the rubber part of the leash was imbedded into the board!! ill try do do a little demonstration here…bear with me. ------(thats where the rubber part of leash ripped in.) PAD TAIL

I think the leash wrapped around the board just in front of the front fins and the ensuing yank (probably a damn good one) dug the leash, not the railsaver, into the rail. I’ve seen a board that somehow got “noosed” just in front of the fins and had a ding similar to the one you’re describing but with deep gouges on both rails. Ouch! Nasty ding that probably only happens once in a lifetime. Still sucks though.

dumb question, but was there a tiny (or big) ding in the rail originally? something for the leash to hang on? i’ve seen urethane leashes dig into the rail in spite of rail savers, just got pulled really tight and in they went! sux…

Howzit Corbin, Sounds just like ding caused by a fin running into a board. The kind where the fin cuts through the rail until it hits the stringer. Not a hard repair at all. Aloha, Kokua

fixed quite a few like that. Fill, sand and glass. Next time, use a longer leash, as a short one tends to get kinda stressed out when there’s a lot of pull while longer ones spread that stress over a greater length. Also, what kind of swivels, if any, did this leash have on it? The ‘hand tied’ variety of leash may be stronger, but I like the fewer tangles you get with two good swivels. If it was your ankle or your head - it probably wouldn’t do much. Windpipe- now, that could be a problem. doc…

Could be the work of a Hodad.I hear that they are back. R.B.