Leash

[István]

Guys,

A small topic about a small piece of cable, but might be interesting....

When snowboarding has become popular, snowboarders were not allowed to use the lifts without a leash (you know, the cable that connects you to the binding to avoid runaway boards).

I believe that the reason for this was safety, runaway boards might cause serious injuries.

But what about runaway skis? Ski bindings are releasing bindings, while snowboard bindings (both soft and hard) are non releasing bindings. So why did they penalize boarders?

Now - as far as I see - noone cares about if you have a leash or not.

What do you think about this whole phenomenon?
- Is it useful?
- Was it reasonable to oblige boarders to wear a leash?
- Do you use a leash? Why or why not?
- Are there countries where it is still mandatory (as far as I know Austria, Italy and France do not care)
- Why skiers were not obliged to use it?
- Etc.


Cheers,

István

[WokkingMax]

i use a leash (lock leash ) and i really think that its useful. on thing you are wrong: skier have no leash but the bindings have stoppers (if u remember), those little two black stifts that pretend the skies to run down a slope if the binding is opened

i just see one problem with the leashs: most its not the binding that opens but the bindings could break out of the board. so in that case the leash would be useless. thats why i screwed it directly on my board and didnt fix it at the bindings

[raphael]

We need leash, skiers don't, because there bidings have "auto stop when release".

[WokkingMax]

exactly what i tried to say

[raphael]

oops, i missed your post. Good explanation.

But my personnal experience is leash attached to bidings is often enough (always in my case... well, until now)

[skywalker]

Sorry for beeing very dogmatic in this point. But I think, it should be oblige to use a leshe always. A board out of control can kill another person. And I've often seen people loosing theit board only for one second. Most of the time thei can catch it, but if one doesn't, a board running down the slope is extremely dangerous. As I see more and more often boarders without leashes, I would recommend not to allow snowboarders without leashes using the lifts.

[vkrouverk]

i just see one problem with the leashs: most its not the binding that opens but the bindings could break out of the board.

How many times you have seen, that both bindings break out of the board so that board turns into missile? I haven't seen it. But most likely is that someone drops board while walking on slope or losing board while attaching feets to bindings. And leash is designed for such cases, not for breaking bindings out of board. So you have to use leash on slopes when your board is not attached to your feet. I saw runaway board once in Alps, when it fly by me and (fortunately!) hit one standing skier from back to his boots so that skier fell on his back. But it could have been much worse, it could hit some kid or take air from bump and hit spine or someone, who just fell down. Some time ago (may be 3-4 years) I read from rec.skiing.snowboarding (IIRC) about one poor guy, who tried to stop runaway board by catching it with his hand and board hit his palmside broking all his fingers backwards....
So I always use leash while on slopes.

[Hans]

Sorry for beeing very dogmatic in this point. But I think, it should be oblige to use a leshe always. A board out of control can kill another person. And I've often seen people loosing theit board only for one second. Most of the time thei can catch it, but if one doesn't, a board running down the slope is extremely dangerous. As I see more and more often boarders without leashes, I would recommend not to allow snowboarders without leashes using the lifts.

I fully agree with Skywalker. Last year I have experienced that my SWOARD was slipping out of my tired hands at the end of the day on a very steep empty slope. My wife was about 500 metres ahead of me. She saw my SWOARD just speeding up down the mountain. Lucky I was, my SWOARD stopped in a softsnow place. So I experienced the need of a leash.

Greets, Hans.

[pokkis]

In Finland it is mandatory to have leash, but it is controlled quite loosely.
I personally prefer long using leash always.
When carrying board, it is great help.
But best and safest usage of long leash is when you need to take off your board. Then you can make loop around board with leash, so when/if board gets loose anyway leash will break board and turn it on either side.
Going to slopes without leash is like going off piste without peeper

[Whitey]

Hi EC'ers,

I don't see a leash as a penalty, but a cheap safety equipment. In my opinion, every boarder should use it.

[McFussel]

@Max:

Isn´t that very brutal to your board???

Greeeetzzz

[skywalker]

Hi Lothar,

the Exxtacy are totally exxtatic about inserts. So they even inserted one for the leash. IMHO it's rather unlikely, that either your binding breaks when the other one is released (i.E. at the lift) or that both bindings break at the same time. But obviously the Exxtacy.crew thinks different in this point

[harald]

I always use one and the reasons are provided in the other posts. However, the problem and greatest danger of loosing the board so it runs away is when carrying it, and when attaching the boots to the bindings. Most people, myself included, do not use the leash when carrying the board. Furthermore, the leash usually is attached after the boots are put in the bindings. Therefore, the leash is useless in its current form since most of them are too short to wear when walking and carrying the board. Ski stoppers work much better since they pop out and brake, once the ski is free. Before the ski stoppers where developed, alpine skiers also were expected to wear leashes. Unfortunately, they represented a serious danger when the skier fell and the ski was attached. Some of my friends nearly died because the skies banged their head or cut arterias. Back to the problem. The solution is probably to use long and elastic leashes so the can be used when walking and carrying the board.

[István]

One addition to the topic: I have seen skis falling down to the slope from the lift, but I've never seen the same with a board. Autostop will not help in this case.

István

[WokkingMax]

1st: Yes i saw someone who managed to break out both bindings!
2nd: The Xtasy-crew uses this extra insert for another use: take a security screw that noone has a bit for and use a lock leash. drinking without being afraid of getting stolen. if u attach ur leash at ur bindings, someone just ahs to open 4 normal screws whats pretty easy with every tool

greetz max