When were leashes first used?

Orange County Register


Q. Many times when I am reading accounts of surfing “back in the day,” it is mentioned that “this was before surf leashes.” I have only surfed for a few years and don't know much about the history of leashes. Can you enlighten me on when they came about and who invented them?

A. Surf leashes came about in the early 1970s. The first one I saw was used by a pro surfer named Roger Adams at a surf contest at Steamers Lane in Santa Cruz. Adams lived up there, and there is a ton of rocks in that area. If you lost your board, it would get creamed. His leash attached to the nose of his board with a suction cup and was attached to his wrist. Wetsuit mogul Jack O'Neill lost an eye using one of these. I have heard that Hawaiian surf legend Joey Cabel had actually used a form of what they once used to tie up pigs around his ankle some years before, when he while surfing dangerous reefs off of Tahiti. Within a few months of seeing Adams use that leash in Santa Cruz, it seemed that everybody was using them, and they had figured out that it worked better attached to the tail of the board and your ankle. The first ones were crude, normally rubber surgical cord which stretched out about a mile. The downside of that was your board would get taken halfway to the beach and then get shot back at you at a zillion miles an hour. Eventually they evolved into what they are today. Who invented it? Many claim to and I don't know for sure. But the first I saw was Roger Adams.

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