Preferred paddle leash

I often use one…
the telephone coil kind. It’s light weight and easily broken if you get entangled. Goes back together in the crimp connector pretty well, too. Sometimes it does slap the deck and make noise, but I just adjust where I have it clipped to, and silence comes back.

I find it kind of nice to just set the paddle quitely in the water to take a photo, not all the movement of getting it stowed in the rigging.

Of course, I’m not in white water or surf or such, your judgement for your conditions.

But, that’s just me, and how I drift…

T

I use them in the surf
In my surf boat I use a long paddle leash made webbing with a bungee inside it. It attached to the front of the boat. If I get knocked off the boat I simply hold onto the paddle and and I still have control off the boat. If I did not some child could wander into the water at about the same time I got knocked off the boat and…bad things could happen.



I know leashes are supposed to be bad but I don’t seem to get tangled and I prevent the boat from washing in even when I get washed out.



So get a big long stretchy one! Any other time I depend on a spare paddle.

Make Sure The Clip Is Not Plastic…

– Last Updated: Jun-12-11 11:19 AM EST –

I learned the hard way. Bailed from the waveski after a bad, long maytag. I hung onto the paddle but the plastic clip to the waveski snapped as the next breaking wave took hold of the ski. Good thing it was a winter dawn session -- very few folks out. The waveski surfed in on its own and got dinged up on the cobblestones. I was just glad no one got hurt on the inside. Now, when I have to bail, I let got of the paddle and hang onto the waveski belt and footstrap instead. The clip seems able to take the relatively minor pressure exerted on the paddle (rather than the larger ski) by the waves.

You can replace the plastic clip with a metal one or use a parachute cord loop (there are ways to attach the cord to the coil plastic leash) to attach to the boat.

sing