This is a really good topic on swaylocks about leg rope release. I'm for ever trying to find a leggie that won't break but if it ever got hooked up it will drown you.

Most Sup riders have long thick leggies to deal with the stress of having a big board attached to you. Which increases the chance of it hooking up on the bottom. The Force of water would stop Hulk Hogan reaching for the strap to release it.

Has anyone here ever been hooked up I never have but it would be terrifying , I'm think maybe a tag line hanging off the strap to make it easier to grab , but the realise pins mentioned in this thread seem like a good idea. Short of surfing with a knife dose anyone have a better suggestion.

http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1024328?page=1

On a surfboard I have been tangled up twice and it was scary. Both times it was caught up in
kelp and I struggled to tread water or keep my head above water. It scared me that much it
kept me out of the water for a while (I was probably only 16 and 18yo).

Both times I managed to undo it from my ankle.

I guess thats just as good as a release, wouldn't you think!

got done on the take off at the pass many moons ago
my leggie got caught on the rock
was flat out on the bottom with all the water coming around the rocks
couldnt lift a finger off the bottom let alone get to my leggie
thought i was dead the it snapped never been so happy to break a leggie
to this day

A mate got hooked up on the reef at Noosa lefts in PNG, he released it at the rail saver... then prone paddled into the channel away from the impact zone and went back for his leg rope later.

Its a good topic cause in larger surf it could have been a major problem.

Hey Piros, I'm sure Creatures leg ropes added the big loop on their ankle strap to help with quick release, I'm not sure if all leggies are like this.

If your not surfing over head and a half high I've found that normal short board leggies are fine.

Just don't go out there with the mind set that you'll need to rely on a thick leggy, and you'll be find.

for big surf its a different story.

I use a thick 10ft long big wave mal leggy and have put a plastic ball on a small piece of string onto the release toggle.

Its long enough to get a few fingers around if you need to get the bastard off but not to long that its noticeable or annoying. (have tested extensively in small surf)

so far so good tho, if copped a few good 6-8fts on the head and its still strong and i haven't needed to realise it.

I've been happy with the Creatures 7' Reef leggie but on a big day in Fiji last week it turned into a 9'6" leggie.
I might invest in something thicker and longer for those type of days.

Yeah that loop on the ankle part of the leggie is good, super easy to find and pull in ordinary circumstances
but wrapped around a reef might be a different story.

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Yeah that loop on the ankle part of the leggie is good, super easy to find and pull in ordinary circumstances
but wrapped around a reef might be a different story.

This is pure speculation from my part, as I never got leash-trapped yet in dangerous conditions, but perhaps
they may have the advantage that you use the device everytime you remove them, so you get used to it, so it should help in a stressful situation to just perform a routine move rather than having to remember a special emergency gizmo you never use...

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colas said...

Yeah that loop on the ankle part of the leggie is good, super easy to find and pull in ordinary circumstances
but wrapped around a reef might be a different story.

This is pure speculation from my part, as I never got leash-trapped yet in dangerous conditions, but perhaps
they may have the advantage that you use the device everytime you remove them, so you get used to it, so it should help in a stressful situation to just perform a routine move rather than having to remember a special emergency gizmo you never use...

Yeah totally agree...I always put my leggie on the same way around my ankle and always use the loop to take it off.
It is pretty much second nature now, even if the leggie has spun around a bit on my ankle.

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Bnaccas said...

colas said...

Yeah that loop on the ankle part of the leggie is good, super easy to find and pull in ordinary circumstances
but wrapped around a reef might be a different story.

This is pure speculation from my part, as I never got leash-trapped yet in dangerous conditions, but perhaps
they may have the advantage that you use the device everytime you remove them, so you get used to it, so it should help in a stressful situation to just perform a routine move rather than having to remember a special emergency gizmo you never use...

Yeah totally agree...I always put my leggie on the same way around my ankle and always use the loop to take it off.
It is pretty much second nature now, even if the leggie has spun around a bit on my ankle.

Yeah I find it fun to rip off as quick as possible while on the board at the end of a sesh...

Good topic Piros, it highlights one of the real dangers of surfing/SUPing.

I have had my leggie snagged badly twice, once as a teenager on a short board at Ulu's (my first ever surf at Ulu's on my first Thruster back in 81). There was quite a current running and in my panic I sliced my foot to pieces on the reef trying to get free.
As I had tried to get down to my ankle the board floated up and sort dragged my foot under a ledge, instead of trying to release the leggie my first instinct was to just try and rip my foot out, when that didn't work I managed to get the leggie off, I probably wasn't underwater for long but yep I panicked.

I realised after that that if I had just tried to relax a bit more and been more familiar with releasing the leggie. I think I could have got out of it with out cutting my foot at all if it was instinct to release the leggie as soon as it snagged.

