Single piece of webbing for harness

[dublinbay]

Originally Posted by ianfirmin

I'm going on a BSAC Practical Rescue Management course tomorrow. All bar one of the other attendees are from my club. None (?, ooo, perhaps one) of them use a harness. All use standard BCD's. I have a nice tight one piece harness with no clips (except on the crotch strap). I'll bung some twin 7's on and offer to be victim as much as possible and I'll report back on what happened.


How about that? Perhaps we will get some real data.....

More than like it will end up a CF. Wear the harness with proper fitting and brief the recuers how to get you out without cutting harness and have a practice in water first. A good measure would be a second victim in bc to compare.

[nickb]

Originally Posted by dublinbay

A good measure would be a second victim in bc to compare.

You mean like a controlled experiment Jack?

Surely it's better if we carry on making wild assumptions without any empirical evidence: that's the YD way. Apparently

[dublinbay]

Originally Posted by nickb

You mean like a controlled experiment Jack?

Surely it's better if we carry on making wild assumptions without any empirical evidence: that's the YD way. Apparently

OK Nick, fair comment . Carry on chaps, as you were...........................

[ianfirmin]

In a nutshell, normal recreational bcd using divers could NOT get a one piece harness off a limp victim in the most favourable circumstances without cutting it. One of the instructors DID get it off after a real struggle and didn't quite break my arm. Once one side was off getting the other side off was very quick and easy.

The diver himself (me!) could get the kit off in less than 10 seconds (as long as the wing was not fully inflated) and most of that time was taken up with disconnecting hoses, reg loops etc. The BCD with clips users generally took a little longer with their own kit as the clips were more fiddly.

All exercises were carried out in calm (but cold) fresh water.

Conclusions: I am going to keep the harness one piece but extend the left shoulder strap and put a break clip in which, when broken, will give another 200mm or so length. I will add another D ring so there are rings either side of the clip for a cable tie in case of problems.

Finally, I'm happy to give anyone more details if they want instead of waffling here. Be aware that this was one day with a limited number of divers but it is fact.

Kind regards
Ian

[Janos]

Originally Posted by ianfirmin

In a nutshell, normal recreational bcd using divers could NOT get a one piece harness off a limp victim in the most favourable circumstances without cutting it. One of the instructors DID get it off after a real struggle and didn't quite break my arm. Once one side was off getting the other side off was very quick and easy.

The diver himself (me!) could get the kit off in less than 10 seconds (as long as the wing was not fully inflated) and most of that time was taken up with disconnecting hoses, reg loops etc. The BCD with clips users generally took a little longer with their own kit as the clips were more fiddly.

All exercises were carried out in calm (but cold) fresh water.

Conclusions: I am going to keep the harness one piece but extend the left shoulder strap and put a break clip in which, when broken, will give another 200mm or so length. I will add another D ring so there are rings either side of the clip for a cable tie in case of problems.

Finally, I'm happy to give anyone more details if they want instead of waffling here. Be aware that this was one day with a limited number of divers but it is fact.

Thanks for conducting the experiment Ian. For me, it goes to show that we need to consider our rescuers are likely to be like in practice, as well as in an ideal world.

Janos