Harness Envy

I wear a harness when I work as a rigger to save my life. It keeps me from falling to my death from anywhere from 50 to 100 feet. Now I've had my harness for a long time. It's a rock climbing harness I got from REI for $22 years ago.

Now when it comes to rigging, or most anything that requires a harness and fall arrest equipment of some kind, a full body harness is required. The hang point is on the back in what is called the dorsal position. The thing I find stupid about this is that if you fall, you cannot save yourself. You are dangling below what you fell off of and you are facing the ground. If the fall arrest worked, you are now 12 feet below what you fell from. So if the fall arrest was 6 feet before it deployed, you are now 12 feet from the thing you fell off of because the arrestor added 6 feet to soften the fall. The system is supposed to make the shock of a fall less hard on the body. Kind of like a limited bungy. It only goes out, it doesn't snap back.

In a rock climbing harness if I fell, I would be 3 feet from what I fell off of and facing a way to pull myself back up. But OSHA doesn't like them. Bunch of fucking pansies. But my climbing harness is not full body so some would argue that I would snap backwards and hurt myself.  Who is right?

Now the reason I bring this whole thing up is that for a very long time I've been using equipment that would not be approved of for my work. How did I get away with it for so long? Luck. And I had ways of concealing the fact that it was only a seat harness. I would put on the harness and tie my rope, which was wrapped in a certain way, around me so it was a backpack. This would keep people from seeing that I only had a seat harness until I was out of the way and in the roof. Once I'm there, I'm working and being good at the job, "aw... fuck it..." might be the attitude. Or other times I would suit up in the roof. None of the other riggers commented on my incorrect safety gear. If I was bad at my job, that might have been an issue they would use to get me out of the roof.

But when I was working at one venue yesterday, I finally got called out for the harness. Johnny asked if I had a full body harness. If I didn't I'd have to go down and work on the ground. In case that ever happened I always carry a rudimentary full body harness with a dorsal hang point. So I put that one on over the seat harness and that satisfied Johnny. I didn't use the full body harness, I was still using the climbing harness, but if something had happened it would look right. Right?

The thing about my job, in my opinion, is the best harness in the world will not keep someone who is incompetent from fucking up. They might not fall to their death, but they could kill someone below if they dropped something. Conversely, a competent experienced rigger would be safe with a climbing harness. Like I was. It keeps people from dying when on a mountain, how is that different from a work situation? A mountain is far more sketchy than any place I work. I'm walking on something level 95% of the time. I have hand holds and places to sit down. Mountains are much different.

So today after years of flaunting the authority of OSHA, I went looking for a harness. There are 2 places in Burbank which are known nationwide for rigging equipment. I looked and priced things at both. One was markedly higher than the other, but I liked one harness there a lot. I didn't buy there, but I went home and looked on line and found the harness I liked for $70 less and no taxes. So I ordered it. It will arrive in 3-5 days.

So now I'm like all the other kids and my shame and harness envy will be gone.

Now I just need to get a new rope...