New front in surfing’s great leash war opens after Kauli Vaast frees the ankle at Teahupo’o

High performance shortboarders fire away.

One of the most brutal, bloody internecine wars in surfing’s long history is the great battle between those who prize the leg rope and those who think it an abomination. The “leash,” as it is called in America, was introduced during the 1970s as a way to keep surfboards from hightailing it to shore after a wipeout. Some found the convenience wonderful and began shaming those who did not adopt as dangerous cretins. Others found the li’l dangler a poison and hated those who wore.

Now, traditionally the hottest front in this conflict has been amongst longboarders. Yesterday, animosity exploded betwixt high-performance shortboarders.

The spark?

Tahitian heartthrob Kauli Vaast freeing the ankle at Teahupo’o in his heat against Jake Marshall and Kanoa Igarashi. Joe Turpel, Chris Cote, Kaipo Guerrero and the rest of surfing’s most important legal minds tried to sort the reasoning in the booth but all were wrong. As Vaast explained afterward, he finds the leash pointless at the heavy left.

If you ate shit, you just have to take off the leash when the lifeguard picks you up and sometimes it’s hard so that’s why no leash,” the Olympic gold medalist shared.

Makes sense.

David Lee Scales and I discussed, anyhow, during our weekly chat and also spent time speaking about how much Connor Coffin looks exactly like Michael J. Fox’s teenwolf and how Crosby Colapinto looks exactly like this dude from Land of the Lost.

Listen here.