after years of the nappy harness it seems the waist is back again, this time with a "high" back on it to stop the circulation beign cut off soooo much when it rides up off you illium bones into your abdomen.....(north and naish brands that i have seen)

also a PHAT spreader bar cover which stops the tilt and the riding up of the spreader.......it all looks good but i havent indulged yet....fully.

a definate plus i can imagine is the freedom of movement that the lower body gets from not having the straps constricting ones groin.....

whats up with this ?? are there those amoung us that have always been waist riders?? or others who never grow out of there nappies???

I'll neva grow out of my nappy :shock: but as I lost one of my harnesses about a month ago (left it at Shoal Bay me thinks) and the other one is startin to look pretty munted.. I mite think about getting one of these waisted jobs. My big full moon will keep it in place for sure.

I rode a waist harness most of last summer.

I went back to my seat harness over the winter as I can hold more power with it and when riding in 5/3 wetsuit freedom of movement is an option.

Been back on the waist harness the last couple of weeks.

I like the freedom of a waist harness, and it also tends to lead to better landings. The higher hook position means my feet always end up underneath me at the end of a trick - less butt check landings.

All waist harnesses ride up, to get it back down I fly the kite low and twist the bar/spreader a few times to force the harness back to my hips.

Dave Kay

I started life with a waist harness, but after trying a seat harness I never went back. If I ever feel the need for tits in my ears again then I'll tune into parliamentary question time.

What I am trying to say is that waist harnesses are tricky for girls (I know Su Kay loves her one, but hers seems to actually work!) I have a Dakine waist harness and it is too long. This means that it fits at the top and at the bottom but I could stash small animals in the bit in between. The gap means it never sits securely, and then rids up. DUMB I say! Also, I think I would have to try harder to flip up the wrong way when jumping - something I have recently discovered and am currently highly enamoured with. Nothing will stand in my way, especially not some bone constricting, armpit gnawing harness!

i started life with nappies, but after discovering windsurfing tried a seat harness and never went back. that was until i discovered wave sailing, when i realised (like millions before me) that having unrestricted movement in the leg department and sailing un-hooked a lot of the time anyway, was more than a fair trade off for the lowered centre of gravity, and subsequent speed and edging ability that a seat harness offers.

by the time i started kiting (late last century) i had all but given up seat harnesses and was using my da kine wave harness for all disciplines of windsurfing, including course and slalom racing - the only exception was dedicated speed sailing.

naturally i continued using this harness for quite some time - until it completely blew to pieces after a particularly violent kiting crash. i started raiding my backup supply of windsurfing harnesses, only to find they suffered the same fate only faster. regardless of harness style it became clear to me, the new loads that kiting produced were in no way on the designer's minds - a bizarre trend that continues to this day.

from then on, my harness use was entirely dependent on whatever serviceable harness i could get my hands on for a specific session. i tried scores of north, neil pryde, a.r.t, peter lynn, maui magic and da kine varieties and when all these failed, various elaborate webbing and string reinforcements - bastardised hybrids and other bizarre creations featuring quick-draw carabiners and the like.

why can't someone make a harness that can withstand the rigours of kiting for longer than an afternoon, allows use of the legs and future procreation, and doesn't ride up with sudden force right into the vulnerable lower ribcage and the organs sheltering behind? no-one has been able to answer this question.

when i break it down, what we inherited from windsurfing are harnesses and footstraps - besides occasionally skimming along the water these are the only two similarities between the sports.

kites, lines, bars and boards have seen spectacular development, but it has literally taken years before even footstraps have been re-designed for use by kiters.

harnesses have made no such improvements. we are still debating the pros and cons exactly like the windwackers were at ho'okiipa in the 80's. yes, waist harnesses look marginally better but they have the well documented tendency to break the ribs of those who ride hard. this can happen from a sustained upward pull, or more commonly from being dragged backwards on the surface of the water and the back of the harness catching, forcing unimaginable leverage through the spreader bar.

seat harnesses are a little safer, a little gayer and a lot more versatile.

despite this, and with the economic realities (let's face it any harness costs as much these days as five nights in phuket) when my current one breaks i won't turn my nose up at any style of harness, as long as it gets me back out on the water for another sesh.

the latest thang i've heard of is an impact vest combined with a waist harness, which i believe have just arrived in the country - from our mate Robbie.....maybe a step in the right direction.....

also the last time i was in chch around the turn of the century some guys (Mike Raper, Kane??) were developing (or talking about it) a hook on the spreader so when your toe side down it swings around or pivots towards the kite. did anything become of this. as the hook/speader bar system is straight from the windsurfing fraternity......surely we must be able to come up with da kiwi ingenuity and blow the rest of the world away.....its not this kiwi though......

If you go here

http://www.kitesports.co.nz/kite_accessories.php#

You will see a Peter Lynn swing spreader bar listed, I know Tim has about 10 in stock (I saw them hanging off the wall last time I was in) and just about EVERY rider in ch-ch rides with one.

It swings, it swivels and even comes with a flash little loop to attach your leash to so it spins with your bar.

I've been using one for 18 months plus, and wouldn't be without it!

Dakine also have a harness/impat combo going, looks OK to me...

Dave Kay

x3: dude you have got to get out more often.

Nappies are still pretty mint in my eyes.... I don't give a rat ass how gay i look (I do wear kitepants) and as for procreation.... the lack of ability to have mini blownaways runnin around the place isn't gonna deny me a sesh. Having my chest caviity collapsed because a major updraft or supersane Tbag tends to keep you off the water for some time.....

I have used waist harnesses before and found it sometiems difficult to breathe due to the waist harness becoming a chest harness... so i kept the waist harness for windsurfing duties where there is no upward lift.

Hmmm, is this why I have had slipped ribs twice now? yes, the lower soft ribs - seperated Cartilage = two to three weeks of uncomfort and differculty of sleeping (and no kiting :cry: ). As I was searching for answers it did occur to me that the harness could be the culprit but when the harness is tight it can't ride up into that area so am still unsure on how this occurs??? I now have an impact vest which makes me feel real good...and it looks after my ribs too!
Who else has had this??

waist type 4 me, i like the higher cog,keeps the feet at the bottom and the head at the top,when u want it like that,i wear mine kinda lose and i dont think about it so much,it turns to either side and makes toe side more comfortable for longer rides,if your havin trouble with your abbs and ribs maybe u need to work on that aera, i used the seat type for the first accouple of years but grew out of it because of the low cog and the nut crushin...