safety note: use of surf leash in windy conditions.

When coming in I straighten out all the leashes and lines on my kayak and get my feet over to the right side ready to hop off.  Then I pre-emptively jump out before a wave takes me out, and jump out as soon as I'm in knee/waist deep water no matter what.  A lot of people get tossed in knee deep water and that's silly when you can just stand up, put your shoulder into the wave, catch the back handle as it goes by and lift the back of the kayak up and over the wave.   

I have been dumped in the surf enough to know that even with a 30 lb. weight belt on I am no anchor in the pounding surf. Those waves will do what they want with you when they want. My advice is not to be tethered to anything when entering or exiting the surf. If you get dumped in the surf, get yourself to shore. The waves will bring the yak close enough for you to make a grab at it.

If you get dumped in the surf, get yourself to shore.

....and never get in between the kayak and the shoreline or you will end up getting knocked out like a bowling pin 

All of this is one reason the kayaks do not get a nice welcoming reception from the surfers.

"Hi, surfers. I'm a kooky kayaker and I'd like to kill you all with my out of control primary colored plastic dorky boat".

yeah.  .   

I got run over and a skeg busted off by a kayaker myself. 

Of course, I've had to dodge kooky out of control surfers a lot too, one reason I typically stay away from lindamar
on my surfboard. also that the waves kind of suck.

But If I have to come in in big surf on the yak, I'll use the leash for a bit. If the dragging is too brutal, I'll unleash and let the kayak
hurtle to shore and kill anybody there. But otherwise, you should be able to control the approach to shore,
at least until the leash snaps.

J

I love it when people talk about the  current being able to rip your kayak away. Let me see, now, I'm in the water and my kayak is in the water and the current is pulling my boat away!? I don't think so!!! Current is like an escalator, everything in it goes the same speed, and that's true no matter how much deeper in the water one thing is over another.

As for leashes, I can see a need for them, but I won't be using one. I windsurfed for years and I never lost my board. That's because when I hit the water, I have one priority in mind, grab the rig! Some people don't seem to be able to maintain that focus. Now, a paddle leash, you bet, the possibilities for losing your paddle are beyond focusing on because there are so many ways to do it and it's so easy, especially when fishing and landing fish.

I also have another automatic response to surf, when I go under I come up with my arms over my head and look out to sea as soon as I can to check for my kayak. Every now and then weird things happen and the boat is behind you. Even though, this is a rare thing, it is an ingrained action and I always do it. I think it has to do with my first surfing attempt when the board hit me in the chin because I was standing behind it and the wave.

Anyway, I think some people have a natural focus in situations that could be life threatening. I think it's a trait they are born with and develop. Then I see some people that lose themselves in the moment and don't have this focus. Maybe they are a little more zen like and live outside themselves more. Possibly they are the discovers. My dad had a friend like this. He would always get lost when they went hunting. It was because he got into the birds and things around him, he was always finding arrow heads and spears. He just didn't have time to remember where he was!

basilkies

I think he was talking wind here

and take my word, the wind can blow your kayak away faster than you can swim after it even if you're sporting fins

Yah, I knew that, I guess I didn't get clear on that. You think the wind can take your kayak away, take a fall in 40 mile an hour wind on a windsurfer and give your board a chance to do one flip, it's goine!!! I learned to come up with my arm making the first swim stroke in the direction of my board and make the quick grab. In comparison a kayak would be a cake walk.

I do one more thing that a lot of guys on this forum don't seem to like, I wear a full wet suit all the time. So I do have insurance against kayak loss.

The windsurfer sail has a lot of drag  in the water. so when it lands in the water, it's not blowing anywhere.
it's like a drift sock.

the kayak does not have such a thing unless you actually have a drift sock out.
The leashed paddle dragging might slow it down a bit.

I wear a full wetsuit in the ocean more or less too, but when I didn't have anybody to fish with and I was
heading out of Moss to salmon fish way out there for the first time,  I really did not want to get separated from the yak.
I had thought about leashing before so I tried it that day.  and on each trip out of Moss I have done it.

For the longer ocean trips, I will continue to leash to the kayak.  It didn't get in the way,
I think it was definitely safer than not leashing, hence this post for those that want to take that safety step.

Your mileage my vary (YMMV).

J

The windsurfer sail has a lot of drag  in the water. so when it lands in the water, it's not blowing anywhere.
it's like a drift sock.

the kayak does not have such a thing unless you actually have a drift sock out.
The leashed paddle dragging might slow it down a bit.

 (YMMV).

J

If the wind isn't blowing much the sail will drag. A second if, is if it lands in the water, sometimes it lays  on the board  and doesn't drag. But the big issue is strong wind that flips the board and sail up river in cartwheels, there is no drag then. I would say, you have twice the chance of losing a sailboard over a kayak. I have seen many more sailboards blown away than kayaks.

and never get in between the kayak and the shoreline or you will end up getting knocked out like a bowling pin 

The black eye I got last summer can vouch for that.
Jmairey, where do you attach your ankle leash on the boat? It seems like if it's on the side somewhere, that increases the chance of getting dragged if a breaking wave inundates you. Maybe a bow or stern attachment is better? I haven't really considered an ankle leash before, but now that I have a nicer boat, I'm more aware of not wanting to lose it (3 miles from shore in the red triangle thinking about the economic side of things).
I attach my paddle leash on the starboard side, and when I rolled my new yak coming in on it's maiden voyage tank diving with Mike and Promethe at Del Monte a few weeks ago, my quite-strong paddle leash snapped. On my next voyage the replacement leash came unhooked 5 minutes into the day as I scooched up to the bow to get my gear out of the hatch. I looked over and saw my new Swift paddle floating 20' away from the boat.
I've been knocked off my old boat several times by big swells or breaking waves. Always managed to get right back on, but I don't think it ever happened in a high wind. I've also been entangled. I'm really up in the air on this boat leash issue.  As I oufit the new boat, I'm noticing how there's lines going eveywhere, and it spooks me a bit. Last summer I got the shot line from my speargun wrapped around my face/snorkel/mask with the shaft stuck in a ling deep under a rock (on a breath-hold). I ended up yanking the mouthpiece off the snorkel trying to get untangled; I did not act in a calm smart manner.
Similar thing last summer in Channel Islands, yanked into the densest kelp by my first WSB; didn't want to let go of the float line but should have. Just trying to keep my mouth above water, the kelp wrapped around my fins, body, mask, snorkel, everything; and the fish pulling me deeper into the kelp mat. A big dangerous mess.
 So easy to drown inches from the surface.
It's really a toss-up for me on the ankle leash thing. Swimming a few miles in a wetsuit with no weight belt or fins and a PDF doesn't sound too easy either.

if it's big a long bow line does the trick

Does that mean you jump off before you get flipped and just hold onto that bow line and swim through? Tell me your technique 'cause I'm really wondering how to do this at places like Bolinas on days like today. Does the kayak have less of a tendency to flip if there's no one on it?

Were you at Bolinas today?

No not yesterday at Bolinas. Just once; last year. It was way calm, but sometimes that means the fish don't bite (such as that day). I could see the potential for nastiness at the mouth (to say the least).
 So you come in at the beach before you hit the mouth sometimes? I guess I was so entranced by what a short walk/easy launch it was from the lagoon I didn't even notice what plan B looked like.
Do you do the surf landing with your rudder down or up? Now that I have one I'm wondering about that.