Basejumper.com - archive

Debating if this is a good option or not.

The Pro:
-Comfort

The (potential) Cons:
-Talk of potential for off heading openings and line twists.
-Talk of rig coming off of shoulders in freefall.

Both Cons were discussed on DZ.COM and there was no real consensus.

Obviously, if there is any merit to the cons that would be a deal killer.

Curious to know if anyone else has looked into this option.

In all honesty you are not discussing the cons of a fully articulated (hip/chest) harness, but rather the ones of having chest rings. The Hip rings are not part of the context as you have written it.

A few more I can think of :

PROs :
extra place where you can clip in or hang stuff off (can use the chest rings as clip-ins or tie-offs)

CONs:
extra weight
landing on your chest may now hurt you a lot more

I have only seen one major manufacturer put chest rings on their harness, that was the Odyssey (velcro, not FX) from ParaTech. I also had a master rigger made rig that had a copy of a Sunpath fully articulated harness.

Personally, I see no reason to need those in BASE - they are just bling and extra weight.

Do you really find it more comfortable? Personally, I don't think it really is. As Paul said, it's basically just bling.

For a totally badass free flyer in the sky it might make a small difference, but if I'm going flat and scary for 3 seconds I think I can suck it up and skip rings altogether

I personally hate the things, and types 17 chest straps too. None of my rigs (BASE or skydive) have them, and I own like 8 rigs.

Thanks for the replies. It seems my suspicions have been confirmed.

For the record, is there no reason to suspect that chest rings could contribute to an off heading opening?

And, as pointed out by Paul, what about hip rings? What are the pro's and cons?

Rings add to:
1) freedom of movement
2) the weight of the rig
3) the purchase price

I have full articulation on my SKY rig
and hip rings on both of my Gargoyles.

As said up board, they have more use
on freefly jumps than BASE jumps...

In my opinion, rings have little to
zero affect on heading performance.

Hip rings can be nice for climbing antennas with your rig on. My old rig had them, my new one doesn't, so I just leave my leg loops loose when I climb. But chest rings don't do anything on a base rig.

Thank you all for the considerate replies. It's helped a lot in making up my mind regarding what articulation to include in my order.

hey, one last note, on the hip ring articulation

there currently are two different types - one is actually a legstrap arituculation, and the other is the lateral/mlw/legpad articulation.

the latter seems like it allows for a lot more movement, especially when doing tucked arials.

As far as I know the articulated legstrap is much more common. Gargoyles use to do it that way, but sometime in 02-03 changed to using a hip ring style harness - Kathy said it was due to input from Dwain Weston who said that for aerials the hip junction ring is a lot more comfortable.

pics attached