Loose board and a ticket.

[Ucycle]

Cruising back from a small wave session and look up through my sunroof and saw the board was wobbling on my roof rack.  So i make my way to the slow lane of course it came off right when i was slowing down.  It flew off without hitting any cars and slide onto the center medium.  So i did what normal people would do, call the CHP to help getting the board back.  After he got my board, he ask for my registration and license which i found weird.  He came back minutes later with a ticket for "Dropping of load on highway".  Thanks so i got a broken board which i just brought today and a citation($200).  What a day.
The good thing is i had a blast surfing it this morning.  Seem like a trend for me, every time i buy a used board, it will break right after the first session.
Need to dust off my repair stand and get thing back in the water.

[LaPerouseBay]

Sorry about the board.

But this may cheer you up. 

[Fishman]

That sucks. Do you no why or how it came loose?

[Ucycle]

i use the one rope tie down method shown by blue planet video, i been doing this method for 2 yr.  It have loosen by itself after a long drive(30-45min) especially on shorter sup where the rear part of the tie down will close to fall off.  once the back strap loose tension, the whole system have nothing to hold on to.  Im going back with two strap method(one tie down per cross bar) a least if one fail the whole system doesnt fail at the same time like the one strap method.  I think one tie down method work great for short drive or local street. 

[Wood_Ogre]

A husband and wife were killed today when a standup paddle board came off a car and smashed through the window of their car. Their 2 children in the back seat were badly injured when the car ran off the road. Police arrested the driver of the other car for negligent homicide . The driver said he was sorry !!
You were luck to get off with a $200 ticket and damaged board !!

[tautologies]

A husband and wife were killed today when a standup paddle board came off a car and smashed through the window of their car. Their 2 children in the back seat were badly injured when the car ran off the road. Police arrested the driver of the other car for negligent homicide . The driver said he was sorry !!
You were luck to get off with a $200 ticket and damaged board !!

woa..that sucks...where was this?

[supthecreek]

I have used the single strap method for years, but if I am doing any highway driving I always put a second  strap on the front.... as a fail safe. Shit happens.

Sorry about the board on day one... bummer for sure

[PonoBill]

I think a single tiedown is flat out dangerous. A single point of failure and it's gone, the board can go without warning.  Not to rub it in when you've had a bad thing happen, but I really don't see where how far you're going comes into the picture. If a board can come off your rack the distance traveled  doesn't matter much, other than there's more time for stuff to get loose--but that means you start with something you know is secure, and then add to it.  I use centrally tied ropes that pass though guide loops to a cleat, and I run the rope from the cleat back up to the guide loop and tie it off. When I'm going a long distance or might leave the truck unattended I add a steelcore tiedown as well, with the latch locked both to ensure it doesn't pop open and for security.

It's been a very long time since I lost a board off a vehicle. Probably 30 years. I've had plenty of them loosen up, but that's just a matter of finding a safe place to pull over and tightening things down.

When I'm renting a car I use an inflatable carrier, and then run a tiedown to the nose of the car.

The first time I saw someone use a single tiedown it was windsurfing with a friend about 30 years ago. He tied his board down that way, very quick and cool. He laughed at me for using two tiedowns and tying off the ends so carefully. Hid board came off my van ion I84, about halfway to the Gorge while I was doing about 70. Brand new Angulo. Turned to junk.

[Ucycle]

This is good lesson learn for me and nobody got injure due to my airborne SUP(except stopping the fwy traffic for a minute while the officer pick up my board).  If this incident didn't happen, im sure it will happen in the future if i had keep doing the single tie off method.  thinking back, only the board got damage and not someone car, or some body.  Im still amaze how it flew off in the middle of freeway and landed in the center medium without hitting anyone.

Today i used a single tie down but more like a double tie down method where i loop through the front bar first and tie it off to a figure 8 loop .  Then i run the same tie down back to the rear bar and do the same thing.  The failure point have to start at the rear bar first and have to loosen all 5-7 knots before the board can fly off. 

[Fishman]

Last week I used the single strip method for the first time. (first time I had straps long enough) . I had just received my 16' steel core straps and wanted to try them out.

They did get  loose after just 1 mile. Maybe a little cause they were new and stiff making them hard to get the slack out. But it dawned on me that my racks can slide together, and if and when the do, that single strap method will allow slack.
  Anyway back to 2 regular straps for me, and when i use the steel straps, it going to be in addition to the regular straps. Good lesson for me too.       

[linter]

Last week I drove home to RI from FL and nearly had my SUPs fly off twice.

First time, I looked out my front window and both boards were floating up at 45 degrees or more to the hood of the car.  Slowed fast on RT 95.  Got out.  Freaking front-rack crossbar had come off the side rails!  Jesus!!!  Got em back on but they wouldn't tighten down, so I got out the webbing straps and criss-crossed everything together.

Second time, rear tie-down strap came off one of the boards, which loosened up the front strap.  Heard terrible racket, slowed down fast on RT 95 again, got out.  Freaking back 2/3 of board was hanging off the right side of the car, about to come entirely loose.  Jesus, pt 2!!!

Thing of it is, I checked the rails and the straps and everything before taking off on the trip.  All I can gather is, bad things happen to weird people!

[loosehead]

this one is a classic.caution some foul language

[waterman60]

It pays hugh dividends to check the racks, type and method of your tie downs.  These boards are subject to extreame pressure and leverage when strapped or tied to a moving vehicle moving at high speed and vibration.  I live in an area where hyway 1 on the Central coast CA is heavaly used by vacationers with everything but the kitchen sink tied on and behid the cars/truck/rv's.  Not to mention the trailers overloaded with what ever.   Sometimes its funny to see, tehn others times it's flat scary.  Comes under the heading what were they thinking.  The hyways are littered with debris that was secured improperly. Rigging was a large part of my career, so I pay attention to how people secure there whares when traveling.   It's pretty amazing how some secure there hard earned posessions.   For that reason, when I see something like the Beverly Hilbilies on the road I keep my distance.  This goes back to early windsurfing days when I'm sure everyone has seen some guy drive up with 4 or more sailboards with loosly tied on with cheap thin line(rope).   Fast forward to 2013 have seen small cars with 4 boards tied up with the ties to so close it almost looks like one pivot point.   Most always make the trip fine.  Then you hear about some that don't.   Do some research into rigging and protect you investment (expensive boards) and the safety of others.
It makes for a more happy ending to good day of fun.

Then there is the topic of handling these boards on a windy day.  It interesting see how far one of these boards will fly trying to load a board or two atop
a van or truck if its gets away from you when the wind picks up.  But thats another topic for another day. 

Be safe my friends !

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

Unless I'm going a very short distance, I use two straps *per board*. If I have more than two boards on my roof I pass a seventh strap around the whole shebang and through the passenger cabin while the doors are open. This final strap warns me if anything untoward is happening up top. I have never had a problem with losing a board, and have never had a board even get loose since I adopted this strategy. Yes, it takes two minutes longer, but so what?

I've even got good at taking my board off the roof, leaving the bag on the roof still in the straps. I just loosen the straps enough to slide the board out, then tighten them again when I'm packing up.

[waterman60]

Planning & execution can save one money, time and pain = more fun !