I’ve blown out the elastic on countless wing leashes (the cord still holds but elastic snaps). Has that setup been through big wipeouts and held up? I kind of figured the coil dampened the shock on the cord. Might give it a try. Thanks
It’s been good for DW - held up a full season, no drama. Maybe a little more ankle pull than I’d prefer on the heaviest wipeouts, but overall exactly what I’m looking for…just completely weightless, forget it’s there.
I would definitely NOT use this setup prone.
Weird question, but what are people’s reasons for not using a simple short coil leash on the ankle? It’s never been an issue for me proning, downwinding, parawinging, winging etc… Personal preference coming from surfing I suppose - but I feel like foilers like to over complicate things 
It doesn’t bang on the board, it stays out of the way of lines, it’s not really noticeable riding switch, and whenever I end up stepping on it you can just take a moment to move your feet?
I either go no leash or a simple comp leash for prone. But on long DW runs I hate the constant slap of regular or coil leashes. The inviz with a cuff and no coil is as close to no leash as I can get.
For pwanging, any coils will inevitably get wrapped up in the bridles
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Yeah maybe if you’re wearing a waist leash… but the coils are so far away when I’m using an ankle leash that it almost never happens. I’d say 100+ sessions of PWing last year and it’s only ever been tangled in the coils twice? And that was when I was trying something outrageously stupid. And the remedy was to just unstrap my ankle and sort out the tangle while sitting on the board.
No issues with the recoilable leash attached to your back
I like the look of this! Any tips on how you joined the poly cord to the dyneema at the ends? Also, for simplicity I wonder if a swivel is really necessary?
I really like riding with them. But I’ve worn out the velcro on 3 really fast, and snapped the ankle wrap on another. That was a WILD wipeout though.
I’m gonna say 7/10, and I don’t have anything I like riding better other than my homemade ones.
I build them in the dyneema/wing leash style, take the manera cuff off my old ones with new velcro, and repurpose. +30% so they reach my belt, and those have a spliced in soft shackle attachment for the belt connection. I use ankle/wrist usually, and swap to belt for both leashes during drysuit season.
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I made this. I am still using exactly this one. I did rebuild it once because the thin dyneema cord at the end frayed (but didn’t break). I’ve been in some gnarly overhead washer cycles with it, and even had a tombstoning hold-down at Ocean Beach where I got disoriented and had to climb the leash. Stuff I probably shouldn’t be taking an 8ft downwind foil setup through. Point is, this thing is super bomber.
I use the XM rail saver part that comes with a swivel. Perfectly made for this. The thin dyneema gets attached with a lark’s head knot. But when I rebuilt it I used thicker dyneema loops on the ends and just built it onto the rail saver swivel permanently because the loop wouldn’t fit through the hole.
I made a few more leashes for friends, and for those I got a different polyurethane cord stock that is glossy smooth and much easier to snake inside the 5/32” 12 strand braid dyneema. Strongly suggest using smooth cordstock, and also find a way to round of the end you are pushing through or it will snag the strands.
Now to answer your question, I just have the 4mm polyurethane cord snaked inside the 12 strand braid all the way to the end. I use some adhesive lined heat-shrink to finish that off and cut at a 45 deg angle. Then that is bent back on itself and the thin cord is tied in something like a double sheet bend knot. That kind of knot is designed for connecting mismatched diameter cord, and will cinch up tighter. But it isn’t exactly that knot because it’s a loop of cord stock instead. Same idea though. This is the closest picture I could find at the moment, because all the ones I made are finished with adhesive lined heat-shrink, which holds the whole thing together really nicely but hides the knot.
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And now for the question nobody asked. I have been thinking about this for a couple of years ever since I tried the invis leash. I’m pretty sure that I could heat form the coils into this leash and get the same effect. Except that it will never ever break. My biggest issue with the invis leash is that the cord-stock is pretty thin and wouldn’t handle a real wipe-out in surf. I’m so done breaking leashes, that’s probably the most dangerous thing you could do with a foil-board. On a downwind run, it could be catastrophic. In the surf it is potentially extremely dangerous to others besides the swim in.
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Following up on the parawing comments. We just launched the new INVIZ leash with a Coil Cover, designed by Cynbad in Maui, to reduce harness line tangles. Basic design, is that the coil cover extends with the coiled section on the leash, then retracts as the tension on the coil is released. Bridle lines have a much tougher time ruining your session by sticking to the coils. Options - We put the 7mm coil on this leash however we can send it with an 8mm coil if you want more beef. Also, we have a new dyneema loop/rail saver connection option. Now both sides of the board and rider connection can be soft. Feel free to contact me through here or directly with any questions 
. Roy Kaohi Leash
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Can you explain how the fold for the bar works? I didn’t see it in any of the photos.
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Great question, PWing or PWings get stuffed through the top, into the pouch, the bar can also be placed there. However you can see a fold-over spandex flap in front of the pouch. If you position both ends of your bar under this flap, the bar is then capture under this flap nicely. Also makes is easy to grab the bar and reengage your PWing, with less tangling. More photos are on the way.
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After breaking a few leash plugs I adapted with kite pigtails a bungee bypassing the rope shorter to the length it matches the leash length once he elastic is stretched. Lighter and safer than a coil. Pretty much unnoticeable while downwinding.
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This is cool, probably unbreakable and some redundancy with the loop? Should isolate each side.
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great idea! Do you ever find “springback” on it?
I’ve been using a double coil ankle leash and generally found it the best overall compromise but do get annoyed by the slapping of the coil on the board and twice prone foiling had my 66L get pulled aggressively by a wave and get slingshot back at me.
Not a common setup as with PW and Wing I’m not in that critical surf area often and usually prone a much smaller board but it was scary nonetheless and resulted in a big cut on my shin.
The new Kaohi leash looks awesome, will definitely pick one up. The cover should also give some cut protection and sound dampening on the coil and I assume there would be less “springback” having less PU coil than a full double coil leash.
I had my double coil calf leash hit so repeatedly on a certain area of my board it actually caused a ding. I now attach it to my waist so that the coil section doesn’t hit.
I send downwinders in a relatively cold ocean getting relatively far out. On big days I’ve been running two parallel leashes. Surprisingly, not as annoying as I would have though. But I’m thinking to switch to one of the invis leashes then backing up the polyurethane foil with a paracord that wouldn’t ever get taught unless the coil broke. Possibly seeing about stuffing that under the invis parawing cover.
On a podcast Roy from kaohi mention they were looking into new covers that would actually provide some slice protection. The current one they seem to indicate wouldn’t but might give you an indication that you’ve had a slice.
I’ve also had the thought of attaching a really lightweight drogue chute to the dynema section that would only deploy if the polyurethane section broke, that could then use a very thin cord. I’m unsure what size chute would be enough to keep the board from getting away from you in worst case conditions.
I presume nobody has had the dyneema section break? And you can get redundancy on the leash plug itself by having a board with double plugs.