all, so, it happened again. the surf on the eastside of santa cruz was well overhead this morning and beautiful! anyway, i took off on a set wave and had to bail at the bottom (i was a bit too deep.) my friggin’ leash broke and sent my board off to never-never land. the currents were so strong that my board drifted off and was lost! let me tell you, there’s nothing more humiliating than having to walk home in a wet wetsuit without a board. why hasn’t someone developed an unbreakable leash?? can we put our heads together and come up with something that’s functional yet can withstand the forces applied by larger surf? i’m thinking of some sort of kevlar or carbon fiber extruded thingy. or maybe using rockclimbing rope coated in teflon. let’s brainstorm on this one! someone could market this and make some good cash. kirk
Well, at least you weren’t the only one- there were 4 boards broken at cowell’s last night(at cowell’s???).Even more broken cords-big big big.
Kirk, If you go to the site listed, you will find instructions for making a float line for spearfishing. Shorten the lenght and you will have leash that would be difficult to impossible for even a giant halibut to break. Hope this helps some. Patrick Shannon. http://http://www.freediver.net/freedivelist/faqstuff/faq_floatlline_make.html
Back in the late 60’s I used to surf the west side. When Pat O’Neil started using a surgical tubing hooked onto a suction cup I thought my busted board days were over. I resined in an eye bolt on the tip of my kneelo and tied a bungie to it and my wrist. All was good until a medium sized day at Middle Peak when I bailed. I popped up, felt a tug at my wrist and saw my board streaking toward my head at Mach 2. Screw that! So I tied a 1/4 inch nylon rope to the nose and tried again. All was good until a HUGE day at Middles when I bailed. The damn thing just about ripped my arm out of its socket. I reeled in the rope and found nothing but the eye bolt. I think it may be a good thing that leashes break…better them than your leg or your board…(oh yeah…check out Rio Del Mar in a couple of weeks and you’ll probably find your stick). Newbs
just curious.
it was a Da Kine, 1/4" thick. the extruded plastic simply broke in two. i’m thinking if they’d extrude a simple filament of kevlar or some other robust material, they wouldn’t fail like that. any thoughts? surf’s gone as i write this…bummer. kirk
Tied end Da Kine classic… Clear urethane very strong never broke yet. I use a 5’ clasic super comp year round in over head surf. It’s 3/16" real light and strong. Iuse it on all my boardsd in the 6’4 and under boards. I was told by a guy that was in the urethane company and he told me that colored urethane is weaker then clear pigment free stock cord… I never use glued colored leashes. Hand tied brass swivel clear urethane cord with good rail saver… The Perfect leash… NW style cause you really don’t wanta swim up here… Da Kine make the best leash and the classic is priced right. Keep it simple and clear!!!>>> all,>>> so, it happened again. the surf on the eastside of santa cruz was well > overhead this morning and beautiful! anyway, i took off on a set wave and > had to bail at the bottom (i was a bit too deep.) my friggin’ leash broke > and sent my board off to never-never land. the currents were so strong > that my board drifted off and was lost! let me tell you, there’s nothing > more humiliating than having to walk home in a wet wetsuit without a > board.>>> why hasn’t someone developed an unbreakable leash?? can we put our heads > together and come up with something that’s functional yet can withstand > the forces applied by larger surf? i’m thinking of some sort of kevlar or > carbon fiber extruded thingy. or maybe using rockclimbing rope coated in > teflon.>>> let’s brainstorm on this one! someone could market this and make some good > cash.>>> kirk http://surfnwsc.com
Tied end Da Kine classic… Clear urethane very strong never broke yet. I > use a 5’ clasic super comp year round in over head surf. It’s 3/16" > real light and strong. Iuse it on all my boardsd in the 6’4 and under > boards.>>> I was told by a guy that was in the urethane company and he told me that > colored urethane is weaker then clear pigment free stock cord…>>> I never use glued colored leashes.>>> Hand tied brass swivel clear urethane cord with good rail saver… The > Perfect leash… NW style cause you really don’t wanta swim up here…>>> Da Kine make the best leash and the classic is priced right.>>> Keep it simple and clear!!! Along with Red X, Daum Tooling makes the bonded connections for many of the domestic leash manufacturers including DaKine. If your cord snapped in the middle and was not elongated down to around .180", more than likely you nicked the cord at some previous time. Hand tied won’t help under those circumbstances. About five years ago I came up with a new method of bonding the ends to a cord. 12 years previous to that my partner Dennis came up with the method that SurfMore, Bully’s and Crow Haley use. In the course of testing the new bonds strength I would anchor one end to a stud in the concrete of a 12" length of .270" diameter cord. I’d attach the other end to a fish scale that was hanging for an over head crane. It would stretch the 12" cord to 7’ and the cord diameter would thin down to .120". As long as there were no nicks the cord did not break. At some point you want your cord to break or it will dislocate something. The key is to use the right size leash for the right size day. A DaKine Kanui 5/16" would probably have been a better choice. But, you still need to make certain that you don’t nick your cord. That’s the current achilles heal of the surf leash. A protective sleeve could be incorperated for say the first 2’. But, then your adding drag. And if yours truely snapped in the middle it would not have helped anyway.
