Dakine Fusion harness riding up...why?

[Rossta]

Ok I'm fairly new to the sport. I was using a waist harness for a while before I recently bought a dakine fusion seat harness because I have back issues and wanted to make sure I protected my back as much as possible. I know these seat harnesses are supposed to be good about not riding up but I have not had such luck. Its rides up and gives me a wedgy which is very uncomfortable! I wonder what I'm doing wrong, I tighten all the straps before I go out. Any ideas? I'm about to go back top my waist harness if I can't figure this out...at least when it rides up I don't get a wedgy! Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks!

[NYKiter]

Stay with the seat harness. As a beginner your going to get yanked around because your flying skills are not fully developed. It might squeeze your jewels a few times but its better than getting bruised ribs. Might be a good idea to purchase the hinged spreader bar to keep it from rolling up on the pelvic bones as you will be flying it above your head a lot. Dakine Fusion is excellent. Good luck.

[longbeachrider]

The wedgies reflect your poor posture and lack of skill as a newbe so stick with it - same happened to all of us when we started out.

- Keep the harness/leg straps tight.

- The wedgies reflect some pretty neat wipe outs and overtime, you will crash much less and when you do wipe out, you will do it in a "cleaner" fashion.

- Need to focus on keeping your body at 90 degrees to the kite lines.

- I wear a waist harness and now and then I will screw up a trick and this causes my waist harness to move around. I will clean myself up in the water... Lie on my back facing downwind with the kite flying high and adjust my harness... You can do the same.

- You may just have a small butt and the harness leg straps have nothing to wrap around. A smaller harness, another seat harness design, or Dakine shorts harness may be needed. Technically, its possible that particular harness and your body requires wider separation where the seat straps connect to the harness.

Good luck.

[clint2070]

I agree with getting dakine boardshorts harness. I never had problems with them. Wore them for years. If you plan kiting for years to come and arent on a budget i would buy the ride engine harness. Best harness ive ever owned. Takes him 6 weeks to make it and $350 but its the best harness investment youll ever make. 852426175641605

[Rossta]

Thanks for the input guys. I will try tightening the leg straps, I haven't been doing that very much. But I thought the whole advantage to having a seat harness(especially when your a beginner) is that its doesn't ride up. Even once you have experience, you will be boosting airs which is going to pull up on the harness, it won't ride up then? I'm a little disappointed but hopefully it gets better.

[longbeachrider]

Thanks for the input guys. I will try tightening the leg straps, I haven't been doing that very much. But I thought the whole advantage to having a seat harness(especially when your a beginner) is that its doesn't ride up. Even once you have experience, you will be boosting airs which is going to pull up on the harness, it won't ride up then? I'm a little disappointed but hopefully it gets better.

Its body position and skill. If you attempted the same tricks with a waist harness, guaranteed it would be up around your armpits. Boosting airs requires you to keep your body weight through your arms/bar and body position somewhat "perpendicular" to the pull of the kite.

If you want to see how "messed up" your current style is, make the switch to a waist harness. You will hate it and it will hurt, but any issue is just a reflection of current skill/technique and not the equipment.

IMO, stick with the waist harness as long as you can and focus on all the basic techniques such as front side/toe side riding/toe side down loop transitions/pops and basic jumps. Your kite skills should be automatic in that you are looking around you and where you are going instead of looking at the kite... Flying the kite through the feel of the bar. Should be able to get through the Progression Intermediate skills on your seat harness... Then make the jump to waist harness and start working on your front/back rolls/unidirectional etc.

Wedgies are natures way of saying you are doing it wrong

[tegirinenashi]

It does ride up: I base this assertion on comparison with 3 other Dakine harnesses I used (Fusion 2002, Matrix 2006, Matrix 2010). This is probably due to inferior design: it is taller than ancient Fusion from 2002, and the cut between leg strap is narrower. There is only one power belt strap on the left side, so the tension is weak (again, I'm comparing it to 3 other Dakine's).

Initially, I thought that perhaps the right belt strap velcro disconnected and was buried inside. A failed attempt to find it inside messed up the harness belts, but Dakine was generous to exchange it. The next year model doesn't have powerbelt on the right side as well.

To summarize, this classic product can be improved in 2 areas:
- wider distance between leg straps with larger and flatter seating/crouch area
- tighter belt

Two other factors - lower the bar, and tighter leg straps - the harness can be adjusted. This is something for me to experiment in next session.

[steemers]

I have had no problems with my 2013 Fusion harness and it has been very comfortable - but I did need to spend some time adjusting it to fit well. Of course different body shapes may have different experiences ...
Two suggestions: adjust the small strap between the leg straps at the back of the harness (I had to tighten it quite a bit). Second, when tightening straps when you put the harness on start at the bottom and work up: leg straps then lower bar straps and finally upper bar straps.
Good luck.