Breaking your leash sucks. Let’s say you’re surfing on a day that feels a little bigger than you’re comfortable with. After finally making out to the back, you’re sitting there as sets roll beneath you, building the courage to turn and go. You bide your time, waiting for the right one, perhaps hesitantly paddling for one or two before backing off, then kicking yourself for doing so. Finally, you’re in the right headspace and a set darkens the horizon. This is the one. You turn, paddle hard, and blow the take-off. As you’re swearing at yourself underwater, your leash is tugging on your leg, trying to drag you over the falls. Suddenly, with a twang that’s felt more than heard, all the tension is gone. It’s a horrible feeling. Now you’re stuck in the impact zone with a few more waves in the set. They are going to land on your head, and you’re going to have to swim in, collect your (probably) battered board from the rocks, get another leash, and do the whole thing again.
DaKine doesn’t want that to happen to you anymore. They also want to sell more leashes, so they did a redesign of the whole damn thing, from the cuff to the cord. After Ian Walsh made a bit of a stink, they sat up and took notice–not just for Ian and big wave surfers, though. “We took all the technology from the Peahi leash and implemented it into every leash we make,” they wrote. So what does that mean for the average surfer? Well, it doesn’t mean you can go surf Jaws… but it might mean you’re not going to be stuck in the impact zone getting battered like a cork in a storm.
