Hi Tim, My own, and I far as I can tell the most popular solution among those who use leashes, is a leash from the boat to the paddle, not to the paddler. You want it long enough not interfere with strokes, sweeps and braces, yet short enough not to entangle you when paddling or wet exiting. Bungi cord of a sturdy thickness works, though knots in bungi have a tendency to work themselves out, and must be regularly inspected. There are also squeeze crimpons available for bungi that eliminate this problem. One commercial product uses a sort of super "telephone" curled cord to achieve the variable length. One important point often overlooked with leashes. People imagine the cord need only be strong enough to hold the paddle itself. In fact if you swim in waves and are grasping the paddle, the cord may have the weight of the loaded boat on one end being pulled away from your weight on the other. So both the cord and its attachment point to the boat must be strong. At 08:18 AM 3/24/98 -0800, you wrote: > >I just read "Deep Trouble". What a great book! > >I noticed that many of the accidents turned desparate >when the kayak and/or paddle floated away from the >paddler. This was especially the case when a solo >paddler got into trouble. > >Most of my paddling is done solo, so I want to figure >out how to correctly tether myself to my paddle and my >boat. The trick is to setup the tethering so I won't notice >it under normal conditions (i.e. it has to be comfortable >and out of the way) and so I can untether rapidly should >saftey require me to do so. > >What do the seasoned paddlers on this mail-list do about >tethering? I've never actually seen anyone do it. > >--Tim > >*************************************************************************** >PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List >Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net >Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ >*************************************************************************** > **************************************** Mountain Equipment Co-op 1655 West 3rd Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6J 1K1 Tel: 640-732-1989 Fax: 604-731-6483 email: pid_at_mec.ca Visit our website at: http://www.mec.ca ***************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Mar 24 1998 - 09:29:09 PST
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