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25/11/16 13:45pm EMAIL THIS TO A FRIENDWEAR A LEGROPE YA SCHMUCKS OR HURT OTHERS OR MAYBE EVEN GET HURT YOURSELF The leg rope or surf leash as sometimes it is called, is used for a reason (and a bloody good one at that). In the 60's and 70's leg ropes were not worn because they weren't around, sure there were some crude homemade ones, but commercially none really available. Surfers and swimmers back then suffered some pretty bad injuries from loose boards propelling towards them in the lineup after being lost by the surfer riding them. By the late 70's along came the leg rope or surf leash and loose boards in the lineup became controlled by this miraculous savior of having to swim in after your board or worse, it hitting someone in the head paddling out. Last year at my local during a crowded summer time poo session a couple of young experienced long boarders (yes young not old long boarders) were out in the water without leg ropes on. Looking at them I just thought this is an accident waiting too happen. Well stuff me, it did and it was my misses that copped the long board smack bang into her arm as she was paddling out after the guy lost it on the take off. As I went over to check on the misses the guy swam up to claim his loose board. All I said was "See what happens when you don't wear a leg rope". Well our hero (the long boarder) started giving lip and reasons why he doesn't where a leg rope and seriously you should have heard the shit coming out of his mouth (all I could visualize at that point in time was his teeth coming out of his mouth while I was using his head as a speed ball). Much to my disappointment the misses held me back and that was that. Last Monday I thought I would go have a paddle at Secret Harbour, warm day and small hernia material wave wise on offer with quite a few crew out just trying get wet and cool off. Behold a small pack of mal/long board/single fin riders to the North of me without leg ropes on with a whole heap of crew everywhere including kids trying to have a surf. To the South of me were two other guys on long boards without leg ropes on as well and I thought to myself "Here we go again". Well, the guy loses his long board while trying to do a floater and the loose board smacks into this man mountain paddling out and puts a ding on the man mountains board. Verbals get exchanged with the man mountain tuning the guy about not wearing a leg rope and wanting him to pay for the ding repair on his new Mayhem. The Long boarder being a smart arse tells man mountain (who is holding long boarders board in one hand) to "Get F*#ked". Man mountain then proceeds to hit long boarders fin with palm of hand snapping fin out and says "There now we're even", Much to the delight of other surfers in the water, one of which who had already suggested to the long boarder he should be wearing a leg rope. I'm waiting for things to escalate, but long boarder paddles in, but nothing eventuates. The moral of the story is, you may think you look cool or the ducks nuts by not wearing a leg rope. You may think you can control your board, because you think you are a good surfer (and, you may well be), but there is always that chance you may lose your board and hurt someone or worse still they are gonna hurt you for hurting them. There is no excuse for not wearing a legrope (Unless you are towing into big waves). Simple all you got to visualise is "What Can Go Wrong" and there is a lot that can go wrong by not wearing a leg rope. So wear a leg rope ya Schmucks, you don't look cool not wearing one so get that out of your head! |