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I have been reading threads (searched and what not) relating to body armor for a while.

Those using Dianese...are you using the Motor bike or Mountain bike armor?

Anyone have specific model numbers of equipment they are using?

There is a D shop about 2 minutes from my business, just want to have a better idea of what I am looking for before I walk in their door.

Don't forget the hanwags, buy the Hanwags!
~J

I'm using Dianese. Mine is motorbike armor. I have the Summer Body Safety (in two pieces, called "jacket" and "pants"). I don't have any model numbers, and I believe these have been updated since I purchased mine.

I was in a shop last week with a friend, and compared the 661, Dainese, and Fox versions of the armor. He ended up purchasing the Fox. The 661 appeared to have far less spine protection than either of the other two, and the Fox was about as protective as the Dainese, for less money.

I've been spelling Dainese wrong in the search box, in the title of this thread, etc. I just found a ton more stuff to read when I spelled it correctly.

I've been jumping with the Dainese Shuttle Pro suit for a couple of years now and love it. It's super-comfortable (ie, I can wear it all day) and it's saved my ass more than once when I probably shouldn't have walked away.

That said, I've seen the Velocity Gear stuff and, externally at least, it's so close in design to the Dainese (ie, all of the holes and ribs are the same) that I'm stunned they haven't been sued, then sued again just for good measure. Anyway, the VG stuff is a bunch cheaper -- you might want to check it out, too.

Katie and I jump with the Wave2 Safety Jacket by Dainese

Why would they be sued? It doesn't necessarily have to be Dainese rip-off. It could be vice versa. Or perhaps they both license the same design from a third party?

Just guessing here, but I do know that Velocity Gear goes though more extensive testing in Europe (getting the CE2 certificate iic) than Dainese does. Dainese relies on brand-name too much, asking 400 bucks for the exact same thing that Velocity Gear charges less than 150 for.

I jump a Velocity Gear body-armor top (from motorcycling), Dainese tailbone, ass and hip-protector, and Fox knee and shin-guards.

For more information on body armor and a link to a good Velocity Gear deal, see BASE WIKI on body armor and on other protective gear.

Cheers,

Jaap

Hey Guys. I'm not a BASE jumper (yet), but I have a question about this topic. Doesn't the spine protection on the body armor from High Velocity Gear make your bag very bulky, and make the rig very uncomrtably to wear, and isn't it a factor you have to think of when you are mesuring yourself before bying a rig... I think the idea of vering body armor is great, and when i someday get into BASEjumping I will youse that to. But just a question...

If you had a broken back before (like I had) a bit of bulk is the least of your worries.

Besides, shaving off few pounds from your belly will make a body armor not so bad to wear

I have a Velocity and wear it on all my jumps but TW and BD or terminal walls with grassy landing areas the size of Texas. Honestly the body armor doesn't feel bulky at all.

One thing to keep in mind is that back protectors will do nothing against compression fractures (like when you land on your butt and vertebrae burst [my case]). They will do a lot for direct hits that are by far the most dangerous spinal cord injuries that could very easily lead to paralysis.

Hey HydroGuy,

I wear Dainese, not High Velocity, body armor. It is still comfortable to wear under my rig, the only awkward part is getting the rig on over the shoulder cups but you get the hang of it. When Chad and I got our rigs built, we did tell Marty that we would be using body armor sometimes. You could PM him (username Asylum) to ask if he adjusted the measurements for it.

Interesting question: Have anyone had his back saved by his back protector, or wish he did?

What was the circumstances?

 

A backprotector wouldn't have saved my collarbone...

I looked into protective gear a while ago and ended up with the Body Guard from http://www.cronic.no It's really snug and doesn't restrict movement at all. It's a backprotector primarily intended for snowboarders and skiers, but it's awesome for jumping. I personally think it's the bomb and especially if you like aerials it's the business!

CJ =)

You just hit on a point I was going to search and possibly post a question about in the future...

"My armour saved me" stories always make some assumptions about things that, in point of fact, didn't happen (ie, what "would have happened" if one hadn't been wearing the armour). That always sets off alarms somewhere in the back of my head. That said, I would argue that my armour saved my ass (or back, as the case may be) in this incident. As it turns out, I compression fractured my back anyway -- somebody has already pointed out that back protectors don't do much for that. But I hit going backward (and down) fast, and I'm pretty confident that the outcome would have been different without the back protection.

Yep. 2 people I know.my friend, and me.

