Should Surfboard Leashes Have Expiration Dates?

How many of you have been stranded in the wave breaking zone after a wipeout?? I know I've had my fair share of involuntary swims to retrieve my surfboard before it hits the rocks.

I decided to write about the durability of surfboard leashes after learning about the technical aspects while producing high-quality surf gear for our customers. Having expiration dates on leashes would be favourable for us as consumers but probably unfavourable for the surf brands because of the logistical procedures they would have to implement in order to avoid stocking expired products.

In a survey made by a magazine a few years ago, 99% of the respondents said they used leg ropes on a regular basis, and break between 2 and 10 per year.

Generally, when our leashes break (and I’m not talking about the cases in which waves are above normal size and leashes inevitably break with their strength) it is because:

1. The urethane cord is in bad conditions and this causes the otherwise resistant material to break! This is caused by the decomposition of the TPU (Thermoplastic polyurethane) material with which they are made! More about this further on!!
2. The leashes get nicked by a reef, etc leaving a small fissure on the plastic that ends up splitting the cord after sustained tensions.
3. The leashes are made of inferior material, also more about this in a bit.

 Let me get into a bit more detail without wanting to get too boring or technical:

After years of testing and experimenting with different “plastics”, TPU is the go to material for making leashes, because of very good wear resistance; high tensile strength; hardness that can be adjusted; excellent damping behavior, high resistance to cracking/crack propagation; and it is also hydrolysis resistant, which means that it can safely be used with drinking water. Not that we surf in our bathtubs but it seems to be “environmentally friendly” at least.

TPU can resist for 1-2 years of normal use UNDER PERFECT CONDITIONS (how often does that happen??) but this becomes much lower when we keep them in direct sunlight, in hot temperatures (which happens often when you live in tropical beaches), high humidity (dido), contact with soil, etc! This applies to how we store them in our homes but also to how they are stored before and after they reach the surf shops! So even in the best conditions, they have a maximum estimated life cycle of 2 years. I have leashes that I haven’t used for while and even though I keep them in pretty good conditions they end up breaking after my first surf session. Now that I’m more aware of this, every time I’m going to use a leash that has been stored for a few months, after careful inspection I can tell right away if the TPU has deteriorated and that it will probably leave me hanging after my first wipeout or unfinished manoeuvre.

Another cause for easy breakage of the leg ropes is the use of inferior raw materials during the production. What does this mean?!?! Urethane cords are made by extruding ( using a layman’s term: melting) TPU pellets. The most common shortcuts used by cheaper factories are:

1. These pellets come in different qualities depending on the purity of the material. The purer the pellets, the more resistant the cord will be, but the more expensive it will be to produce. Cheaper leg ropes are made with inferior pellets which are cheaper to buy for the factories.
2. The pellets must be “fresh” because the lifecycle of the cord (that hasn’t even been made yet) starts ticking right after the pellets are made (even though they haven’t been extruded).
3. Some factories use recycled pellets because they are cheaper thus making the product of inferior quality. In some cases factories “recycle” finished cords if they end up defective after the extrusion process.
4. Factories extrude the cords in advance of the production of the leashes, storing them until they get an order and they can be used to assemble the finished leash. This inevitably shaves time off the life cycle of the finished product.

You may ask yourself why would a factory do this?!?!

It all translates to the final price of the finished leashes. The cheaper pellets, recycled TPU, etc allow the factories to offer a lower priced leash to their customers. That is one of the reasons some factories are able to offer considerably lower prices. In some cases, the prices vary between 10% and 20%! The factories will never give you all these details but this is the reality behind the lower prices. You get what you pay for!

As Papa John says, "better ingredients make a better pizza" or a better leash in this case.

The logistics involved in getting the leashes from the production factory to the retail outlet/ online shop of your choosing could also affect the durability of the leashes. The supply chain would go something like this:

1. Leashes are produced in factories and then they are loaded into shipping containers.
2. The containers arrive in their destination ports and then they must go through Customs clearance, etc! Just these two first steps could take anywhere from 1 to 3 months.
3. The leg ropes are stored in warehouses and wait to receive the orders from their customers. Some leashes could probably be in the warehouse anywhere from 1 week to a few months, depending on the demand and on the inventory system they use.
4. The retailers make and receive their orders, and they, in turn, must store the accessories they buy until the final consumer (you and me) makes a purchase. This could probably again take from 1 week to a few months!
5. So far we’re talking about between 2 and more than 6 months. This means that the leash you end up buying has much less than a 2-year life cycle just because of the logistics of getting the goods from the factory to your hands.
6. There are several other steps in other cases that can shorten the lifespan of the leash by another considerable amount of time!
7. Afterwards, depending on how you store them, you’re shortening the life cycle further!!

 As you can see it’s not easy being a leash, and as consumers, we are buying a product that has a much shorter lifecycle than would be optimum in some cases. It gets even worse when you have to buy a leash in a surf shop in some remote beach destination.

So that is why I ask the question, should leashes/leg ropes have an expiration date printed on the packaging? It would definitely help us final consumers have a better understanding of what we are really buying to assure we aren’t left hanging in the wrong place at the wrong time!

If you want to order some high quality, factory direct surf supplies get in touch with me to figure out exactly what you need and the best way of getting it made! We have selected the factories we work with after placing orders with a significant number of them and only choosing the ones offering the best quality surf accessories and the most responsible, sustainable, and professional work culture! The factory we work the leg ropes, board bags and deck pads with is the same one used by most of the major surf brands.