Surfski Knowledge Base

Broken Leash
Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
03/12/07 #2608

Wow. LeAnne and I left at noon Sunday from Bloedel, and went to the island, and was it was
blowing super hard. It took over two hours to get there…we went down the middle…patches
of liquid smoke at the south end. The only moment I tried to hug the shore, a big fir
snapped hard halfway up and went down in the water exactly next to me. On the return,
LeAnne took a spill and her leash broke; it was an MEC coiled leash witht the swivel hook.
The hardware failed outright at the swivel, in a place you can't even inspect. She caught the
boat by the rudder.

Veronica and Tom P. came in as we left, and we passed Simon and Larry B. on the way in.
Nice day.

Larry Bussinger <lbussing@…>
03/12/07 #2616

Carter Johnson just sent me a note about his Watertribe race in
Flordia and gave me permission to post it. I had given him a leash
in San Francisco last year telling him it just takes 5 seconds to put
it on, so why even think about not putting it on every time. “You
don't want the Coast Guard calling your girl friend saying they
couldn't find you.” I kind of made it my mission last year to get
everyone to wear one, now you know why.

“Larry – Just wanted to thank you for the Paddle leash you gave me
last year. It probably saved my life in the Watertribe. We had small
craft advisories for the last few days of the race. The winds would
have easily barrel rolled my Surfski even with its 65lb pack of
gear. On the last night around 1:30am, I found myself in a 35 mile
open water crossing of Florida Bay. The headwinds were 25knots
gusting to 40. I was not making smart decisions and got myself
hopelessly suck in some mud. I hopped off the boat and immediately
sunk up to my knees completely immobilized. Almost instantly, I felt
a furious tug on my waist as the coiled leash pulled taught in
seconds with my boat blowing out towards Mexico with conviction. Had
the leash not been on, I would have been stuck alone in the bay 15
miles from anybody in the pitch black of the night without my gear or
hypothermia kit. I was able to crawl on all fours for a half mile
towing the boat via the leash till I could take shelter up in some
mangrove roots till the sun came up. I did not wear a leash last
year and probably would not have this year had your words not
resonated with me. The final Florida Bay crossing that Sally and I
did last year in 5.5 hour took me not a minute shy of 16 hours.”

West Wind
Larry Bussinger <lbussing@…>
03/27/07 #2682

Went to Marine Park last night about 5:00. Tide was the lowest I've
ever seen. Ground showing way out there. The water was wierd; kind of
splashing like a river would have been. As the wind built, I started
to get rides. Paddled straight west and surfed back. On my last run
about 200-300 feet from shore the boat dumped me. First time in two
years (since the surfski championships). Wasn't that rough, but bang,
I'm in the water! Then I stood up! Did I say the tide was way out? I
was only in 2.5 ft of water. Jumped back on the boat (really easy when
standing on solid ground). When I went in to shore I unhooked the
waist belt on my leash to make sure if the surf dumped me I wouldn't
have to mess with it. When I got on shore, I didn't have my leash. It
apparently unhooked at the other end.