Safety boardleash attachement for hydrofoil

[kruzlifix]

Yesterday I had another " near death experience":
I was out foiling when the wind suddenly droped and I had to self-rescue myself back to shore. I always have 2 m kiteline on my harness to secure the board in those situations.
I attached the line to my foilboard at the standard board leash attachment point at the back of the board. but then with a little upcoming breeze I was suddenly pulled by the board under the water. I managed to grab the board by its nose and floated back up to the surface. I untied the board leash right away and let the board drift away. I got to my kite and self- rescued back to shore. we later found the board stuck on a reef and rescued it with the help of s SUP as the tide got in.
first thing today I made a new safetey leash attachement on the underside of the nose. I just tested it and now I can pull my foil-board safely behind me. only when you body-drag a bit to fast it goes up on the foil and tries to pass you.
In my opinion all foilboards should have a safety leash sling like this.
br
andreas

[davesails7]

I had a leash for low wind rescuing, but somebody recommended I learn to balance sitting on my board instead. Seemed impossible at first. I thought maybe my board was too floaty, but after some practice I can sit on there indefinitely. I had to sit further forward than I thoguht.

Now as soon as the kite goes down, I swim to the board and sit on it. I can now do the whole pack down of a 15m foil kite sitting on the board (rolling lines, grabbing wingtips, and rolling kite). It's worth the bit of practice!

[kruzlifix]

well, may be you canot see, but the board I am using has no volume at all. it just floats with the foil attached. so I canot sit on it...
andreas

[ronnie]

well, may be you canot see, bit the board I am using has no volume at all. it just floats with the foil attached. so I canot sit on it...
andreas

You might consider one of these Sunline retractable clothes line. It has a stainless steel spring and means the line will stay straight (up to 35' of line)and as you pull the board to you, it packs the line away. I've only used it once as I generally avoid leashes, but it has some potential for very light winds.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2381449&start=10

You sent me something for free years ago, so if you PM me your address, I will post it to you if you want to try it.

[Blackrat]

i almost had a boat go over my board a couple days ago when i became detached and was thinking about some sort of leash to the nose of the board just for relaunching the kite

how did you affix the leash to the nose

[Peter_Frank]

But like Davesails said - get your board as the very first thing when you crash in light wind - you dont need to sit on the board as this dont work well on really small boards, but having your arm rest on the board makes you way less tired as you dont have to swim to keep yourself floating, and your head is always above the water now (can be hard if no vest like most of us dont have) so an awesome rescue plank, and you know for sure that you get your board with you in a "safe" way

You ride in a spot with no waves at all I assume, since you could not get to your board again ?
As normally the problem is the board "runs away" towards shore faster than you and your kite drift with the wind - but this is in open water where even the smallest waves a few inches will dolphin the board fast

Peter

[Heimo]

Im "a fan" of sitting on the board in most situations in lightwind - to restart - to wait for restarting wind - to untangle lines - to untangle softkites. I trie to get the Board and get it under me and tangle my feet below under the board - sitting on it direct touching the front footstraps. In a kite-restart-situation - point the nose direct downwind and lean back a little - and dont be surpiseg getting planing on it sitting there in stronger Winds - smile.

I also made me an leash-attachment in form of a complete hole through the nose of the board stenghtned with a pipe - a little on the left of the axis, so that the board following me faster will miss me.

I made this after i lost the board in gusty lighwind and "dangled softkiterestartplaying" and had a hard time swimming with the mass of water in the softkite without a safty-plank.

But since then - i never used the leach....

[kruzlifix]

i almost had a boat go over my board a couple days ago when i became detached and was thinking about some sort of leash to the nose of the board just for relaunching the kite

how did you affix the leash to the nose

It was easy.... just drilling through the board, pulling a rope through the hole and filling it up with Epoxy.

[kruzlifix]

But like Davesails said - get your board as the very first thing when you crash in light wind - you dont need to sit on the board as this dont work well on really small boards, but having your arm rest on the board makes you way less tired as you dont have to swim to keep yourself floating, and your head is always above the water now (can be hard if no vest like most of us dont have) so an awesome rescue plank, and you know for sure that you get your board with you in a "safe" way

You ride in a spot with no waves at all I assume, since you could not get to your board again ?
As normally the problem is the board "runs away" towards shore faster than you and your kite drift with the wind - but this is in open water where even the smallest waves a few inches will dolphin the board fast

Peter

of course first thing to do is getting my board, ... but then I had to use both my arms trying to relaunch the kite, so holding on to it with one arm was not an option. we do have waves, even in low tide... so the board did end up getting stuck on the reef down - wind- waves....