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RPM said..

dafish said...
well Cauncy, I actually like this thread. Any ideas that give me a better fit for riding waves, more comfort, and less riding up of my harness works for me. I have tried a lot of the solutions offered and have a setup that is okay but not perfect. I have a Mystic Warrior and V8 Dyna. I bought an Engine but I am too fat for it right now. Two posts ago I see that Jay has adapter buckles so I can use the Jaybar with the Engine. I find that the Engine pad is too small, less travel. The Jaybar for me is the bigger one of the two they sell and fits my new European gut. Once shed I can go to a smaller pad. I like that people try different things in order to get a better ride. My gripe right now with the Engine is there is no where for the hook knife.

Pop on a gstring if you want comfort...
You tech pussys should have been around back in the 2 line wipika days... Comfort was the last thing on your mind.. More like the feeling of having a polar bear ripping your arms out of the sockets and slapping you with them...

Keep driving your model A if you must, I like improvements and anything to make the sport safer and give me better angle in the waves. Your mileage may vary Mr RPM

Keeping da thread alive... My setup here, just redid it with 10mm dyneema. 1 piece of rope and a ronstan snap shackle.

Good effort.
This is the future.

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jackforbes said..
Keeping da thread alive... My setup here, just redid it with 10mm dyneema. 1 piece of rope and a ronstan snap shackle.

Wouldn't want to mistakenly pull the safety pin instead of the safety knife...

Just be aware jackforbes, that those types of shackles do not like to release under high load, so just use it for the convenience of connecting the chicken loop, not as a release, always use the kite safety system, but I guess you know that?
Those shackles are only designed as a quick connect system. The Wichard snap shackle is the only easily available one that releases under load, regardless of the load applied to the shackle.
http://www.kitepower.com.au/wichard-snap-shackle.html

I don't agree, the Ronstan snap shackles on my 10m cruising cat happily release a 60m2 spinnaker in 20kns - the load would be huge. That's how I release it everytime, pull the snapshackle at the bowsprit and the sail just gets sucked around behind the mainsail and hangs, then it's childsplay to draw the sock over it and drop it on the foredeck. I have never had the Ronstan snap not release under big loads. There are however cheap copies sold at the marine outlets, hanging on the board beside the Ronstan branded products for what would be 1/3 to 1/2 the price.

This thread has inspired me to simplify my dynabar - now want to get rid of the hook...

There is no need to get rid of the dynabar hook. There are ways to refine it so you don't accidently unhook. Also because it is an inch wide it makes your chicken loop more O shaped rather than [] hooking around a single metal shackle. So even if you find a short shackle, the distance to bar will end up much the same. The roller on a dynabar hook is super smooth and fast. It prolongs the rope life. I can't see any advantage a shackle has. It's just if you want to custom make a cost effective home made version

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pearl said..
There is no need to get rid of the dynabar hook. There are ways to refine it so you don't accidently unhook. Also because it is an inch wide it makes your chicken loop more O shaped rather than [] hooking around a single metal shackle. So even if you find a short shackle, the distance to bar will end up much the same. The roller on a dynabar hook is super smooth and fast. It prolongs the rope life. I can't see any advantage a shackle has. It's just if you want to custom make a cost effective home made version

This. Hooks need to be smoother curved to avoid wearing the chicken loop. Honest.

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TerryMcTool said..
Just be aware jackforbes, that those types of shackles do not like to release under high load, so just use it for the convenience of connecting the chicken loop, not as a release, always use the kite safety system, but I guess you know that?
Those shackles are only designed as a quick connect system. The Wichard snap shackle is the only easily available one that releases under load, regardless of the load applied to the shackle.
http://www.kitepower.com.au/wichard-snap-shackle.html

Yep, I use the safety. Like Harlie, I've used the Ronstans on spinnakers and never had an issue, but I found with the kite that the chicken loop can still catch on the lever point of the shackle after you pull it (the shackle opens, but the chicken loop wedges a bit into the pivot, and doesn't release). Happened to me a couple of times and so now i use the safety if I need to release. It just works nicely using the snap shackle because of the rotating base and it slides easily.

The dyneema is super slippery so it moves really smoothly, it doesn't stretch so your throw on the bar isn't affected, and it has a 10T breaking load. Usually some other part of my harness wears out first and I transfer the whole spreader bar arrangement to a new harness.

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pearl said...
There is no need to get rid of the dynabar hook. There are ways to refine it so you don't accidently unhook.

I want to do this but haven't worked on it yet. Care to share your ideas?

Some help from JAY.
The sliding hook is always oriented towards the CL pull direction but if you have low pull the hook goes up due to bungee pull, the CL slips down and it can detach when kite pull comes back.
To avoid this issue insert the DD inside the hook's rods like in the picture and the problem is gone!

^^^ cheers, will try that.

The best setup I've seen is the original Dakine Impact Harness (not the current ones) which was released around 2006 or so.

Here's the only photo I could find of it.

The beauty of this design was that the strap that held the spreader bar (basically a piece of seatbelt material) ran from the top of your pelvis bones on both sides THROUGH and behind the spreader bar, allowing the spreader bar to slide from side to side but only when there is significant side to side pressure like when you pushed it with your hand, so it didn't snap across all at once when you changed tack like happens when you use a rope. The only problem with this setup was the the location of the spreader bar was the optimum location for someone who was about 170cm, and for tall people like me, it was far too high and it wrecked my back and I had to ditch it. If someone were to redesign this setup with an option for short and tall people, it would solve a lot of the problems people are trying to address in the above posts.

Here's the only photo I could find of it online. Note the spreader bar setup in the bottom left hand photo.