If you’re interested in playing with suspension, them this article is worth a read. It does a good job of laying out the factors to consider and the associated risks.
Personally I found suspension interesting to try out, but it has a low endorphin to time spent ratio. It looks cool, and it’s fun when you finally get it right, but there’s a lot of faffing around required. If you’re purely looking for sensation rather than aesthetics, them swings achieve a similar rush at lower cost.
I’m afraid I don’t have an attribution for this artwork. It looks like it has been trimmed on the top and bottom, but I can’t track down a larger version. If anyone can point me at an alternative version or the artist then please leave a comment.
Years ago, there was a famous incident in which a suspension failed, when the guy being suspended fell, all of his weight went to a single line that was tied to his balls, which were torn off.
So it’s super important not to just make it up as you go along.
People who know what they’re doing use tried and true designs that are robust in the face of failure. If some part of it isn’t right, if a single part fails, the rig doesn’t become deadly, or maim someone.
I’ve heard the same story from a couple of different dommes. I’m always slightly suspicious as there’s never a name or place to attribute it to. Feels like it could be something that went from “Wouldn’t it be awful if…” into “I heard about a guy who…” š
However, it’s certainly something that could happen with a badly set up scene. And there’s plenty of people out there with more ambition than talent. So entirely possible and very scary. As you say, redundancy to avoid single points of failure is always important.
-paltego
The scene you describe makes me shudder, Alex.
We use a hoist from the building supplies and d.i.y. market, a heavy steel spreader bar and special leather ankle cuffs to suspend Marga. And we always used double ended metal snap hooks. Safe enough, right?
Not entirely!
One evening one of those snap hooks broke and disintegrated. Our mate called it brittle failure. Luckily she remained suspended from one leg and I could grab her immediately to stabilise her. Had that hook been deployed between the hoist and the spreader bar, I might have been less lucky and Marga could have broken her neck.
Put the Fear of God into us and put us off suspension games for quite a while. We now deploy the types also used by rock climbers, with short leather straps with buckles as back up.
Suspension play remains extremely exciting. And pictures of rope suspension (the end result; not the tedious process leading up to it) almost always look fantastic; especially when the rope work is done by an expert artist.
That failure sounds horribly scary Titia. It’s a great illustration of how easily things can go wrong, even with a well planned scene. There’s always some risk in life, but it sounds like you’ve done everything possible to minimize it for your scenes.
Like you, I love the imagery of fancy ropework suspension. It can look amazing. Although I think some of the really fancy shots have the models only suspended for just long enough to snap the picture, before assistants rush in to support them!
Thanks for stopping by to comment.
-paltego
That was heart stoppingly scary. Still is, after all these years.
Madame forgot to mention they hooded me before hoisting me up and my hands were cuffed behind my back; secured to a leather belt around my waist. I was absolutely helpless and in no position to help her break my fall. Took a split of a second for My Lord to step in, unhook my other leg and help Her lowering me to the floor. It felt like minutes.
A nice evening of objectification, humiliations with a bit of playful cunt and clit torture thrown in, messy sex and other filth that shuns the light of day, could have ended very pear shaped.
The Netherlands (still) don’t have a well developed yellow press, like the UK and Germany, but imagine the headlines and feel the cold shivers running up and down your spine.
That definitely would have ruined what sounds like a very enjoyably evening. Glad you made it down OK. I have trouble with hoods at the best of times – let alone when I’m upside down and hanging from one leg.
I’d never heard the expression ‘yellow press’ before so thanks for broadening my education there.
-paltego