Research and Development - shoulder straps

This is a story of process and progress...

I was over at the home of lockedSteel.  Over coffee we looked at a handful of boundGods photos.  One in particular got both of our attention.  As I was looking closer at the photo, lockedSteel mentioned that it was a part of a video.  He pulled up the video.  Still photos are often an idealized moment of a video.  Not this one.  I was slack-jawwed in amazement as the video lived up to the promise of the photo.  I describe the photo to friends as the greatest photo ever.

a photo from the same series as the greatest photo ever

(I can't find a copy of the greatest photo ever on the boundGods website, so am not allowed to post.  It is from the same series as the photo above.  The differences are small but crucial:  The fleshtones are more muted, making the boy look closer to a piece of furniture.  The boy's head is facing more forward, giving a nice profile of the gas mask.  The dom is not visible.  The greatest photo ever looks a little more like an oil painting fantasy.  It is only in seeing the video that it becomes clear that the photo reflects reality.)

My first version imitating this was a bit primitive.

A webbing hip harness is the classic rock climbing safety harness.  Within limits it is sufficient for limited suspension. Using this hip harness as a base, I was ready to try a more practical suspension, with the other pieces adding to comfort or usefulness.

I tied a reversed swiss seat.  I tied a shoulder harness that was a series of rope bends around the torso and shoulders.  (I have heard this referred to as a spider harness.)  I lifted soundsFun with the winch and was disappointed to be told that he was uncomfortable.

I let him down and retied as three overlapping loops, as is done with belts in the boundGods video.  Again uncomfortable.

I retied again as a simple single column with shoulder straps woven into the front.  SoundsFun said that it was comfortable.

Chains from wrist restraints to hard points in the floor make me feel that his limbs are secure.

I understand that my lift strategy was somewhat responsible for the discomfort of the first two harnesses.  Lifting from a single point near the middle of the back lifts significantly by the edge opposite from the winch hook.  In this case the shoulder straps.  This can be mitigated in three ways: spreading the shoulder weight with additional lines, tightening the torso wraps, or changing to lift to be from more directly above the torso wraps.  A spreader bar might have been the answer.

I still have work to do, but it was a step in the right direction.