myusername,

I wear my impact vest above the harness, so impact vest will not help your case.

Impact vest protect against impacts, although i manage to break some ribs while wearing it... . I cannot remember if the pain appeared during the take off (similar to your problem) or at the landing (err... shall I say "heavy crashing"). I think that a very tight harness associated to a powerfull take off was the cause of the broken ribs. A bad and harsh landing on the ribs might have finished the job . I now do not excessively tight the harness to allow it to move a bit before it has to crush the ribs (if that makes sense).

Hope this makes sense.

...or maybe your harness simply does not fit your body shape

Enjoy!

Fred

myusername,

I used to wear my harness very tight. I think that was a main cause of breaking my ribs. I now wear it tight, though not loose.

Besides the main webbing, the harness (Flying Object Contour) has a second set of straps at a lower level that mould the harness to the body and minimise it sliding up.

I jump a lot but have my kite relatively low otherwise and never crash (THE LIER!!!). No I do regularly crash significantly hard from missed landings, but the harness does not ride up to a point that it annoys me.

I generally wear a wetsuit. That might make a difference?

Also, a bit of pain is probably part of the sport.

Cheers,

Fred