A kiteboard leash is any tether that connects a kiteboarder or kitesurfer to their kiteboard, not to be confused with a kite leash, which is an essential piece of kiteboarding safety equipment. The idea behind the kiteboard leash is to help the kiteboarder not lose the board when the two separate. The problem lies in the safety of this lemma, and what can happen when things go wrong.
First of all, learning to recover the board when you fall is a step in the learning process that comes before learning to ride a kitesurf board. We can refer to the kiteboard recovery process as upwind body drag or directional body drag. If you can’t confidently drag your body into your board every time, you’re not ready to try riding it. Perfect example: Imagine driving a car for the first time on a busy city highway during rush hour. Hmm, not how you learned to drive, me neither. Most of us went to driving lessons or with parents and learned how to drive in a parking lot. Keep in mind that sooner or later your kiteboard leash will break, if it doesn’t break you first. When it does, how are you going to get back to your board? Before becoming a kiteboarder, the individual savey will be an expert kiteboarding retriever. Safe and Independent, please.
The second point is that kitesurf leashes are dangerous. Try doing an internet search for the following; kitesurfing kitesurf board leash accident kitemare. Dig around a bit and you’ll find some gruesome stories and often graphic images of kiteboarding leash carnage. I often hear people say in the same thought that they wear a leash, but they also wear a helmet. The truth is that a helmet will not protect your face, it will not prevent the leash/board from getting tangled in your flylines and an endless number of well-documented mishaps and tragedies. In fact, body dragging to retrieve a board is easy, most of my students learn the technique in 20 minutes or less.
The last point is the economy. I hate to use this argument, but too many people think an accident won’t happen to them and therefore ignore the safety argument. OK, the idea behind a board leash is to prevent one from losing a kitesurf board. With production boards running $500-$900 new, and custom boards even more, it’s a reasonable concern. However, buying a $79 head trauma lanyard is not the answer. If you came across any stories about kite leash accidents, you know that many of these ended in hospital visits. So the economy finally comes into play. Buying a new motherboard vs. trip to the hospital. I think a trip to the hospital would cover the cost of a lot of new boards. Hey, why not buy a cheap used board, if your body dragging upwind isn’t scarred and yet you insist on riding a kiteboard?
Other than the safe and independent, and the dangers of serious injury or even death (yes, there have been leash-related fatalities), and, oh yeah, and the economical,… I really can’t think of any other reasons to Do not wear a kiteboard leash. Oh wait, they look silly, people will think you’re a nut, girls hate them, your mom wouldn’t approve, and your family deserves you to come home in one piece. I am sure you will see many good riders using kiteboard straps. And some professional kitesurfers use them….on triple overhead reefs with nasty rocky shorelines. That’s not to say it’s a good idea for you to wear one.
If you still insist, do an internet search for “safe alternative to board leash”, you will find a product that is MUCH safer.
