This week I was putting our holiday décor back into storage when I discovered my old rigging harness and lanyard. I had a lot of questions: Can I use my personal fall protection anymore? How old is it? When did I last use it? Would my equipment pass a safety inspection? Who does safety inspections of personal fall protection? Do I even remember where I bought it? In the New Year’s spirit of clearing out the old to make room for the new (and maybe because I just finished binge-watching the new season of Queer Eye), I took my equipment out of storage and decided to take this opportunity to share my experience with figuring out what to do with an old rigging harness and lanyard.
First off, if you are not familiar with this equipment or its use, here is a brief explanation. By harness I am referring to a full-body harness that is worn by stage technicians, most often by those working in rigging, lighting, scenic, or automation departments. Lanyards can be made with or without shock absorbers and are used to connect the harness to a fall arrest system. I am not going to get into the details of the components of rigging or fall arrest systems in this article, however, if you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend Entertainment Rigging: A Practical Guide by Harry Donovan.
I started my quest for information on what to do with my old harness and lanyard by answering the easiest question first: How old is my equipment? I did a keyword search in my Gmail account for “Petzl”, the manufacturer of my lanyard, and found the receipt from my original order, dated September 16, 2008. Further inspection of the tag on my harness revealed a manufacture date of July 2008. As of today, my equipment is approximately 13 years and 5 months old. When did I last use it? If memory serves correctly, I think the last time I used this equipment was around 2017.
Do I even remember where I bought it? My Gmail sleuthing also revealed the place where I purchased my equipment: Patroller Supply, based in Denver, CO. At the time, I was living in Seattle, WA and many of my colleagues ordered their personal fall protection equipment from this company. I did an online search to see if they were still around, and I found their Facebook page. However, their last post was in October 2019, and it shared a link to their current website. Unfortunately, their previous domain name appears to have expired and been purchased by a new owner as www.patrollersupply.com is no longer associated with their company.
The apparent downsizing of Patroller Supply seems like another entertainment industry casualty of the Pandemic. The shutdown of live events in 2020 meant that stage technicians, theatre companies, and other entertainment companies were less likely to be spending money on personal fall protection for themselves or their employees. Small businesses like Patroller Supply have suffered the consequences of this loss of income.
Who else besides distributors can conduct safety inspections of personal fall protection? Since I did not find useful information about inspections on the new Patroller Supply website, I decided to research the manufacturers of my equipment; Petzl, and Yates, and I found a few resources that can assist with the evaluation and inspection of personal fall protection equipment.
Petzl’s website provides helpful FAQ pages on When should I retire my equipment? and How do I retire my gear? As well as these Guidelines for retiring your equipment.
Yate’s Criteria for shipping harnesses or webbing product to Yates Gear for repair or inspection states that:
“Yates Gear offers factory inspection and/or repair of any Yates Harnesses including Yates Spec Pak. Yates Gear products(s)must accompany an RMA# before being returned to Yates Gear. The RMA# can be obtained by contacting our Customer Service department. Yates Gear will not accept any product(s) that is or is contaminated with dirt or any foreign substance. The product(s) must be cleaned (laundered) and dried before shipping to Yates Gear. If the product(s) are shipped to Yates Gear contaminated “un-cleaned” condition the product will be returned, at your expense, with no action taken.“
Would my equipment pass a safety inspection? The Yates Gear Inc. Webbing Products (including Harnesses) Service Life says:
“A ten-year service life span is the maximum recommendation for all continuous use webbing products. Yates Gear Inc. can recommend service life span to ten years from the date the item was first “Put in Service”, not from Date of Manufacture. Yates Gear also recommends that Life Safety ropes and webbing products be put into active service within 5 years of its production date.“
Another resource, especially for those in the Los Angeles, CA area is VER Sales Inc.
VER Sales “is authorized to recertify and repair the following systems:”
- DBI/ SALA – Sayfglida, Evolution, Self Retracting Lifelines
- Miller – SOLL Engineered Systems, Self Retracting Lifelines
- Uniline – Uni -8, Uni -16, Unirail and other Engineered Systems
- Tractel – Engineered systems FallStop and GripHoist products
- Spanco/ RigidLifelines – Truss Track Engineered Systems
As live events and touring have slowly begun to come back over the last year, I hope that individuals and companies alike are taking time to have their personal fall protection equipment inspected by qualified professionals.
Can I use my personal fall protection anymore? I think not. This is primarily due to age, given that both manufactures recommend a ten-year service life span and my equipment is 13+ years old. In addition to age, when I consider the usage, the environmental conditions, travel, and storage, I am confident that my equipment would not pass inspection.
For now, my plan is to deconstruct my harness and lanyard, using the Petzl Guidelines for disassembly, and hopefully donate some of the materials to Suay Sew Shop, where some of the webbing might be able to be used to create handles for tote bags or other products. I might repurpose some of the hardware (plant hangers? Hammock hooks?) and I discovered that the shoulder padding on my harness was simply attached with Velcro, and I can already see more comfortable purse and luggage straps in my future…
Let me know in the comments if you have more ideas for what to do with old personal fall protection equipment. Kindly note that inappropriate comments will not be approved – you can save those for the back lounge!