Hey,
I posted in the general forum about getting a kite program started on the Marine base I work for, and I've spent the last few hours reading a ton about harnesses. And now I'm no closer to figuring out what to go with than before. In the last hour though I started looking into basic harnesses, almost like rock climbing gear, and I'm kind of leaning that direction, mostly because they would fit the wide range of people we would be running through the program and how quickly they could go on and off. Also, they are pretty cheap, so we could buy plenty in case everyone in a group was all size large, or all size small.

So I'm kind of looking from some input from you guys.
I've been reading about the Ozone Access SB, the Peter Lynn Base, and the very basic Quadrifoil. Any thoughts on those, or are there any others out there I'm missing?

http://www.flyozone.com/landkites/en/products/accessories/ac...

http://peterlynn.com/products/accessories/harnesses/base-har...

http://www.atbshop.co.uk/productdetails.php?id=159&cat=h...



The Quadrifoil looks to be about as basic as you can get, plus seems only aviable on Euro websites, so that might be on the bottom of the list. Personally, I'm happy in a harness, considering one of my recent jobs in Virginia had me in a climbing harness up to 8 hours a day. I forget I'm even wearing one. I keep telling people to think of it as a safety wedgie, since it will save your life if you fall. But pretty much every Marine I get to put one on complains about his "package"


Another thing I guess I should ask while I'm posting, and maybe it goes along with the harness question, is about safety padding. I've watched tons and tons of ATB videos, and a lot of the time I see guys wipe they land on their butt or hips. I see they make tons of different pants with pads, but they all are made like biker shorts. That won't go over too well with Marines, especially wearing them after someone else, washed or not.

Is there some other kind I'm missing, or something I could look at instead? Is it even worth looking at them at all? I figure the less bruises and stuff the guys go home with, the better the program's word of mouth will be.

One more I guess on the topic of helmets. I'm going to make everyone wear them, and some pads, but is it worth getting full face helmets? Anybody here messed up their pretty faces with grass burn? Or are standard helmets enough? It seems like you can get full face for not much more $$, but they look so much more uncomfortable and hot, which will be a problem when running programs in the summer here.

Thanks for any help and thoughts you can offer on the questions..................

My vote is for the PL harness - bigger sizes apparently.

Quote:

Originally posted by BamboobenBut pretty much every Marine I get to put one on complains about his "package"

Feel the need to diss the Marines as sissies, but am worried they'll hunt me down and batter me with their purses.

I've only had experience with the Ozone harness. Gets the job done without too much discomfort. As for hip/butt pads, have you considered the strap-on style used for football or hockey? Actually, though, once you convince the marines that kite flying is not for pansies, and get them to grab some handles and throw up some fabric, well, look at most of our sigs. Getting equipment pretty much takes care of itself from then on...hehehehe