So very, very cold

It’s one thing to do a suspension outdoors in winter.  It’s a completely different thing to do a tandem suspension outdoors in the middle of a Russian winter at night.

Of course it’s The Sinner Team!  This is just one of a number of winter suspensions that they’ve sent in photos of over the past week.  Check out their BME gallery to see more of their winter fun.

Teamwork gets it done

In an effort to keep trying new and different things, The Sinner Team put together this triple tandem suspension.

Here’s the breakdown of the hook placements.  On top is an 8 point knee(?) suspension, although the hooks start at his knees and move up his thigh.  From there he has 6 hooks in his chest, and another 6 in his back to hold up the square rigging plate.  On the bottom is a single point chest, and a 4 point resurrection.  According to the description given, the extra hooks on the top were there to relieve the pressure on the spine, which was an issue with earlier tandem suspensions.

And here is the team that put it all together.

As always, The Sinner Team documented everything, and you can check out all the steps involved in the team portfolio gallery.

Teamwork is key

For those of you not familiar with The Sinner Team out of Moscow, they’re a suspension team that is continually trying to push the envelope of what can be accomplished through suspensions.  They’ve recently sent in photos from a number of different suspensions, so expect to see them pop up over the next little bit.

As for today, we’re going to take a look at a couple of their recent tandem suspensions.  To start with, we have what appears to be a tandem superman suspension, although the placement of the three hooks on the lower suspension leads me to believe that it’s called something else.

There’s another photo after the break, as well as a video from one of the Sinner Team’s most dangerous suspensions.

Next up is a triple suspension, primarily consisting of suicide suspensions, but with added knees for the middle suspendee.

Finally there’s a video that has been making the rounds for a little while now, featuring an extremely dangerous suspension.  Before watching it, please keep in mind that this is NOT a typical set up, and the level of risk involved is astronomical.

As with all suspensions, these are not something to be attempted without the supervision of a team of experienced practitioners.  Even then, there is always room for improvement, which is why the suspension community hosts Suscons all over, to keep practitioners up to date in all the latest developments in practicing safe suspensions.

The best of the best

At the Dallas Suspension Practitioners Convention, where the best of the best  in the suspension community work together, you get to see the best of modern suspension rigging.

Take this photo Jared submitted for instance. The most noticeable variation of the rigging is the catch cups. How many times have we seen tandem suspensions done that took no precautions to reduce the risk of the lower suspendee being contaminated by the upper suspendee? These catch cups may not 100% isolate the lower suspendee from risk of contamination but they certainly lower the risk factor to a far more acceptable level.

The cord I am assuming is tech-12, (feel free to correct me if you were there and I am wrong on this) which has a ridiculously higher breaking strength than the 550 cord most suspension teams still use. Then there are the hooks, these particular hooks are made by Black Sheep Hooks and are an 8 gauge locking design with a higher breaking strength and the added  safety factor of it being a locked design when compared to the mustads, which are far more commonly used. Then, of course, there is also an assortment of locking carabiners and high rated shackles.

If you want to keep up with the latest and greatest in suspension techniques and equipment, be sure to check out the SusCon picture recently uploaded to this gallery , and also read up on the forums at suspension.org.

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