Another newb qu, I'm currently using a surfboard leg rope. Problem is wing boards/foil cost over $4k and weigh over 10kg so I'm not convinced a std leash is appropriate.
Thinking of making one from say 1/2" webbing, or is that a bad idea?
Alternatively, does an unbreakable leg rope exist?

I make mine from 3mm Dynex, but it's strong enough to rip your leg off, so have some sort of fuse in between

If your board is over 10kg there is something wrong with it.
balin.com.au/collections/sup/products/01-supac

I use the leash from the North waist leash. Webbing and dyneema so nice and strong, about 4 ft long so just long enough but not too long to drag in the water much. I just fitted a standard ankle leash strap to the end of it.
northkb.com/products/waist-leash
Neoprene leashes are good but replace them every 12 months, especially if your worried about loosing your board.

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Jethrow said..
I make mine from 3mm Dynex, but it's strong enough to rip your leg off, so have some sort of fuse in between

Did the exact same thing. Experienced the most painful crash of my life with it.
Something has to stretch when you crash, id rather my leash than me. 5ft x 6mm comp leash on a waist leash which I made, 40mm seatbelt webbing with 40mm x 250mm of Velcro. Never had an issue with this combo, started to put wing leash on it too. Very comfortable setup!

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hilly said..
If your board is over 10kg there is something wrong with it.

board is 7kg, foil setup is 4kg, so 11kg all up, give or take.

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King Crash said...5ft x 6mm comp leash on a waist leash which I made, 40mm seatbelt webbing with 40mm x 250mm of Velcro. Never had an issue with this combo, started to put wing leash on it too. Very comfortable setup!

Got a photo?

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Freddofrog said..
Another newb qu, I'm currently using a surfboard leg rope. Problem is wing boards/foil cost over $4k and weigh over 10kg so I'm not convinced a std leash is appropriate.
Thinking of making one from say 1/2" webbing, or is that a bad idea?
Alternatively, does an unbreakable leg rope exist?

4K+ worth of board and foil and you want to risk it on a home-made leash? Just buy the Balin waist coil leash, super strong and well made

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King Crash said..

Jethrow said..
I make mine from 3mm Dynex, but it's strong enough to rip your leg off, so have some sort of fuse in between

Did the exact same thing. Experienced the most painful crash of my life with it.
Something has to stretch when you crash, id rather my leash than me. 5ft x 6mm comp leash on a waist leash which I made, 40mm seatbelt webbing with 40mm x 250mm of Velcro. Never had an issue with this combo, started to put wing leash on it too. Very comfortable setup!

Yeah sorry, I neglected to mention I run 2mm bungy up the inside that just runs out of stretch as the Dynex takes up.

Much better shock absorbance that just Dynex, but can still give you quite a tug in a BIG catapult!

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Pacey said..

Freddofrog said..
Another newb qu, I'm currently using a surfboard leg rope. Problem is wing boards/foil cost over $4k and weigh over 10kg so I'm not convinced a std leash is appropriate.
Thinking of making one from say 1/2" webbing, or is that a bad idea?
Alternatively, does an unbreakable leg rope exist?

4K+ worth of board and foil and you want to risk it on a home-made leash? Just buy the Balin waist coil leash, super strong and well made

I doubt the Balin is unbreakable.
Surf leashes are designed to snap under pressure so there goes 4K.
Better to have a homemade one with a quick release me thinks.

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Freddofrog said..Better to have a homemade one with a quick release me thinks.

Not

Not sure why I didn't thing about this before. Today I used my kite leash on my waist belt. That should never snap, has elasticity and a quick release.
Essential this.

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Freddofrog said..
Not sure why I didn't thing about this before. Today I used my kite leash on my waist belt. That should never snap, has elasticity and a quick release.
Essential this.

I used something like that when I showed up once without a leash (surf coil is what I use.) Found some bits and pieces left in my car from the kite surf days. Works fine if you add a piece of surf leash/legrope for shock, otherwise not enough give. You shouldn't worry (imo) about a leash breaking as when you fall winging, you're typically planting the nose of the board and the nose of your face about the same time, so not a lot of force to the leash. And were you to use a short leash with no give, then you'd probably pull out the leash plug.

The Blueplant system is well liked, especially if you can't stand having a coil leash wrapped around your ankle, or a surf leash flapping in the water.
www.blueplanetsurf.com/retractable-foil-waist-leash-with-shock-cord.html

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Jethrow said..

King Crash said..

Jethrow said..
I make mine from 3mm Dynex, but it's strong enough to rip your leg off, so have some sort of fuse in between

Did the exact same thing. Experienced the most painful crash of my life with it.
Something has to stretch when you crash, id rather my leash than me. 5ft x 6mm comp leash on a waist leash which I made, 40mm seatbelt webbing with 40mm x 250mm of Velcro. Never had an issue with this combo, started to put wing leash on it too. Very comfortable setup!

Yeah sorry, I neglected to mention I run 2mm bungy up the inside that just runs out of stretch as the Dynex takes up.

Much better shock absorbance that just Dynex, but can still give you quite a tug in a BIG catapult!

I assume you've hand stitched/machine stitched the bungee under tension then? Sounds like a good system though! Might make one up myself

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Hwy1North said..
... You shouldn't worry (imo) about a leash breaking ...
The Blueplant system is well liked...

The other day a guy broke both his wing and board leash on the same day. He was lucky someone rescued it from getting thrown around in the shore break. And I've recently discovered surf leashes are designed to snap in case you get trapped on a reef or something.
So no surf leashes for me.
Not too keen on the retractable ones due to the board damage it could cause.

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King Crash said..

