The kayak paddle leash guide

The problem a leash solves

Losing a paddle on open water is worse than it sounds, and it is specifically bad because of the feedback loop: you have no paddle, so you cannot chase the paddle. On any breeze at all, a light paddle blows downwind faster than you can hand-paddle after it.

It happens when you put the paddle down to fish, take a photograph, adjust a strap, or drink something. A leash costs very little and removes the whole category of problem.

When you should absolutely take it off

Surf, whitewater, and any moving water with obstructions.

This is not a hedge. A leash attaches you, or your boat, to a three-meter-long floating object by a line. In current, that line can wrap a rock, a branch or a strainer, and it can wrap you. Entanglement in moving water is one of the genuinely serious hazards in paddling, and it is far worse than losing a paddle.

The rule most river paddlers use, and the right one: no loose lines in moving water. That covers leashes, anchor lines and tow lines. If you paddle both flat and moving water, clip the leash on for one and leave it in the car for the other.

If you carry any line at all, carry a knife you can reach one-handed, clipped to your PFD. That is on the safety kit checklist for exactly this reason.

Coiled or flat, and where to attach it

Coiled leashes retract like an old telephone cord and keep the slack off the deck, which is what you want — loose line lying across a deck is what snags. Most kayak-specific leashes are coiled.

Flat webbing leashes are cheaper and lie in a heap. Fine on a big open sit-on-top, worse in a cockpit.

Attach to the boat, not to yourself. A leash from the paddle to a deck fitting means a capsize separates you from a tethered boat-and-paddle unit, which you then swim to. A leash from the paddle to your body means you are the anchor, and that is the arrangement that causes problems.

Clip it to a deck line, a padeye or a gear track — something structural. Not to a bungee, which stretches, and not to a seat strap, which is not made for it.

What fails on cheap leashes

The line itself almost never fails. Two other things do:

The clips. Cheap plated carabiners and snap hooks corrode, particularly in salt water, and a corroded gate either seizes shut or fails to close. Rinse them, and replace them when the gate stops snapping crisply. This is a consumable.

The shaft attachment. Velcro cuffs stretch and let go; plastic clips crack in UV. A leash that stays on the deck while the paddle floats away has failed at exactly one job.

The alternatives worth knowing

A paddle clip or paddle park. A molded plastic clip on the side of the boat that the shaft snaps into. Common on fishing kayaks and better than a leash for the specific case of stowing the paddle while you cast, because there is no line at all. It will not hold in rough water.

Deck bungees. Free, already on most boats, and adequate for a moment’s stowage on flat water. Sliding the blade under the front bungee is what most people do and it is fine for what it is.

A spare paddle. Not a substitute for a leash, but it is the answer to the underlying fear. A four-piece paddle under the deck bungees weighs little and means a lost paddle is annoying rather than serious. On a long trip, carry one regardless of whether you use a leash.

The short version

• Open lake or slow river, and you fish or take photos: use a coiled leash, attached to the boat.
• Surf, whitewater, anything with current and obstructions: no leash, and carry a knife.
• Long trip anywhere: carry a spare paddle, leash or not.