Since that time I have always put my leggie on the same way and have tried to make releasing it a routine thing to do.
I currently use a Creatures Outer Reef 10ft leggie on my SUP's, have not broken one yet and they do have a fairly big loop to grab for release.

Last year I was surfing an offshore reef that has a shallow reef inside, if you get sucked into going to far on the fast left you can end up on it (yep I got greedy).
There is usually that much water moving across it that if you end up on it and there is enough tide you just have to let yourself get pushed over it then paddle back around.
On this occasion though my leggie got snagged, my board stopped dead and I went flying off the board, couldn't believe how much force was pushing me forward making it quite difficult to get back to release my leggie.
This time I was a lot more relaxed though and just waited for the surge of the wave to pass reached back and released.

Trouble was I was then a couple of K's offshore and was finding it very difficult to get back to the board and get it free, as it was in the worst possible place and well and truly snagged.
(It was also my first real swim holding a paddle which is another issue again)

Good thing there was another couple of SUPing breezers to help out, thanks guys.

Yep... At mettams on a, low tide.

Leggy got caught half way down , around one of those large rockncolumns in the middle.

Every time a wave came through, it pushed the sup and dragged me under more, I tried to fight it, panicked.

If I couldn't have got my leggy off I would have drowned after the 5th or 6th wave.

Luckily it was a creatures, with the quick release loop....

Best $80 I have ever spent in my life.



Note for tight lines on swimming with paddle..... Put the t handle through the loop on the zipper of your wetty....

Anyone got a link to the creatures leggie you're talking about?
I'm intrigued, as i was thinking about this only recently. Might sound dumb, but i simply had a wipeout at Big Left (Flinders, Vic, for those that havenmt heard of it) on a wave that was easily the biggest i have ever caught on a SUP. The one thing I never thought about was being on a such a big board (10'6" x 31) the wave simply dragged me underwater via the leg rope for 'ages' - ok, prolly only a few seconds, but long enough to get me thinking about "when is this going to end" and how much air i had left! Nature... always a bigger/stronger bastard than you think!
(Anyway... links to leggies??)

They actually don't list the 10' Outer Reef leggies that I have under the SUP tab but I see there is a 11' Outer Reef under the short board tab.

http://www.creatures.com.au/leash/outerreef11/12

I am sure the ones listed under the SUP tab are pretty much the same, here is a link to the surefire leash release feature.

www.creatures.com.au/features/surefire

I use a coiled leash when Down Winding but have never tried one for surfing, perhaps they might be an option when surfing at breaks with snaggy type reef?

After a couple of swims at Big Left due to legropes breaking - coiled and normal longboard ones - we went to the guys at Balin and they've come up with these custom designed SUP leashes - no problems to date - and they've been thoroughly tested at Big Left, the Bombie and Gunna.


www.psups.com.au/sup-shop/

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WINDY MILLER said...

Yep... At mettams on a, low tide.

Leggy got caught half way down , around one of those large rockncolumns in the middle.

Every time a wave came through, it pushed the sup and dragged me under more, I tried to fight it, panicked.

If I couldn't have got my leggy off I would have drowned after the 5th or 6th wave.

Luckily it was a creatures, with the quick release loop....

Best $80 I have ever spent in my life.



Note for tight lines on swimming with paddle..... Put the t handle through the loop on the zipper of your wetty....

Same thing happened to me at Metams great place to surf/ sup but it can be costly.
Boards have been banged up good there too.
But he who dared wins I guess!!!

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LyndaLim said...

After a couple of swims at Big Left due to legropes breaking - coiled and normal longboard ones - we went to the guys at Balin and they've come up with these custom designed SUP leashes - no problems to date - and they've been thoroughly tested at Big Left, the Bombie and Gunna.


www.psups.com.au/sup-shop/

Yeah that Balin looks good , the one single fault of all brands is how they attach to the ankle strap and board , the press fit around the cord is always the weakness , feeding the leggie through looping it back and binding it like the Balin is the only way to go. Now they just need to fit a release pin and we have the perfect leggie.

Rob I have been held down in Mexico puerto escondeto ,place called la punta,well I went one way and the board the other way of a big rock under water for two waves or more could not get to my foot from the force of the current,so nothing would of help except for a lull thank god. Very scary just have to hold your breath.

2 wave hold down is no fun , very hard to keep your head and stay relaxed . I think a second strap above the knee with the release pin would be the trick.

