Reel leashes fell out of favour mainly because they're crap. You have a bulky heavy thing attached to you that can knock holes in your board, that is also super fragile. Any build up of salt water or sand and they seize up.

Just looking at the various waist leashes and they're all pretty much a bit of webbing with some padding and velcro. Basically a giant leg rope collar.

The more expensive ones have a moulded section with a grub screw to hold the swivel end of a leash. It looks like you could easily replace the leash with your favourite leg rope configuration just by removing the grub screw. My leggies all use a fin key for that.

I just ordered a waist leash from www.nologooceanaccessories.com/ It's basically the same as all the others but only $52.95 including postage.

The only thing that is not appealing is the dinky aluminium spring carabiner holding the leash onto the belt. I am inclined to replace that with either stainless steel, or a dyneema loop. I've got some old kite safety leashes with a nice robust quick release that I could use.

Just for info, Gong now has waist leashes, with either a straight or coiled leash cord built-in, with a a molded section with a grub screw to hold the swivel end of a leash. And it is cheaper than a standard 6' ankle leash of the main leash brands.





Disclaimer: I am a Gong ambassador.

hilly said..

Gorgo said..I just ordered a waist leash from www.nologooceanaccessories.com/ It's basically the same as all the others but only $52.95 including postage.
The only thing that is not appealing is the dinky aluminium spring carabiner holding the leash onto the belt. I am inclined to replace that with either stainless steel, or a dyneema loop. I've got some old kite safety leashes with a nice robust quick release that I could use.

That carabiner will scratch the sh1te out of your board getting on and off. They never stay at the back.

We make these and never have a issue with either the scratching or not staying at the back. Just make them and offer them cheap so people to pay $100 or more for a leash. Some people like the waist and others don't but for me this is all I use 100% off the time for in the surf, DW or on the wing.

You can always just tie the leash to the belt as well so you can get rid of the buckle but best thing is if you stretch the leash out as it does happen in bigger surf you can just replace the coil part which makes it super cheap.

windwakerider said..
Looking to incorporate a waist leash for wing or board. What are you guys using?

Using coil ankle leash to board and have no issues. Tried out the Ozone waist leash recently with the Ozone Wasp 6m. A slightly adjustment initially when climbing up on the board but once standing it was pretty cool having the wrist free of the leash. No tangles in the occasional transition fail. I like that the waist leash had an easy to use adjustment system to tailor fit to my waist dimensions. Plan on giving the waist leash some use and then plan to switch back to the wrist leash, to see which leash method I prefer most.

northy1 said..
Any idea of the length? Also sizing seems a bit weird is 34 inch a Medium?

No idea on the length, you could email them.
I use a 6' coiled Gong leash on my Wetstuff belt (not these ones) and it is OK, I guess these are about this length.

I guess you have seen the size chart, so yes 34" = 86cm is a Medium

MidAtlanticFoil said..
I've just started using an Armstrong waist leash and just added the spreader bar from my mystic 2face harness to the army waist band. Took it out for a test run today and it went really well.
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The full harness just felt overkill, while this was perfect. Allowing hooking in both heel side and toe side tacks (not riding switch quite yet). I could easily spin it around to allow prone paddling out to the wind line as well.

Genius, thats awesome!

Full waist harness just doesn't feel right, I like the minimalistic look and will try that next.

i use an old Reel Leash to a security guard webbing belt and run a kite leash from the end of the reel leash to the board. Works beauty eh.

pitbulldoug said..
I use the Axis waist leash with a old dakine maniac hook for kiting, works real good for a big guy keeping it simple and light. Don't think IMO you need a bulky kiting or windsurf style harness for winging this style I hardly know it's there.hopefully one of the winging companies will come up with a more refined simple light harness specific for winging shortly,until then this works just fine and the coil leash out of the water really helps to keep drag minimal.I use the adjustable Duotone harness lines as well,very nice too

Thanks! Any chance you can show me a pic of where the leash joins the belt - is it replaceable (grub screw) if the leash breaks?

My Balin monster waist coil is too long it touches the water....

Can someone please tell me the length of the standard one at www.nologooceanaccessories.com/ un-stretched ?

Alysum said..
My Balin monster waist coil is too long it touches the water....

Can someone please tell me the length of the standard one at www.nologooceanaccessories.com/ un-stretched ?

Balin do two monster waist coil leashes..

One has a short straight section for use on DW SUP's.. and one that's shorter with no straight section for use on foil boards.

Having the buckle makes for a much easier/quicker on-off than the more common Velcro set ups.

If i was doing alot of winging i would use the www.oneoceansportsaustralia.com/accessories/no-logo-waist-leash for the board to me and then just grab a kite leash that usually attaches the bar and lines to the harness and run that from the wing to another attachment point on the waist leash as the Nologo waist belt has 3 different attachment points. This will keep it as clean as possible as running to coils in the same set up is a pain in the arse!!

If you ever stretch the coil out is super easy to replace and if i am doing any bigger wave stuff i just tie the coil to the belt and remove the buckle.

hilly said..

Gorgo said..I just ordered a waist leash from www.nologooceanaccessories.com/ It's basically the same as all the others but only $52.95 including postage.
The only thing that is not appealing is the dinky aluminium spring carabiner holding the leash onto the belt. I am inclined to replace that with either stainless steel, or a dyneema loop. I've got some old kite safety leashes with a nice robust quick release that I could use.

That carabiner will scratch the sh1te out of your board getting on and off. They never stay at the back.

I've had the no logo leash for a while. It's basically a giant velcro leg rope with three attachment loops instead of a swivel.

I've been using the XL size leash. It allows full overlap of the velcro while leaving the waist belt a bit loose.

Leaving it loose makes it easy to push the leash around so the leash is out of the way. You can have it at the front to one side, or slide it around so it comes out behind you. You can do the same with the standard size but the velcro overlap is smaller and there's a bigger section of hook velcro exposed. That stuff can kill wetsuits if you're not careful.

I haven't had any problems with the carabiner yet. No scratches. No obvious corrosion. It's great to be able to quickly attach/detach the leash if you want to without removing the belt.

Recently took delivery of the blue planet retractable board leash. Really dig it so far. Haven't winged with it in the surf yet, but I imagine the distance the board can end up away from you after a wipeout will save the wing a few holes. I've had a couple high speed spills and it stays a good 15' away when you resurface and it slowly comes back to you automatically. Pretty slick. Quick release makes life easy on the shore and shorting out any tangles that might happen in the water.