I don’t want my leash to just separate on it’s own!

Lodestone Leashes automatic release leash, paired with a manual quick release belt

A common comment we hear from paddleboarders when they first hear about Lodestone Leashes automatic release SUP leashes is that they never want their leash to release, unless they decide to release it. Once these same people try a Lodestone Leash most of them change their minds. Here is why!

It is a valid concern to not want your leash to release unexpectedly. After all, your leash keeps you connected to your board when you fall, making self-rescue quick and easy. It also provides safety as it keeps you attached to the largest floating thing near you! Another advantage that your leash provides is that in high wind or high flow, it is common for your paddleboard to move away from you faster than you can swim. This is particularly true for inflatable SUPs.

On the flip side, if you are using an ankle leash and your leash gets caught on a moored boat, tree or rock where the water is flowing at only 1mph it is near impossible to reach your ankle against the force of the water to release yourself. A manual quick release waist belt helps to solve this problem, but only partially. They require the paddler to make a decision – something that our testing and real world experience has shown people are very slow to do in the disorientating situation of a leash entrapment.

We have observed that even when operation of a manual quick release is expected, in a controlled test environment, there is normally several seconds of delay before people activate the quick release. This delay gets worse when paddlers are tired or cold, which happens fast in winter, and we have seen cases where people take significant time to find and operate their quick releases in these situations. Add in further risk factors such as cold shock, which literally takes your breath away and makes you incapable of thinking for up to a minute, or possible head impacts which could make you unable to do anything and you can see that manual quick release belts are a major safety improvement over ankle leashes but are far from perfect.

Finally, testing commissioned by Paddle UK has shown that manual quick release belts have an outright release failure rate of around 1%, and a less-than-ideal release in around half of test releases when the belts were not correctly adjusted.

This is where our patent pending magnetic auto-release comes in. By having the correct release force, it is possible to have a system which does not release you accidently. You can paddle, fall and swim normally to your hearts content while remaining attached to your board, but if a leash entrapment occurs and you are held by the leash in flowing water, the release will happen as soon as the force exceeds the release force.

We choose a release of 200 N, which means that anyone wearing a personal flotation device will be head above the water when the release occurs. By using magnets, we ensure that there is extremely low variability in the release, of only 1%, and that the release is clean, meaning that as soon as the release force is exceeded the release happens instantly, with no risk of re-connection, as the attractive force of the two sides of the magnetic connector falls extremely rapidly with distance between them.

Our lab tests, controlled environment tests, real world testing and end user feedback, including a number of real-life leash entrapments all show clean instant release, which is several seconds faster than those using manual quick release belts at their quickest. To us, it is a no-brainer to upgrade to a Lodestone Leash if you paddle anywhere with flowing water. That could be rivers, flowing canals, estuaries or costal locations with significant tidal flows. If you’d like to know more, please do get in touch, or enquire about demo days for you SUP club or community.