Which HARNESS and why? for your BP/W

[cool_hardware52]

In a non emergency in the water it's trivial to pull a hog rig over your head, you just kinda glide out under it. Doubles, singles it all the same. A little thought is needed concerning hoses, and the bungeed backup, but that's true even if you had explosive bolts at a dozen points on the webbing.

Rescue? Just cut the webbing.

Tobin

 

[SoccerJeni]

Mike, if you were in a wetsuit and it was difficult, I'd suggest you try loosening the shoulder straps a little, and taking up the crotch strap. The way Bob Sherwood left me with my harness, it is beyond trivial to get out of it, even with the wing inflated.

I can testify that even our sawed-off steak knives will cut harness webbing like butter, especially if wielded with a bit of adrenaline. Unlike, I think, most people on this board, I have been involved in an attempted rescue of a diver in a backplate. I no longer worry about my lack of releases at all.

Did you take of his/her backplate, I assume? By just removing it, or just cutting the webbing?

 

[DevonDiver]

If a diver has their harness adjusted too tightly...and their buddies don't know how to perform an effective rescue... is it fair to blame the harness? Silly.

I like a basic Hog harness because there is no reluctance to cut it. $15 to replace the webbing, no big issue. When you've paid out $$'s for a cinch/deluxe/comfort harness... there's naturally going to be some reluctance to take a knife to it.

 

[Kern]

If a diver has their harness adjusted too tightly...and their buddies don't know how to perform an effective rescue... is it fair to blame the harness? Silly.

I like a basic Hog harness because there is no reluctance to cut it. $15 to replace the webbing, no big issue. When you've paid out $$'s for a cinch/deluxe/comfort harness... there's naturally going to be some reluctance to take a knife to it.

Cinch; single piece of webbing, so no more reluctance to cut than a Hog, but probably no need to due to the cinch.
Deluxe or comfort harness; as they have QD's, why am I cutting them.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Maybe not self evident, as most of you will never know what you'd face if you were cut out of a one piece harness while at 200 feet deep in a wreck with an extended deco obligation - or solo and turtled on your back in six feet of water wearing twin 130s after slipping on the algae covered steps at the cenote.

Carry on...

 

[TSandM]

The diver in question weighed about 300 lbs. We cut the harness. In retrospect, it may not have been the right thing to do -- I think we would have been better off cutting the cambands (which probably would have cut as easily) and using the backboard as a platform for doing good CPR, in the setting where we were. But we acted according to what we had all been taught, because you literally don't have the time or the flexibility to think of experimenting, when the feces have hit the fan.

 

[TSandM]

Daniel, my husband knows what it's like to turtle in 4 feet of water, with no reg in his mouth -- he fell off the steps at Ginnie!

 

[Kern]

Maybe not self evident, as most of you will never know what you'd face if you were cut out of a one piece harness while at 200 feet deep in a wreck with an extended deco obligation -

Carry on...

About the same as I'd face if I was released via QD's.

 

[DevonDiver]

or if a QD failed at that depth..

 

[ScubaVideo]

I have not been on ScubaBoard for very long, but already this argument is really old. How long have you old-timers been hashing this same argument? There's never a winner and your just frustrating yourselves because there never will be a winner. Both sides have valid arguments and to keep attempting to change others' minds is pointless. OK, its time for PC vs MAC - who's first?

It's Christmas now - for those that partake in the this holiday - Merry Christmas. and to the rest I hope you enjoy your holiday too.