Advance's Boundless: A Reversible Hike-and-Fly Harness With a Seat Board
パラワールド【超多面的パラグライダー情報チャンネル】PARAWORLD
At the Icarus Cup 2023 in Saint-Hilaire, France, an Advance representative presented the company's newest harness, the Boundless. They describe it as a reversible harness, meaning the harness and backpack convert into one another, but with a seat board. While a colleague, Danny, demonstrated the conversion, the representative explained how the harness is set up for flight, what makes its seat board different, and how it packs away after landing.
From Backpack to Harness
According to the representative, the conversion starts the same way as on other harnesses: you open it up. Then you slip it over to the other side, fold the backpack, and use a grip to bring the folded backpack to the protector. When this is done, the backpack becomes part of the harness's protector system. You close the zipper and you're ready to fly.
A Narrower, Softer Seat Board
The seat board is the feature that sets the Boundless apart from typical reversible designs. The representative pointed out that it is somewhat narrower than usual seat boards. Advance also made the sides quite soft. The goal, they explained, was to give almost the same sensation as a hammock-style harness, so that pilots get good feedback and feel comfortable sitting in a reversible harness.
Get-Up System and a Ground-Handling Loop
The Boundless uses the get-up system found on Advance's other harnesses. The new detail is aimed at pilots who do a lot of ground handling. They can fix the toggle in a dedicated loop, and when they stand up, it pushes the get-up system on both sides. The representative said this keeps the center of the body free, with no pressure and no pain, which they noted matters especially for men.
Adjustable Backpack Size and Back Protection
To repack for walking, you open the main zipper and slip out the backpack. A separate zipper lets you change the backpack's size. The representative said there are three different sizes. As an example, a pilot who prefers a very small hike-and-fly glider can zip away part of the pack and use the smaller volume.
For back support in flight, the harness has a foam piece that folds easily. If a pilot does not want to use the backpack as a protector, they can zip it away and put only the foam in the back. The foam then serves as the protector.
Packing Up After Landing
After a flight, the process described is short. You fold the harness, put it back into the backpack, and compress it a little to leave plenty of space for the glider. Then you close the main zipper and you are ready to leave.
The representative closed with greetings to the Japanese audience, wishing them good flights and safe landings.
So this time let's talk about the new Boundless, which is our newest reversible harness but with a seat board, and my colleague Danny is now showing how it works, the whole procedure to reverse it to the harness. So first of all you open as you do all the other harnesses, then you just slip it on the other side, and then you fold your backpack and you bring it with the grip, you bring it to the protector. So at the end the backpack is a part of your whole protector system. You close the zipper and you're ready to fly.
Let's have a quick talk about the seat board. As you can see, the seat board is a little bit more narrow than the usual seat boards, because we made it on the sides be quite soft in order to get almost the same sensation as on a hammock harness. So you do have a great feeling and you feel good sitting in this kind of reversible harness.
The well-known Get-Up system, as we do have with all our harnesses. And what is new is, for example, if you do a lot of ground handling, you just can fix the toggle in this loop, and when you're standing up it pushes the Get-Up system on both sides. So especially for men it's okay when you do have the center part of your body free, and there's no pressure and there's no pain.
To repack it, it's so easy: just open the main zipper, slip out your backpack.
You do have the possibility with this zipper to change the size of your backpack. We do have three different sizes of backpack, so for example if you're a pilot which is preferring a very small hike and fly glider, you can use the smaller backpack and just zipping away and change the size.
In the back, as a support while flying, you do have this foam, which is very easy to fold. You do have also the possibility, if you don't want to put the backpack as a protector, you just zip it away, just put the foam in the back, and you can use it as a protector as well. It's a lock.
So after the flight, if you did have a nice landing, just fold your harness, put it back in your backpack, compress it a little bit so there is much space for your glider, and then take the main zipper, close it, and you are ready to leave.
So we wish all you Japanese friends a very nice day. Have a nice flight, have a safe landing and enjoy your time. Thank you very much, arigatō.
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