wondered if it was an oam. i snapped a few of those really fast. been using fcs leash w/ no probs for a while now.
Getting wrapped around the sharp tail rail and sometimes a fin doesn’t help. Does anyone else remember the type of leash that had a length of nylon cord inside a shorter length of rubber tubing? The extra length of the nylon cord allowed for some stretch of the rubber tubing but eventually the length of the nylon cord was reached and NEVER broke. I don’t remember the brand. It is a good idea to periodically check your leash for nicks. Rock climbing ropes are rated for a given number of falls after which they are considered to be shot - a nick or snag on one of those can be fatal.
Getting wrapped around the sharp tail rail and sometimes a fin doesn’t > help. Does anyone else remember the type of leash that had a length of > nylon cord inside a shorter length of rubber tubing? The extra length of > the nylon cord allowed for some stretch of the rubber tubing but > eventually the length of the nylon cord was reached and NEVER broke. I > don’t remember the brand. It is a good idea to periodically check your > leash for nicks. Rock climbing ropes are rated for a given number of falls > after which they are considered to be shot - a nick or snag on one of > those can be fatal. John, Below is another attempt to post a site reference that describes how to make a spearfishing floatline. Essentually they are just long variations of what you have described above. The one that I made does not rebound any faster than a regular leash and is very strong. However, as Newbalonie pointed out, strenght may not always be a good quality. In any case, a leash can be made using the floatline method for a couple of dollars. Hope this helps. Patrick Shannon http://www.freediver.net/freedivelist/faqstuff/faq_floatlline_make.html
Patrick - I couldn’t get the first link to open… yes, that’s the kind of idea I’m talking about.
Getting wrapped around the sharp tail rail and sometimes a fin doesn’t > help. Does anyone else remember the type of leash that had a length of > nylon cord inside a shorter length of rubber tubing? The extra length of > the nylon cord allowed for some stretch of the rubber tubing but > eventually the length of the nylon cord was reached and NEVER broke. I > don’t remember the brand. It is a good idea to periodically check your > leash for nicks. Rock climbing ropes are rated for a given number of falls > after which they are considered to be shot - a nick or snag on one of > those can be fatal. John, The leash you were refering to was called Da Bull by Surf More. SurfMore made this leash until Balin came out with their melted together leash. Da Bulls had a tendency to wrought and tear the tubing fairly easily. So, SurfMore approached Daum Tooling about knocking it off. But, Dennis came up with a better method than melting the ends together.
so, it happened again. the surf on the eastside of santa cruz was well > overhead this morning and beautiful! anyway, i took off on a set wave and > had to bail at the bottom (i was a bit too deep.) my friggin’ leash broke > and sent my board off to never-never land. the currents were so strong > that my board drifted off and was lost! I was surfing 1st Peak PP between 10:15 and 12:15 in the late morning. About midway through the sesh a big set and in particular the third wave of the set broke top to bottom about 5 yards out from me and I was the furthest out in the lineup. Tossed everyone something good! Your board is now with some of the other floaters down at Capitola amongst the sewage spill. I hope you find it! G
…Boardless.Herb
Patrick - I couldn’t get the first link to open… yes, that’s the kind of > idea I’m talking about. Thats becuase the http is iedntified twice in the link. Remove one of the http’s and you will be good to go. I did that and was able to access the site. Magoo