My friend was jumping in a foreign country snagged a light post and ended up on his back on the sidewalk. With only the wind knocked out of him, he reached up with his hook knife and cut the lines that went over the pole. He escaped unseen and only bruised.

The fall I took was the end result of a jump from a low crane into a construction area. The fall was from about 15 feet. I landed on concrete directly on my back in the fetal position. You would hardly believe all the stuff on the ground that I missed.

There is no doubt that it would have killed or paralyzed me. My friend who witnessed this, was certain I was messed up badly, but I got up and walked away several minutes later. Everything hurt for a few days but that's it.

The jacket I had on at the time was just like the one in the attachment. This is also what Tom has. My friend was using only the spine protector.

The jacket I wear now, is just like Chad and Katies but the spine protector is like the one below.

I'm glad you it saved you!

did you replace the armor? or are you still jumping the original set?

The armor is still fine. There's a crush zone made out of honeycomb aluminum and it's still in tact. Even though the fall was pretty hard, it was probably a lot lighter than the blunt impact it's designed to take.

The armor is nice and wide so it disperses the impact to a much wider area. In fact, my spine had zero bruises on it. It was every thing else that hurt.

I know my friend still has his and it's in good shape too. Not all the spine protectors have the honeycomb crush barrier but they do all have a padded backing. So a nice thick plastic and padded backing will help out quite a bit under many circumstances.

And your other friend

http://brits17.livejournal.com <--- Argh, can't find the direct link, work comp won't let me get there. Anyway, its jump 78 or something and I land rear risers on a roof, flat on my back. Glad the armor was on.

Jump 77.

http://www.livejournal.com/...s/brits17/17587.html

Hello

I have a Dainese Safety Jacket for Downhill, I always use it (except on Wingsuit flights) and I can honestly say that it already saved my back once,
maybe even kept me from breaking my spine.

I was wraped in my canopy after a 2 way collision and landed on my back in the water , the water was very shallow it barely covered my knees.

The impact was so hard that it left me with no air and the river bed was full of stones one dented the spine protector . However I was very lucky and nothing serious happened to me, I think that if I hadn't been wearing the safety jacket I would have had a very bad back injury.

I totally recommend it to everyone, I think of it as a must in every jump, same as my helmet and kneepads, and obviously my rig.

Gabo

I went to the Dainese store this morning. Checked out every set of armor they had. A couple of sets were pretty nice...very protective...but would severely limit arms over the head type of movements.

I tried on like 4 different ones. Tested them for arching, reaching over my head from in front of me as well as from the sides, twisting, bending over.

The one I liked the best was a Safety Jacket Next. It had composite and padded shoulders-elbows/forearms-chest, the newest backprotector, and some additional softpads between the shoulder and back protector. It also had a lumbar belt that kept the back protector and chest plates in better position when reaching overhead or whatever.

They were out of the Safety Jacket Next Racecut...which supposedly offers even greater manuverability...

Taking a cue from a previous Tom A post, I just told my Dad what I want for Christmas...Thanks Tom

What seems like restrictive in the shoulder area is actually not bad. You will get used to it very quickly.

I'm ultra fast on the toggles and I wondered if the Dainese shoulder protection was going to be an issue. After putting some jumps on it, I realized it wasn't an issue at all. You'll quickly get used to it.

you even look sexy in it(the body amor ofcourse)

Katie.. could i ask you to ship my dvd and your adress to me,as Chad again is jaloux over us..
By some help i manneged to convert from NTSC to PAL which means the Faber vers. of the rampage vid soon will be done(no Chad didnt call me back i guess he dont want to know how to do it)

Thanks Ivan whithout your ideas and hard work it wouldnt have happened..Now heal fast BOY

I'm so glad to see body armor has reached this level and people are using it. Back in 1989 I wrote an article trying to get BASE jumpers to wear helmets and pads in a time when people are jumping barefooted never mind anything else.

In those days we called this stuff, "battle gear."

It was an uphill fight due to my generation being so anti-helmet in general. In those days wearing a helmet at the drop zone marked you as dangerous, a meat missile who couldn’t be trusted to control themselves in freefall (hence you needed the extra protection) and it made bareheaded or frappe hat wearing jumpers wary of you.

What a difference twenty five years can make . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Hi,

I use the motorcycle Dainese armour, the same as Tom A. I have a crash rig as well with measurements taken with the battle gear on, I am 140 pounds and the canopy in that rig is a 293sqft … but then again, I am pretty old, pretty scared and pretty fragile kind of guy.

PerFlare

Im very happy with the snowboard jacket from Dianese!