Surf Leashes |
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Surf leashes are de rigueur these days. It's hard to imagine someone surfing Sunset Beach or Maverick's or even the local beachbreak without being attached to their boards with a length of urethane and Velcro. But it wasn't always this way. As recently as 1971, surf leashes were called "kook cords" by a surfing world that grew up thinking that a surfer must pay for his mistakes by swimming.
When surfboards were big and thick and clumsy, well into the '60s, being attached to your board would have been a hazard, which is why you see guys wiping out at Waimea and Malibu in the old surf movies unattached to their surfboards. And that is also why all the old big-wave surfers, guys like Buzzy Trent and Greg Noll, looked like linebackers. These guys did a lot of swimming, and they were in shape. But as surfboards became smaller and more refined into the late '60s, some innovative surfers, tired of swimming and fixing dinged or broken boards, began looking for an alternative to long swims and climbs through the rocks. Not surprisingly, the first surf leashes came from Santa Cruz, a place where a lost board meant almost certain death into the rocks at Steamer Lane, Stockton Avenue or Pleasure Point. Santa Cruz's Pat O'Neill, son of wetsuit innovator Jack O'Neill, is credited with the popularization of the surf leash. With his surgical cord attached to his board with a suction cup, he even offered leashes to fellow competitors at the 1971 Malibu Invitational. They were less than impressed, and Pat was summarily booted from the event for wearing his "kook cord." Pat would have the last laugh, as in a few months' time, the leash was an accepted tool for surfing. While surf leashes decreased the danger to the surfboard and to other surfers, it increased the danger to the person wearing it. Ironically, it was the surf leash that cost Jack O'Neill his left eye. He has worn an eye patch ever since, and while it offers little consolation, it's hard to imagine Jack or O'Neill Inc. without that distinctive logo. Larry Block of Block Enterprises was the first to advertise a surf leash for sale. "I didn't like the surgical tubing or the suction cup or the attachment to the wrist. People were jerking their boards around with their hands and it was just horrible. And I think that Jack O'Neill losing his eye from it proved that the design and materials were flawed. I used bungee cord because it didn't stretch out as much and come flying back, and I attached it around my ankle because it wouldn't affect my surfing at all. I attached the leash through a hole in the fin, which seems crude now, but it was better than the surgical tubing. I did an ad in Surfing magazine and we wholesaled it for $5." Surfers from the '70s still carry scars from those first bungee leashes, which were safer than surgical tubing and suction cups, but still would pull tight around your ankle and cut off blood flow. Bungee cords also had a nasty habit of digging deep into the fiberglass and resin of a surfboard, usually near the tail. The next innovation was a leather or a webbing strap for attaching the leash to your ankle, an improvement on the bungee loops. Others who didn't like poking holes in their fins began experimenting with leash cups and resin and fiberglass "bridges" on the decks of their boards. As the '70s folded into the '80s, there were a number of companies (Control Products, Balin) making surf leashes and some were moving into space-age materials. Velcro soon replaced the leather and webbing ankle straps and urethane replaced bungee cord. "The first urethane surf leashes were made by Cadillac Surf Company, the same people who pioneered urethane in skateboard wheels," Block said. "They had problems attaching the ankle strap to urethane at first, but once they started using glue and got it figured out, all leashes were made of urethane." The modern surf leash is now made of urethane in various thicknesses, with the ankle strap, usually Velcro, attached to the urethane with metal swivels. Most leashes attach to the surfboard in a leash cup, which is laminated into the deck of the board. There have been other innovations: quick-release leashes, rail-savers, single and double-swivel attachments, single and double-wrap ankle straps. It is easy to see what the leash has done to modern surfing. By eliminating the consequences of losing your board, it has enabled surfers to push the limits and create the slash-and-burn moves of today. On the flip side, it made surfers lazy by eliminating the need for swimming. Kook cord or lifesaver, the choice is yours. But like them or not, the leash is here to stay. -- Ben Marcus, October 2000
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