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| Palm Quick SUP Belt |
At the end of 2022 Palm Equipment sent me their Quick SUP belt and leash to replace their original belt that I had been using for years. The original had somewhat generous sizing and my increase in fitness meant that it no longer fitted me, it was too large!
I have paddled hundreds and hundreds of KM with the new version and I completely forgot to write a full review! That in itself is an indication of how easy this belt is to live with, it became part of the routine.
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| Palm Quick SUP belt and Quick SUP leash |
What is it?
The Quick Belt is part of a system from Palm that is designed to connect the Stand Up Paddler safely to their board in any conditions. Their system comprises three parts, a Palm Quick belt, the Quick SUP Leash and a series of accessories that can be attached to the belts.
There are three belts for Stand Up Paddlers in the Palm Belt series, The Quick Pro Belt, The Quick Rescue Belt and the Quick SUP Belt. I have the last in the series, you can find out more about the other belts in this video from Palm
Why a Quick Release Belt
The leash was invented by surfers to keep their board near them after falling and to stop that board from carrying on without them, it prevents a loose board from hitting other surfers. As SUP grew it was an obvious thing to use, the roots of SUP paddling are in the ocean and in deep water an ankle or calf leash works well.
But in shallow water or water with any flow then a traditional leash can become a hazard, dragging behind the board it can snag on an obstacle and in moving water that can be very dangerous particularly if you are on one side of that obstacle and your board it on the other side. Trying to pull yourself against even a slow-flowing current to reach your ankle is incredibly hard, trust me on this and don’t try it!
Attaching your leash to a belt that you can quickly release if you need to is a good way to attach yourself to a board but it is not perfect, there are situations where no leash is safer.
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| The Palm Quick SUP Belt and Quick Leash |
Belts are simple, right?
A belt is very simple, we use them every day to hold our trousers up! However, the requirements of a belt for your pants are a little different than those for paddling. The primary function of one is to stay done up, the primary function of the other is to be quickly and reliably undone!
And ‘reliably’ is the key word in that last sentence. If you get into a situation where you need to get rid of the belt then it needs to go immediately. That would not be a good time for hook and loop fixings to snag or re-attach themselves or for complicated buckles or for you to need to see what you are doing to undo the belt.
Other advantages
Elevating the point that the paddler is attached to the lease has other benefits, not just the speed at which you can release it. By lifting the leash you stop it from dragging in the water removing the chance it will snag on anything and it is less likely to get under your feet on step-back turns. This is why more and more racers are using belt systems.
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| Original Palm SUP belt and the newer Quick SUP Belt |
Evolution of the Palm belt
The original one was a simple, good design. You fed your existing hook and loop leash through part of the belt and went paddling. There were two quick-release straps, one to release the leash and one to remove the belt. And it worked really well but it was always a bit big.
The new Quick SUP belt is lighter (219g V 298g on my scales), more adjustable and now has purpose-built attachment points to fix things to it; throw lines, utility bag, and drink holder for example. It is a step forward in SUP safety equipment
The quick release has been rethought and is no longer part of the size adjustment for the belt, the dedicated release now features a short tail that will not snag and the same yellow plastic ball release, pull and it goes. From the Palm website
Our clean tail safety release system separates the quick release and the waist adjustment buckle, so that the quick release tail is always the right length and the belt can be easily adjusted for large or small people with the spare webbing neatly coiled away.
The leash attachment is completely different, there is a dedicated point to attach the Palm Quick SUP leash or you can still wrap your traditional leash around the belt, not elegant but it works.
The choice of materials have improved over the years too, the old one held a bit of water and took a while to dry out, the new one is much better in this regard, better for daily use.
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| Velcro auto-release |
The Leash
The first thing that you will notice is that this is not a polyurethane leash from surfing! The Palm leash is an elasticated webbing leash weighing 80g that has a ‘rail saver’ cord at both ends, no metal swivels or fixings. Both ends have hook and loop fixings that Palm describes as ‘velcro auto release’, this means that under pressure the velcro will separate, an automatic release in a bad situation. The load that will cause auto-release is adjustable up to 0.5kN. I too have no idea how much force that is, it equates to just over 50kg of force and I trust that Palm have worked out that this is a good number for a SUP paddler in trouble.
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| Palm Quick SUP Leash |
Palm have also spent some time working out how long those auto-release bits need to be, copied from the Palm website
Much as I like the elasticated leash and auto-release it is not a system that I use for down-wind paddling preferring to use the belt with a traditional, surf-style leash where I want full control over the release from the board. In the ocean the chances of snagging on an obstacle are virtually nil.
Attachments
MOLLE is the acronym used in the description for the attachment points and I’ve googled it for you - Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. When you look for it you will find MOLLE stuff everywhere, how much is useful for a SUP paddler might depend on where you paddle!
But it does mean it is really easy to attach stuff to the belt, I’ve only used it for my RESTUBE but I now know that I can attach almost anything if I want to.
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| Palm Quick SUP Belt matched perfectly with my EO SUP Nebula race board. |
On the water
This is the most important aspect of any equipment, what is it like to use. This leash system has become part of the routine, training, paddling in bad weather, every time I paddle on a river and when swapping between boards this belt has been there. It is very, very comfortable, it is very easy to use and the leash works well when I’ve been in the water, no accidental releases.
There is one niggles with the board, and it is only a niggle. It is possible to adjust the belt so that there is a plastic fixing on your hip, not a problem if you are carrying an inflatable any distance but that plastic will rub against a hardboard and I have a buckle-sized imprint on one of my boards, as soon as I worked out what was going on I re-adjusted the belt and all good now.
Not yet convinced by waist leashes?
This video demonstrates the value of a quick-release leash in a controlled, safe environment. Well worth a watch.
Conclusion
Leashes are an important bit of safety equipment and using the right leash is vital if things go wrong. The Palm Quick SUP Belt and Quick SUP Leash are a very good way to keep you and your board together and it performs exactly as it should when needed. Highly recommended.
You can see all of Palm's excellent equipment on their website here and on their social media channels, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.