Just bought a pair of dakine harness boardshorts for my girlfriend - it looks and (she claims) is comfy to wear altho she hasn't given them a good test yet. We got them pretty cheap from an outlet store so was worth taking a bit of punt. I was thinking of switching to this style harness too as due to an extra few kilos over Winter I find my North gel waist harness rides up quite a bit as many other harness in the past have done and because I mainly ride a surfboard with lots of toe side I have to keep the harness pretty lose (during Winter wet suit holds harness in place to easily!) to let the harness move around for toe side riding. Hence this post - will I be able to ride toe side comfortably if I switch to a boardshort harness? I'm guessing if the bar is super stable then I won't feel like I have to let the harness spin to the side somewhat or I guess I can always buy a spin bar solution for surfboard style riding....

Any feedback from guys who are using boardshort harness for surfboard riding especially toe side pls give me your 2 cents... I have tried several seat harnesses from friends after rib damage (waist harness strangle) a few seasons ago but found them annoying especially with a wet suit on as you can't get your nads out of the way of the straps like when you just have boardshorts on. I have tried a few seat harness from 15 years of windsurfing too and found them all excellent for riding position but annoying for comfort and fit in general....

what outlet store ... im after some and can't find any

Not sure about riding surf, we don't get a lot of it in Melbourne, but I've owned both the dakine nitrous and the LF boardshorts.

The dakine tend to pull more like a seat harness, i.e. from under your legs where the LF's tend sit higher and feel closer to a waist of the two. I prefer the LF's, plus they come with the spreaderbar pad which the dakine have as an extra. The straps also break on the dakine's after a while where the LF's have a strap replacement system and give you spare straps with your purchase. The only benefit of the dakine's is the leg strap adjustment on the outside of the shorts and the fact that the spreader bar can be clipped in and out but I've also seen them bend and come loose because of it.

Personally, I'd go LF's any day and the last I saw they were actually cheaper than the Dakine's.

Thanks Saffer sounds like the LF are the go, I know Padi wears them so will check with him regards how they might handle toe side style riding.

Rusty the store is one of the wholesale outlet stores at Nerang - the one with all the surfboards down the end of the shop (southport nerang rd) they only have ladies styles sizes 6-10 and no spreaderbars...

Take your testicles and twist them around a full 360 degrees. then while you have them all twisted up.SLAM them in a drawer... This will give you an idea of what it feels like to ride toe side in harness shorts

Don't listen to him Joffa. Toeside is no probs in shorts harnesses. Toeside backrolls too.

I think he's talking about the first model LF ones!

The Dakine Nitrous are awesome. I got over 50 sets in for people over the last 3 years and only 1 return due to the guy preferring a waisty.

Dakine are a pain to deal with here in oz - your best bet is to source them from os.