Do wing leashes break after a few years use. Any bad experiences.

I only use the dyneema leashes on my board and wing, never a urethane leash as they can break without warning.

- wing leashes never break, as tension is relatively low in all conditions.

- board leashes might break if you fall into a really heavy swell, but this might save you from a serious injury. **** you, board and foil !

I have broken 2 duotone coiled wing wrist leashes in first year of winging. We have big tides so can be a bit of smashing thru white water to get out. Onshore low period chop so you never quite know where waves will break. The leashes break always at the cuff like surf leashes unless they get a big fin/foil chop to weaken them. Both happened on the way in when I came off foil earlier that I wanted but too shallow to restart. You battle the white water to move wing and board to shore (ideally with some separation) but if a good size wave breaks directly on the wing there is not much you can do other than super quickly release the Velcro cuff and hope it washes safely to shore and parks itself there for retrieval at your leisure.
if a leash actually lasted two years I'd donate it to a beginner on flat water.

Wing leashes definitely break. Every time we have an extra windy day in the gorge you see plenty of posts: "lost wing reward if found." I replace mine every year.

I had the swivel end moulding break on my urethane leash after more than 600 hours of use. It looked pretty bad but it didn't come apart. I tried to break it but ended up having to dismantle it to reuse the parts to make other leashes.

I've seen a fair number of escaped wings. In the cases where I could talk to the users the cause was various types of user error. Either the leash wasn't attached properly to the wing, or the cuff slipped off the wrist.

I prefer to use the body board style cuff with the velcro that folds back on itself. It's easy to fasten with one hand. I've made a few custom cuffs and added a flexible dyneema joint so that cuff can be worn tight and the leash flexes easily around my hand position.

As an experiment I made a wing wrist leash using a 7mm SUP coiled leash, mainly for use with my 6m wing. It's a little heavier than the normal urethane leash but it sits nicely and works well. On small wings I just use a heavy duty body board leash. It's very compact and works well.

I used webbing or dyneema leashes with bungie in the start of winging, and tried some again recently when I got a new wing and when I tried a mate's wing. I hate them. The bungie does nothing useful. The floppy leash frequently ends up wrapped around my neck. On more than one occasion I've ended up with one arm tied up. Dyneema can catch on the cuff velcro and tie my hand up. The yank of a wing hitting the end of a non-flexible leash in powered up conditions can be painful.

Using a loose leash works ok attached to your waist, but that introduces it's own problems.

I think manufacturers haven't really put much thought into wing leashes. Most are just re-purposed surfboard leash components. The webbing/dyneema ones are more cheap and effective ways to solve a problem they're not really interested in.

I had the velcro cuff of an F-one dyneema wing leash tear open and off my wrist on a 40 knot day. Probably lucky it did. I then extended the velcro (they're only long enough for children) and it almost took my arm off at the shoulder on a similarly windy day. Pick your poison I guess. Certainly a urethane leash would be more forgiving but definitely has a shorter lifespan.

I made my own dyneema leashes for board and wing with the bungee buried inside. Works really well. Board leash spliced onto the board, goes to a kite style quick release to my waist belt. The wing leash goes to a softloop onto my wing and the other end is spliced onto my belt.

I had a urethane one break in a 34kn westerly and watched my new wing cartwheel out over the horizon out to sea ,never to been seen again !

I use the bungee type leashes, (they can wear where the material joins the swivel / the attachment shot cord can wear too) but have seen people loose the wing when taking the cuff off (maybe because of a tangle?), one guy at my spot lost his wing, lucky for him it got caught on the oyster platform but he paddles like 15 minutes to get it and then when he had it a really big gust came and it blew to the next downwind oyster platform, lucky for him it didn't burst, but he paddled another 15 minutes to get it then he had a 20 minute slog upwind to get back to the car park. I just stood on the beach and watched in amazement. Don't let go of your wing!

Are ppl using a 5' surf leash for wings? I don't like the coil Naish ones, my Ennis and Cabrina ones are the best I've used.