A photo a day till the surf starts pumping #1: Mind your mellon

The risks of wearing a surf leash

While we’re waiting for some good shooting conditions for either surfing or just taking nice photos, I’ll be posting a quick blog each day so things don’t get stale around here.

Let’s kick off then with this small but deep cut to the head that I sustained earlier this year at Porthleven.

It’s the second scar on the dome I’ve got at this place, and just like the first, this one was a result of being hit by my board. This time was a direct result of wearing a surf leash to connect my board to my harness; it’s best to leash to your harness and not your ankle as you’re switching your lead foot often and attaching to your harness keeps the leash out of the way.

99 times out of a 100, I’ve not been hit by the board pinging back on the leash after a stack. With kites today you have so much instant depower that you’re *usually* at no greater risk than when you are surfing. This day though the wind was cross-off on the wave, and as I bailed and the board got sucked one way by the wave, I used the power of the kite to take me the other way and the leash built up tension, causing this accident.

The alternative would have been to go down with the board in the wave, possibly hitting the reef, most likely crashing the kite, and then dealing with a complete sh1t storm of events.

Another alternative would be to wear a surfing helmet but I reckon I need one of those for the kitchen before I need it in the water what with banging heads on open higher level cupboard doors! The sensible solution there is to remove the risk rather than padding up against it by merely closing higher level doors before rootling around for pots and pans in lower cupboards.

Dunno what the equivalent action in the surf would be, maybe not taking any risks with maneuvers in cross-off winds at reef breaks, or perhaps just better wave selection. Or patience.

Tags: cut, flying surfboard, to leash or not to leash