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When you surf from a boat, things are a bit different most of the time… specifically, you don’t have direct access to surf gear when you need it! To fix this, we carry several spares and stock up whenever we can. The waves we like to surf aren’t usually near civilisation — they’re pretty remote.
Without further ado, shall we run through the key things we make sure to stock up on and have ready?
Related:
Top 5 Surf Destinations We’ve Found While Sailing (So Far)
Surfboards on a Catamaran: How We Store and Care for Them
How We Transport Surfboards by Dinghy Without Damaging Them
#1. Wax
Let’s start simple. Wax isn’t renewable, and with six boards in regular use being waxed once or twice a day, well, it disappears rather quickly. As we surf around the equator most of the time, the tropical surf wax we like to have on hand is this stuff.
It works amazingly and we’ve never had any reason to change. So, we try to grab four blocks or more whenever we’re in a surf store — that’ll usually keep us going for a bit.
#2. Leashes
Next on the list are leashes — or leggies (yes, that’s what we call them). It really, really sucks when you snap one, but we’ve found it kind of inevitable and it always seems to happen when you don’t have a spare. Hence, we do our very best to have at least one ready just in case!
The leash brands I’ve found to last the longest and have the most comfortable cuffs are FCS and Dakine.
#3. Spare Fins
Fins are expensive, I know! Which makes losing or snapping them all the more annoying. But once again, these things happen when you’re ripping holes in waves (right?). So, we keep a very random selection of spare fins that’ll work if we need them — you know, one blue right-hand Future, an orange middle FCS, etc. We’d make it work if we had to — and that’s the main thing: have what you need so you can figure it out.
That said, I haven’t lost a fin in absolutely ages, so I thought I’d tell you what I’m currently riding: FCS II Performer. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a jumble, but I like them a lot and find them perfect for me at the moment. I’ve also ridden the FCS II Mick Fanning design, which both look cool and perform like crazy. I’d take either of those options!
#4. Repair Gear
It’s probably obvious, but if there aren’t any surf stores, then it’s unlikely there are going to be surf repair stores. So, we take everything we might need to repair our boards — glass, epoxy, resin, fin boxes — and after much learning, I’m happy to say we’re not too bad at repairing now.
Along with those advanced repair items, we also carry a simple surfboard repair kit we found while browsing a surf store recently. Combined, these mean we’re not out of the water for long.
#5. Suncream and Smiles
Yes, I actually came up with that cheesy headline (you’re welcome), but there’s some truth to it! Running out of suncream or zinc would be a tragedy, so make sure you always have at least one spare tube or stick — or both.
And smiles, of course — take these with you always. Even when spending too much at a surf store because you haven’t seen one in months and this is your first chance to replenish your gear stash.
There you have it!
Those are the surf essentials we always keep onboard. We also have a couple of spare boards and some very good stories of when things haven’t quite gone as planned — like the time we tried using chopsticks as dowels to keep a snapped board together… but that’s a whole other story!
I hope you gained a little bit of wisdom from this post and feel more prepared next time you head out to surf a remote spot. If there’s something you’d add to the list or a story you want to share, drop it in the comments — I’d love to hear it!
You like experimenting. Rather than spending a lot of money, how about making up a leash using a 6 foot length of 3mm Dyneema with an eye in each end, and two soft shackles:, one from 6mm or 8mm Dyneema for your ankle, for comfort under strain, and the other from 3mm Dyneema for the board end.
Absolutely guaranteed not to break! The 3mm Dyneema will handle 1100 kg or 2500 pounds!
And it floats.
I know that you already know how to make soft shackles so this should be easy. No metal parts and no velcro to disintegrate in the sun.
Wow! You’ve really thought this through. What a great idea. I agree with you that this would be very strong and probably last longer. I’ll let you know if I ever give it a go 😊
On further thought: I don’t know how the leash attaches to the board, but it seems to use a loop. You could forego the small size soft shackle by using a long eye in the end of the leash and ‘luggage-tagging’ it to the board. Semi-permanent and strong.
For the ankle end, if one soft shackle point loads your ankle a little too much, use two soft shackles in parallel around your ankle. (Or use the velcro fastening ankle strap from one of your broken leashes with a 3mm soft shackle to tag it to the leash!)
Further further thought! (Needed coffee this morning…). If you have the ankle strap from a broken leash, you can get by with just making the leash portion. The leash has a small eye for the board end of the leash, to be used in luggage-tag style, and a larger eye for the ankle end, made just large enough to slip onto the ankle strap. So if the ankle strap is 50mm tall, you make the eye with a loop only ~53-55mm long when stretched flat. The loop is then a tight slide-on fit onto the strap and it will (probably?) not tend to slide around on the strap. Obviously you do not need the metal plate and spike which anchored the leash previously. You can probably cut that right out without doing too much damage. Cut at one end and slide the plate out through the slit? You may need to do some stitching to repair things. Or just cut the spike off close to the base and file it smooth.
This reduces your replacement leash to one piece of dyneema. About 8′ of dyneema for two long bury eye splices, and some time. I would guess that you already have some off-cuts or ends of small dyneema floating around on Happy Days.
It struck me this afternoon that there may be a nice little business here for you. I just took a look at some web-sites and I was shocked to see how much a soft shackle can cost. I have always made my own for my sailboat. Most of the cost on-line is for the manufacture, as the actual cost of the materials is relatively low.
Forget using the ankle strap from an old commercial leash. Make your own strap in the form of a soft shackle big enough to go around your ankle snugly, from a thicker dyneema which will not bite on your ankle. Dad will need a bigger shackle than Pip!
But as a sideline business, I think you could be surprised at how many surfers will want to buy a a no-velcro, no-metal, no fancy rubber leash, that floats. Especially if they are somewhere far away from a surf shop, or access to Amazon or eBay! They might want to buy one just to have a bullet proof spare available.
Say 8 feet of thin stuff for the leash, and about 6 feet of say 5mm for the ankle strap and some whipping thread. My old (and fat) ankle needs a 14″ circumference so ~28 inches plus the knot. Probably need about 18″ of rope to tie the button knot! I ought to take measurements of the needed length. Posted somewhere on-line, iirc.
I bought a reel of 5mm from qiquoffroad.shop a couple of years ago for under $1.00 US per metre., while local chandlers were $1.12 *per foot*. I note that their website cannot be reached today, probably part of the great Amazon crash going on. They have rope sizes down to 2mm iirc for about $0.40 per metre. (Replace some kite-lines too?)
That reel of rope made up some great spinnaker sheets and main sheet for my sailboat. (Anything smaller is too hard on the hands.) I double it up where it is most often handled by sliding a another length of the rope inside, making the doubled part 8mm in diameter while the main part is just the 5mm. The thicker part cleats better while the thin part runs better!
I bet you could make some nice money offering these hand made board leashes at say half to two-thirds the on-line price of a commercial leash which would be a little more than the price of a much smaller soft shackle alone. Good luck. (No I won’t claim a royalty for the idea!)
Or then again, you could make some up and put in with your other merch!