The invention of the kook cord: a leash history

Before there were kook cords, power ropes, or sissy strings, there was just you, the board, and a long-ass swim every time you wiped out. In today’s episode, we unravel the tangled, sometimes controversial history of the surf leash—aka the thing that keeps your board from bashing into rocks (or someone’s head).

From the leash’s clunky and dangerous early prototypes to the day Pat O’Neill accidentally blinded his dad, this episode covers how surfers went from proudly leashless to grudgingly—and then fully—leashed. We’ll hear from Corky Carroll’s 1972 take, unpack the “leashes are for dogs” debate, and figure out if going leashless today still counts as core… or just kooky.