It wasn't until about the mid nineties after the death of a famous Hawaiian surfer that the surfing community began to adopt the quick release leash.
Basically, the quick release leashallows a surfer to quickly release their surf board's strap/leash should it get caught under water on something thus potentially drowning the unfortunate surfer.
It seems like a pretty logical and straightforward solution to a potentially deadly problem today, but just over a decade ago it was something that nobody really considered until a prominent death brought the issue to light.
I believe that we have two similar problems in need of a immediately solution in the sport of triathlon.
Let me illustrate the first problem by another sport that I love...that of riding a dirt bike on my local mountain trials.
I suppose I really enjoy dirt biking because the effort involved is so much less than cycling. It is such a true and satisfying pleasure to be able to simply twist my right wrist to make a two wheeled machine go after the long and tiring hours I spend on the cold hard saddle of my bike road bike.
However and more importantly, when I dirt bike I also feel much safer and more protected. For instance here's a brief list of my dirt protection versus my road bike protection:
Road Bike:
Light Weight Helmet
Sunglasses
Fingerless gloves
Dirt Bike:
Full Faced Helmet
Goggles
Shine High Boots with Iron tipped toe box
Knee Guards
Padded shorts with Hip Armor
Chest Protector
Elbow Guards
Back Protector
Kidney Belt
Gloves with carbon fiber knuckle protectors
I have to admit that when I put on all of my dirt bike gear I look like something out of the movie Predator.
Yet I don't go all that much faster on my dirt bike on the local mountain trials. Plus I've yet to see a tree jump out and hit a dirt bike trial rider like you'll see a car do to cyclist on the road.
So why is it that we wear so little protection when we cycle? And more importantly, why has some clever entrepreneur not yet come up with a way to protect us from the most common serious cycling injury?
Can you guess what it is?
Let me give you a clue. You can't do this running or walking without really really getting unlucky , but you'll easily do it riding a bike.
Still wondering....
Here's another clue. I'm willing to bet that you know somebody with this injury of you've seen it happen to somebody on television on the Tour e France, or some other televised bike race.
By now I'm sure you must have guessed that it is a broken collar bone. This painful injury is all too common when the body hits the pavement at anything above a slow jogging speed. And yet nobody has come up with a way to protect cyclist from this painful and serious injury.
Just ask Natasha Badman after this year's Ironman Championships if she would wear something that would protect her from a broken collar bone, and I bet the answer would be, "Ja!"
The second problem needs an even more urgent solution.
In my life I have only witnessed two people die.
One was a very unfortunate guy who hit a tree and cracked a baseball sized hole in his head when he bounced of a rock skiing. This was when I was still Ski Patrolling. The other was at the Boulder Peak Triathlon a few years ago when swimmer had a heart attack.
You can read about that one HERE.
But I can also recall that the last two years at Ironman Florida two racers (one each year) died or almost died on the swim. As you can imagine neither the WTC or NAS likes to publicize these tragic events.
I believe that that the sport of triathlon needs an immediate answer to this obvious danger. I don't think that it would be so technologically daunting to monitor the health and heart of an athlete on the swim. If my watch can monitor my heart, why can't the race director and medical crew do the same?
Do we really want to rely on a 16 -year-old volunteer on a jet ski spotting a floating body in the mass start of Ironman as the best a safest way to ensure a safe swim.?
Sure the vast majority of athletes will not have a heart attack or die on the swim, but I would bet that statistically this is the most dangerous part of the race. So why not figure out a better way to keep all of us safe instead of just waiting to see that everybody who started the swim has crossed the timing mat before sending out the divers.
Certainly on the swim, in those critical moments after the unthinkable happens, we need the triathlon version of the quick release leash...and we need it now.
