Waist Harness - How do you keep yours at belly button?

[dllee]

Trick is the lines have to come off your body at 90 degrees, so the hook stays centered on the waist harness.
Kevin Prichard also uses a waist harness for slalom.

[manuel]

My harness doesn't ride up when I'm sailing, it's when I'm doing things such as bending over, sitting down, downhauling, etc. When I bend over the lower part of the harness pushes against my hips/upper legs and drives the harness up. This is why when I rode it looser, it'd go back down by itself and was not an issue. Actually, I wouldn't mind wearing the harness higher up if the hook was lower!

To address the seat harness debate, I'm not fond of the type of pull I get from a seat. I'm sure I could find some kind of hybrid seat that worked ok but honestly I would prefer to avoid them if I can find a waist that sets properly on me.

This is a fine tuning problem, I am just looking for squeezing the most out of my equipment. Do we have so few people on waists here???

[dllee]

I use a seat harness 11 months out of the year, maybe 100 days year.
Month of Dec., I use only a waist harness, in Puerto Rico. Hook is higher, otherwise no difference in my sailing.
Waist harness is great for hooking in and out on short reach's.
Seat harness is more locked in for longer runs.

[manuel]

dup...

[isobars]

[manuel]

Yes I tried my waist lower than belly button... oof didn't like it!

This is from the classifieds, maybe a cheaper alternative (rather than buying a new harness) to make what I own work? (referring to the bar padding)

[isobars]

I can only guess that people whose seat harnesses (any harness with crotch straps, for this discussion) restrict them while sailing (or eating lunch or standing around waiting for the wind to resume or taking a nap) are using overbuilt seat harnesses. Some, as in this case, certainly are:

http://www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=276431&highlight=ford#276431

The solution to that problem, if a waist harness isn't ideal, is a different seat harness.

[manuel]

Tried my M Thermoform with belts not too tight but bar very tight. It didn't work as the harness was able to ride even higher up. The T3 being larger has more surface on my back and therefore more friction. On the T3, I can also tighten the bar more without feeling like my gut is being squeezed!

Finally the bar can twist upward because of the sliding mechanism so when riding a mix of swell and chop there's some energy loss. It makes riding overpowered more difficult.

For now I'll be riding my T3 setup so that it comes back down easily. I first need to get myself a new boom after breaking two!

[rswabsin]

Manuel - For what its worth, it sounds like I'm about the same weight/size as you and I too have similar problems with my DaKine T3/T4 waist Harness riding up. Honestly, I've just become accustomed to situating it just above my hips before my beach start. If I take a spill, I have to shove it back down into place before water starting - it's just second nature at this point. I found that medium cinching of the Velcro waist and slightly tighter cinching of the hook belt works good for me - I also use a roller type spreader bar which I prefer over the hook type. While renting gear on vacations - I found Naish harnesses to be slightly better and more comfortable but they still move up - can't recall the model. I don't think you are going to find the perfect waist windsurfing harness solution simply because of our anatomy - the diameter of our waist from the hips on up to mid chest is pretty uniform so any type of waist harness will tend to move up when we move a lot or it becomes buoyant in water. The only thing keeping it in place is a snug fit and friction. So maybe a more form fitting and more elasticized kite harness could be the answer if it exists.

Please report back if you do find something that works for you.

Rob

[isobars]

This works well on the hockey elbow guard I slip over my wetsuit when my elbow and forearm need protection. I don't know why it wouldn't work on a waist harness, also.