Continuous Web harness or other

[Slamfire]

No, because I can't climb into a ladderless zodiac in a doubles rig. Take it off, hand it up.

Again, "But you're right, if I'm going to be diving off ladder-less Zodiacs, I might as well be proficient at non-cutting doff/donning." Or I could sew in a fastex buckle in one of the straps (*gasp in horror*)...

I'm glad your agency covers non-emergency equipment doffing and laderless zodiac diving procedures. It is clearly superior to mine. I wonder what agency it may be...?

 

[cool_hardware52]

Again, "But you're right, if I'm going to be diving off ladder-less Zodiacs, I might as well be proficient at non-cutting doff/donning." Or I could sew in a fastex buckle in one of the straps (*gasp in horror*)...

I'm glad your agency covers non-emergency equipment doffing and laderless zodiac diving procedures. It is clearly superior to mine. I wonder what agency it may be...?

Pulling a hog rig over your head in the water is really simple. Spend a little time thinking about your hoses and can light cord before trying it.


Getting back in is a bit more of a trick, but........ having tried both harnesses with buckles and single piece harnesses I can say the single piece is easier.

Trying to find and operate buckles when one end may be trapped behind the diver, twisted, etc. is just added trouble.

To don a back plate harness with buckles in the water it's much easier to first connect the buckles and put it on like it was a single piece harness.

Tobin

 

[Blackwood]

Again, "But you're right, if I'm going to be diving off ladder-less Zodiacs, I might as well be proficient at non-cutting doff/donning." Or I could sew in a fastex buckle in one of the straps (*gasp in horror*)...

As Tobin suggested, getting out is pretty easy. Disconnect your drysuit hose, pull your necklace off your head and free your long hose (if you have them on all three counts), disconnect your waist buckle, lift your arms, and you pretty much slide out the bottom.

Gearing up take a little more work since you need to keep enough air in the wing to float the rig, and a full wing has a tendency to get in the way.

 

[Slamfire]

I'll try it out next time I dive. My harness was too tight at that time. I think it will be much easier now that it is adjusted a little better. I'll post an update here after I try it out. Thanks, guys.

Fellow SBoarders, do not fear. I do not dive often enough out of ladderless zodiacs to justify cutting my continuous harness to install a fastex buckle.

 

[shoredivr]

However, it is possible to have the best of both worlds. I have seen a harness set up with a continuous one piece harness with one shoulder strap longer than the other. A plastic buckle was threaded onto that strap, allowing the diver to snap it together and take up the slack (the excess couple of inches was tucked back under the strap when it was snapped together.) This gave him a little extra wiggle room to get in and out of the harness due to mobility issues in his shoulder, yet still maintained the continuous harness in the event of a buckle failure. And yes, they can fail - I know someone who used a harness with a buckle and had to exit the cave using one hand to hold their harness together after it broke.

I have this set up and like it. If the buckle was to fail, there's still one continuous piece of webbing, no need to hold anything together.

 

[SherlTheperl]

Having read the first post of this thread I'd say the Halcyon isn't a "Standard" type.
Also I think many miss a point. That is just because you have shoulder releases doesn't require you to use them. So this would allow the don and doff to be the same. Doning is easier while the shoulder releases are already together but I find getting out of my gear easier and better controlled if I use 1 shoulder release.

 

[The Kraken]

But I prefer a "continuous" web harness.

the K

 

[halocline]

I guess you didn't like the results of the other poll so you started this one....

BTW, if I was unconscious at depth, and my wing was non-functional, I probably wouldn't care what anyone else did, seeing as how I'd probably be on my way to another world.

Why don't we all wear quick release clothing all the time, so paramedics don't have to cut us out of our clothes when we crash our cars?

 

[RJP]

If I had to provide you with a surface rescue where I had to remove your equipment before pulling you onto the boat would you like to have a quick release on your harness or me have to take out my knife and spend the time to cut through your webbing?

The suggestion that it is one or the other is what's known as a "faulty premise" in logic.

It is very easy to get yourself or someone else out of a properly sized and adjusted one piece harness.

Further, if you are going specify unrelated facts as part of the scenario... if you had to provide a surface rescue I would like to have no harness on, be 100yds from an ER, have you be a trained hyperbaric physician, and have my wife, Jessica Alba by my side through the whole ordeal.



Ultimately I find it interesting that the people who dive a one-piece harness (ie: actually have experience with it) continue to need to justify the facility of the approach in the face of hypothetical "which would you rather" cases proposed by people who don't seem to have experience with the gear in question. I've taken Rescue Diver in doubles, with other students in doubles, I've DM'd the course many times in doubles with students who were shocked to find that without cutting they could get me out of my rig as fast (often faster) than they could get people out of rigs with multiple buckles, clips, straps, etc. Why? Because I wear my rig appropriately sized and adjusted.

If you want to tell me that you require/desire quick releases on your rig, that's fine. But please, stop suggesting that your supposition that I'll have a hard time getting out of mine is more credible than my actual experience to the contrary.

 

[DevonDiver]

For 99% of divers.... if a single-piece harness doesn't fit you comfortably and/or is hard to remove/replace it is because you haven't fitted it correctly. The other 1% of divers that have an upper-body physical impairments have an excuse...

That said, if you want to add buckles or QRs to your harness, it would be unnecessary, but not a major issue unless you were involved in high-risk diving.

A broken buckle for a recreational diver might ruin a diving holiday, but is unlikely to cause a dangerous incident. The same issue for a cave diver... who needs to scooter a long way back to the surface is a different level of incident entirely.

You may choose to go absolutely over-the-top and lavish your hard earned money on a super-complex 'deluxe comfort harness'. Again... that's your choice and for recreational divers... it'll probably never kill you. My only advice would be to maintain extra awareness and caution in environments where you might get entangles on the extra entanglement points contained in the harness...line laying, DSMB deployment, kelp, fishing nets/monofilament etc etc.

I choose to use a single-piece harness, because I prioritise safety over comfort. I made sure that my skills, techniques and procedures were correct, so that I could operate my rig efficiently and without limitation in that harness. Now that I am fully acclimatized to the Hog harness, I enjoy the benefits of safety, economy, reliability AND comfort.