Choosing an Impact vest ?

[fluidity]

For some time I thought that wearing a seat harness was all I needed to stop a harness's bar sliding up and damaging my ribs after an unfortunate incident...
Then a few weeks ago (in my seat harness) I jumped into a gust that I totally underestimated. I think the gust must have caught my kite slightly side on because all of a sudden my kite was looping hard down wind and I was falling down about 12 meters onto my side with no line tension left. The bruise on my thigh took about 3 days to start to show and my ribs were tender enough that after I'd recovered my polaroids and gone out again I didn't much feel like jumping. I think my ribs were hurt simply from side on impact with the water very fast.
So I'm back to jumping now, though not yet so hard out and looking for a vest to protect my ribs. Obviously something that's thin and grippy where my harness clips on but where it needs to protect my ribs, I want something that doesn't follow the same curvature of my ribs. Like a laminated composite board uses laminations in different directions, I want an impact vest that has it's motion creases aligned in a different direction than my ribs.
Can anyone suggest an impact vest manufacturer an model that fits these requirements?
Thanks,
Graham

[rynhardt]

Not sure if this will meet your requirements, but I use a liquid force wakeboarding impact vest.
It's got unpadded bits at the bottom that tucks under my seat harness and a single big pad on the sides.

[rynhardt]

Not sure if this will meet your requirements, but I use a liquid force wakeboarding impact vest.
It's got unpadded bits at the bottom that tucks under my seat harness and a single big pad on the sides.

[fluidity]

Thanks rynhardt, I like the look of the "liquidforce supreme impact vest" more but hoping for some opinions from people who've had a good crash in impact vests and what the results were?
Seems like a lot of vest makers just use the foam blocks to make artificial six-packs or model after Marvel action hero chests. The ION Collision Impact Vest is a bit like this with a sort of six-pack shape and a gap between the upper and middle blocks that unfortunately aligns with ribs. I'm sure the ladies like those vests but I'm looking for something functional.

While I'm no medical expert, my theory is that rib bones are tougher than the cartilage linking them together. Ribs flex on the cartilage but the sort of hard impacts I've had have overstressed that linking cartilage, not the actual rib bones. My May injury last year I could feel my ribs were like fingers being placed together then squashed from the sides till a finger pops out of the line. So it seems to me that any vests that have blocks aligning with rib direction only reinforce the rib bones but not the cartilage. To reinforce the cartilage I want the flexibility creases on a different line from the ribs. Sports Drs may have a different opinion... in a severe enough crash the ribs will actually break in which case aligning ribs with the impact pads makes sense. In this situation though, I think the pads compress and merge anyway.
For an impact vest used with a waist harness, another critical factor must be to distribute any upwards thrust to the bottom of the rib cage over a larger area to avoid breaking the inter rib cartilage. A kiting harness is designed to fit around the middle of the waist, not the chest area so any upwards forces have to be combated by something. Armpit of the vest, volume of the lungs and rib cage, tension on the lower thin section of the impact vest. None of this is as effective as a seat harness of course.

[Pierrot]

I used that one for a while after the same kind of rib injury ( rib bones to poped out of the cartilage slots) https://www.murrays.com/product/cl-553/

Good rib protection with padding at the right place, not sure it is sold anymore.

[junebug]

Thanks rynhardt, I like the look of the "liquidforce supreme impact vest" more but hoping for some opinions from people who've had a good crash in impact vests and what the results were?
Seems like a lot of vest makers just use the foam blocks to make artificial six-packs or model after Marvel action hero chests. The ION Collision Impact Vest is a bit like this with a sort of six-pack shape and a gap between the upper and middle blocks that unfortunately aligns with ribs. I'm sure the ladies like those vests but I'm looking for something functional.

While I'm no medical expert, my theory is that rib bones are tougher than the cartilage linking them together. Ribs flex on the cartilage but the sort of hard impacts I've had have overstressed that linking cartilage, not the actual rib bones. My May injury last year I could feel my ribs were like fingers being placed together then squashed from the sides till a finger pops out of the line. So it seems to me that any vests that have blocks aligning with rib direction only reinforce the rib bones but not the cartilage. To reinforce the cartilage I want the flexibility creases on a different line from the ribs. Sports Drs may have a different opinion... in a severe enough crash the ribs will actually break in which case aligning ribs with the impact pads makes sense. In this situation though, I think the pads compress and merge anyway.
For an impact vest used with a waist harness, another critical factor must be to distribute any upwards thrust to the bottom of the rib cage over a larger area to avoid breaking the inter rib cartilage. A kiting harness is designed to fit around the middle of the waist, not the chest area so any upwards forces have to be combated by something. Armpit of the vest, volume of the lungs and rib cage, tension on the lower thin section of the impact vest. None of this is as effective as a seat harness of course.

I think you are overthinking this. Just go with one that has lots of padding. I don't think the alignment of the foam really matters. The impact area is broad enough that the foam around any gaps will flatten and protect the entire area.

I broke a rib 7 or so years ago wearing a Mystic waist harness. Switched to Dakine Nitrous integrated harness and an Ion Collision vest and haven't broken another one yet.

By the way, although a rib breakage heals in 6-8 weeks, it can take years to feel the same.

[galewarning]

Promotion, Hood River based, makes a nice zip-front vest with a Velcro waist. This allows a much better fit than a full-zip front.

http://stores.wetsuit.com/kite-vest-black-f27/

[rogue_kiteboarder]

It does not get better than the Dakine Surface vest:

https://kiteboarding.com/proddetail.asp ... rface_vest

On a budget, try the Naish Defender vest on closeout:

https://kiteboarding.com/proddetail.asp ... rface_vest

[Da Yoda]

Obviously something that's thin and grippy where my harness clips on but where it needs to protect my ribs, I want something that doesn't follow the same curvature of my ribs. Like a laminated composite board uses laminations in different directions, I want an impact vest that has it's motion creases aligned in a different direction than my ribs.
Can anyone suggest an impact vest manufacturer an model that fits these requirements?
Thanks,
Graham

Follow is one of the leading brands in impact vests. Check out these two for an alternative padding alignment...
http://followwake.com/shop/wakeboard-ve ... pa_size=xs
http://followwake.com/shop/wakeboard-ve ... pa_size=xs

Or you can go "seamless" with LF's Enigma vest...
http://www.liquidforce.com/vests-enigma-comp.html

[tautologies]

I think there are some coincidences when it comes to crashes and impact vests. I have had many different ones..most of which I did not like. The two main ones I had that I did like was a DaKine and the Naish one. Dakine had little less padding under the arms / sides but were a tighter fit. It also has less flotation. The Naish one seems a tad more bulky, but has thicker protection also under the arms and also more flotation.
Both were good at keeping my waist harness in place.