A surfer carves a section of the surf wave at the Bend Whitewater Park on Thursday. Earlier this week, the Bend Park & Recreation District board permanently banned the use of leashes at the standing wave.

A permanent ban on the use of leashes by surfers and boogie boarders at the Bend Whitewater Park was adopted this week by park officials, a key safety change following the death of teen surfer Ben Murphy in April.

Bend Park & Recreation District board members, who had placed a temporary ban on leashes after Murphy’s death, accepted a staff recommendation to make the ban permanent during a work session on Tuesday. The ban includes leashes on surfboards and boogie boards.

If a surfer is found violating the rule, the surf wave will be remotely flattened to prevent use of the wave.

The ban was one of several changes at the whitewater park after Murphy’s foot became trapped in the wave, holding him underwater for six minutes. Murphy was alive but unconscious when he was freed and pulled from the river, but died hours later at St. Charles Bend.

An investigation determined that Murphy became trapped in a narrow gap between two plates that form the wave. A block has since been placed in the gap to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.

Investigators also determined that the leash Murphy was using may also have contributed to the accident and moved to ban them from use in the whitewater park.

Park board members agreed to the leash ban at a board meeting in June but said the ban would be on a temporary basis to allow evaluation of how it well it worked. The ban will remain in place unless the board chooses to revisit it.

“The board is not typically directly involved in approving rules so the involvement at the whitewater park was a special circumstance due to the tragedy,” said district spokesperson Julie Brown. “The rule was established as part of the conditions to reopen the surf wave.”

Because leash technology is improving there may be new breakaway leash options introduced to the marketplace that would prompt a revisit to the rule, said Brown.

Travis Yamada, owner of Cubicle, a Bend-based company that produces surfboards for river waves, said leashes currently on the market require manual release. This means that the user must detach the leash, as opposed to a leash that automatically breaks away when the board is tangled and under pressure.

“I don’t know of one that is a true breakaway,” said Yamada. “The releases are a manual release, a user quick release. We have encouraged those in the past. But there is no safety release one that would be effective.”

Around mid-day Thursday, there were about half a dozen surfers at the wave, enjoying the last few days of high water before the October ramp down at Wickiup Reservoir, which lowers the water level and makes surfing difficult. Danny Mood, 21, a surfer in the line-up, said he doesn’t mind the leash ban. Mood said surfing without a leash is a throwback to earlier days of surfing.

“Most people have gotten a hang of grabbing their board as they fall so they are not chasing their board too much,” said Mood, a student at the aviation program at Central Oregon Community College. “I don’t think it’s too big of a deal that leashes are banned now.”

Over the summer, district staff collected data on more than 4,400 surf rides made during 60 hours of observation. No one was seen using a leash during the survey period.

The observations also showed that 170 of the 1,044 surfers observed were wearing a helmet and 102 of them were wearing a personal flotation device. Also over the summer, the district also went on a social media blitz to help inform the public about safety issues in the river. The campaign included videos and information pages with advice on what equipment to use when surfing or floating in the river, as well as reminders that floating and booze don’t mix.

The response to the media campaign was mixed at the beginning, with some commenters suggesting that lifeguards be present at the park. Others expressed an overall concern for safety in the area.

The report said that comments became “more positive and less contentious” over the summer. One of the videos, a guide to the floating the Deschutes, has been viewed nearly 3,000 times.