Having seen the evolution of the legrope from none, then venetian blind cord and a hole drilled through your fin to the various commercial products available today
when I took up the paddle four years ago it soon became obvious that a SUP specific legrope was required.
Legropes designed for Mals have serious short comings when attaced to a SUP,
firstly failure of components was common resulting in unwelcome longgg swims.
Secondly the most concern to me was the serious recoil from legropes being streched to the max resulting in the SUP sling shoting back at terminal velocity, resulting in a several near death experiences.
In consultation with Jon at Balin we put together a 10ml urethane rope based on Balins old export "Storm" model ,all connections either stiched or tied, similar to ropes shown on LindaLim post. www.psups.com.au/sup-shop//
I took this 10ml rope to Indo two years ago,they don't break but the recoil is worse than smaller diameter urethane. When 10ml urethane streches to the max
the sling shot of the board back to rider is truely terrifying .
So after several cold Bintangs settling nerves after board had whistled past
my head propelled by 10ml urethane the concept of the "Recoiless Storm" legrope
was hatched.
"Recoiless Storm" half 10ml urethane , half 5ml marine woven cord(no strech), I have used this combination for the past two years with Zero Breakages and ZeroSling shot near death experiences.
Next development was the "Recoiless Storm Waister" which attached the "Recoiless Storm" to a waist belt.After using the waist belt for the past two years I would never go back to a conventional ankle or knee attachment .
The "Recoiless Waister " ticks all the boxes.
* Zero Breakages.
* Zero Sling shot .
* Free feet if you enjoy walking.
* Quick release. At easy arms reach.
* Zero joint strain. Important for the senior rider.

Note: The Waister makes you look like a Kook , but so did venitian blind cord attached to your fin.
Jon at Balin is currently fitting new 5ml cord to the proto type and will post some
pics on this thread through the week.

Regards
Quaily

Sounds interesting. My board recoiled into my head yesterday more clumsy than anything but I thought to myself it could have been bad esp if i didn't have a quad set on...

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ApaKabar said...


Having seen the evolution of the legrope from none, then venetian blind cord and a hole drilled through your fin to the various commercial products available today
when I took up the paddle four years ago it soon became obvious that a SUP specific legrope was required.
Legropes designed for Mals have serious short comings when attaced to a SUP,
firstly failure of components was common resulting in unwelcome longgg swims.
Secondly the most concern to me was the serious recoil from legropes being streched to the max resulting in the SUP sling shoting back at terminal velocity, resulting in a several near death experiences.
In consultation with Jon at Balin we put together a 10ml urethane rope based on Balins old export "Storm" model ,all connections either stiched or tied, similar to ropes shown on LindaLim post. www.psups.com.au/sup-shop//
I took this 10ml rope to Indo two years ago,they don't break but the recoil is worse than smaller diameter urethane. When 10ml urethane streches to the max
the sling shot of the board back to rider is truely terrifying .
So after several cold Bintangs settling nerves after board had whistled past
my head propelled by 10ml urethane the concept of the "Recoiless Storm" legrope
was hatched.
"Recoiless Storm" half 10ml urethane , half 5ml marine woven cord(no strech), I have used this combination for the past two years with Zero Breakages and ZeroSling shot near death experiences.
Next development was the "Recoiless Storm Waister" which attached the "Recoiless Storm" to a waist belt.After using the waist belt for the past two years I would never go back to a conventional ankle or knee attachment .
The "Recoiless Waister " ticks all the boxes.
* Zero Breakages.
* Zero Sling shot .
* Free feet if you enjoy walking.
* Quick release. At easy arms reach.
* Zero joint strain. Important for the senior rider.

Note: The Waister makes you look like a Kook , but so did venitian blind cord attached to your fin.
Jon at Balin is currently fitting new 5ml cord to the proto type and will post some
pics on this thread through the week.

Regards
Quaily

Definitely go the Creatures Outer Reef leggie.
It's 9mm thick and I think mine is 9 foot?
Love the quick release on it and have gone through the practice of getting it off quick.
Often get my ass handed to me on a wave that has no soft wipeout. A beating usually takes you deep and I've had my hand on my quick release ready for the pull a couple of times. Thinking about it now sends shivers down my spine but I'm so intrigued by this wave and it's power that it keeps sucking me in just to show me who is boss... and it's not me
I'm just stoked my leggy hasn't snapped yet because IF it does it's gonna be a very long swim to probably a broken board.
YEOW

I was caught up on a reef while surfing years ago. Surf wasn't big but the force of the water pushing across the rocks made it difficult to reach to my ankle to release the leggie. Had a pannick and then managed to release it. Maybe some extra situps would have helped in that situation. Until then I had never thought about that sort of thing. The water surging can really make it difficult. Also caught with a massive ball of seaweed which held me in the impact zone. I think a longboard leash would be good if it is just below the knee. Not so far to reach. An easy pin release or that ball somebody mentioned are good ideas. A leash snapping is not as bad as one getting caught. Now with a SUP and those long thick leashes I am aware of potential hazards with reefs especially at lower tides. We need a foolproof system. I can't think how it could be better than it is now. I think the guys that surf Mavericks etc would develop more efficient releases as they are in the situation that demands an easy action.