I assume you've hand stitched/machine stitched the bungee under tension then? Sounds like a good system though! Might make one up myself

Not sure how Jethrow does his but I've done similar using tubular webbing. Run the bungy up the middle. Typically bungy cord is 200% stretch so you can fit twice the length of webbing as your bungy cord. I finish with a double figure 8 and sew the tag down so you have a backup in case the sewing lets go. No need to sew the whole bundy under tension, just the ends.

There are surf leashes and there are surf leashes. Exceptionally light weight through to super strong. The one I posted above is 8mm thick and I have used them in solid waves in Margs with no breakages yet (3 years on present foil board). The short board leash designed for Perth slop will break due to their build not any planning. Leashes are not designed to break if caught in reef. They have a velco strap that you release for that, heavy duty leashes for big surf have a pin you can pull.

Some people even argue you do not need a leash. Lots of kiters do not use leashes in waves.

What is every ones go too wing leash

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Rodskeg said..
What is every ones go too wing leash

Cabrinha, tubular webbing with internal bungee. I find the stock length too long for smaller wings, so shorten it with a few figure 8 knots in the middle. Nice wrist cuff as well.

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hilly said..
...Some people even argue you do not need a leash. Lots of kiters do not use leashes in waves.

Yeah, I looked into that. I've never used a leash for windsurfing or kiting & figured I didn't need one now. And it's giving me the ****es so I'd gladly get rid of it if I could. My research and advice given to me was, esp when learning, you won't be able to catch your board. It's a lot harder to body drag using a wing than a kite. So for now at least, I'm putting up with it.

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Pacey said..

Cabrinha, tubular webbing with internal bungee. I find the stock length too long for smaller wings, so shorten it with a few figure 8 knots in the middle. Nice wrist cuff as well.

I google it, all I could find was Cabrinha kite leashes, or is that what you're referring to?

Bungie tends to break if it has a shock load at full stretch.

You need to design your leash so the tube webbing takes the load before the bungie is full stretched. The break is always in the main part of the bungie and not in the sewn loop at the end.

Virtually every wing leash or kite tension line I have had with bungie has broken. I gave up replacing the bungie and looked for alternatives. I've only had a couple of kite safety leash bungies break. Those leashes never get any real use and the bungies don't usually have to stretch all that far.

I did find some bungy that would potentially "never" break for our use case. It's used for circus acts etc. 400% elongation. But costs like 150 euros. Group buy haha

BTW It's easy to mix and match parts of surfboard leashes if they have the standard fin key screw attachment. I have worked my way through all the leashes I have owned and standardised on the One Ocean Sports waist coiled leash, with the velcro attachment from a Balin leash.

For the wing leash I have a Naish coiled leash with a small Creatures bicep cuff instead of the normal velcro. It's easy to operate one handed and even if the velcro gave way there's still a loop around my wrist. The small cuff fits neatly around my wrist with enough slack for it to rotate easily. It takes a little more effort to secure the bicep cuff to a shrub or tree than a standard cuff.

Most bicep leashes have a split ring attachment that is really stiff. The leash can be changed but it's an effort. You can find grub screw ones with a little bit of web searching.

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Gorgo said..
BTW It's easy to mix and match parts of surfboard leashes if they have the standard fin key screw attachment. I have worked my way through all the leashes I have owned and standardised on the One Ocean Sports waist coiled leash, with the velcro attachment from a Balin leash.

For the wing leash I have a Naish coiled leash with a small Creatures bicep cuff instead of the normal velcro. It's easy to operate one handed and even if the velcro gave way there's still a loop around my wrist. The small cuff fits neatly around my wrist with enough slack for it to rotate easily. It takes a little more effort to secure the bicep cuff to a shrub or tree than a standard cuff.

Most bicep leashes have a split ring attachment that is really stiff. The leash can be changed but it's an effort. You can find grub screw ones with a little bit of web searching.

The ONE leashes now have velcro at both ends just to make them even stronger, the velcro at the waist belt end is the same as the end that attaches to the board just smaller so it fits through the waist belt loops.

I vote for a coiled waist leash with Velcro belt system eg Axis, PPC , ONE. No clip to potentially break. Have used for winging and sup foil for over 2 years now, plenty strong enough. Well proven in my experience, no need to bodge one up in the garage or reinvent the wheel when there's a perfectly fine off the shelf solution. Main advantage of waist leash vs ankle leash is it seems to better prevent the leash wrapping around the foil if you get tumbled in the surf. A massive PITA which used to happen all the time when I used ankle leashes .

Crazy to even consider not using a board leash if winging in swell, your board will be back on the beach / rocks before you are even halfway back. Hope this helps.

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Freddofrog said..
I google it, all I could find was Cabrinha kite leashes, or is that what you're referring to?

got mine from Windsurfing Perth, also listed on Cabrinha site www.cabrinha.com/products/01-crosswing-leash

For the wing I use a coiled leash for a body board.

I've done the kiteleash thing like freddofrog and find it worked really well. Board has a small loop of bungee and a bigger loop of dyneema next to each other. Clip leash thru both loops so that when it loads up the bungee takes up first and before it gets to max stretch the dynema loop then takes over load bearing.
if you use bungee cord within webbing I reckon it will work well. Most good quality webbing $3+/metre will have a breaking strain in the tonnes. Just need a quick release with it.

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martyj4 said..
I've done the kiteleash thing like freddofrog and find it worked really well. Board has a small loop of bungee and a bigger loop of dyneema next to each other. Clip leash thru both loops so that when it loads up the bungee takes up first and before it gets to max stretch the dynema loop then takes over load bearing.

I like it, good idea.

You could using a windsurf uphaul. Bout the right length & already has bungee in the webbing. That said. I would not want bungee on my board leash. There a reason Surf leashes are not elastic... fine for the wing though.