Q4: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HARNESSES—FULL OR SEAT?
DAVE: Both seat and full body harnesses are efficient. We’ve operated our flagship park for nine years using multiple sizes of seat harnesses. This is another instance where staff training is important. Guide staff need to be properly trained on how to correctly fit kids and adults of all sizes and shapes into the different size harnesses, and to ensure the harnesses are properly attached to the participant.
GERHARD: Absolutely full body harness. Top-heavy people, heavier people, guys with big bellies, large-chested women, they can all hang upside down, which is a rather dangerous situation. With a seat harness, they could slip out of the harness if the waist belt isn’t tight enough. Sometimes it’s very hard to tighten the belt enough if the guest has a big butt. It can be difficult to tighten without making the person uncomfortable.
CLOE: We use half for most people. Kids 10 and younger, though, we definitely go full harness, because they don’t have hips—the harness would not hold them. And larger people, heavier people, beer belly-type people, they also need full body harnesses. A seat harness can’t sit on their hips because of the belly. Then, if they go upside down, they could slip out of it. So we have three different kinds of harnesses: little kids, full body; half for regular-size adults; and then full body for large adults.
BAHMAN: Having used both systems, I have to say, we only use full body now. I have not seen any instances where you can’t use it. I have definitely seen instances where you can’t use the seat harness. Anybody with a bigger upper body has to have a full body harness. And if you use both types of harnesses, you then leave that decision to the operator or to the harness person, who may not be as versed as necessary in deciding whether that person should use one or the other. They have to be well trained and constantly vigilant, and if there’s any question, they opt for a full harness. It’s just easier from a decision standpoint to use full body. It does take a bit more time when harnessing people, though, and the cost is about double.
KEITH: Full body for sure. Seat harnesses should not be used in commercial applications. The standards are currently vague on this, and that will change. Currently staff can’t wear seat harnesses by law, and in some jurisdictions (California, Ontario, etc.) full body harnesses must be worn by guests. As more states regulate amusement rides through the department of labor, rather than the elevator department or agriculture department, as often happens now, you will see this become law quickly. Build right—start with a full body now so you don’t have to replace equipment after a year or two.
KEN: We favor full harnesses. If you go upside down in a seat harness, you could potentially fall out. A lot of this gear has been adapted from different industries and applications. Adventure parks evolved from the educational ropes course industry, and you can’t use the same systems. The general public really doesn’t understand enough to manage the complexity of the old dynamic belays and old static course strategies. We have to take some of that out of the equation and make it more user-friendly. Adventure park guests should have more perceived risk than real risk. Operators need that, too. They want throughput, they want a great user experience, and they don’t want to make safety systems complicated.
