Landyards

[style]

anyone have a good desription of how to make landyards?

 

[jome]

There are many good designs, but here's mine:

http://jome.1g.fi/kuvat/lanyard/IMG_3628.jpg/full
http://jome.1g.fi/kuvat/lanyard/IMG_3627.jpg/full

I think the images say more than a thousand words, but here's half a thousand anyway

The wrist part is basically a short scuba weight belt. Sturdy, but easy enough to open if needed, does not open by accident. The I have the stainless steel D-ring in there which hopefully complies with the AIDA rule of having a 25mm diameter ring.

I have then made 2 different "ropes" that I use depending on the discipline, interchangeable with a pistol clip. The ropes are 2mm stainless steel wire, secured to loops in both ends by crimps and the whole thing is made more rigid running it through a plastic tube (to pervent entanglement). The short one I use in Free Immersion on my ankle (going feet first), the longer one for anything else. For the short one I also addes some shrinking tube (or what ever it is in english), to make it even more rigid. Shrinking tube also works fine alone on ropes and wires if you put several layers of it and comes out looking fairly neat and "pro"

I really like the type of carabiner (which is also steel), but some people hate them. I like it because it is heavy enough so it sinks before you. The rope keeps straight up and down and it doesn't get caught "floating around". On the way down, you simply let the carabiner "lead" you, on the way up, you let it hang down. I also like the feature that it has a separate loop for tieing the rope, so the descent line and lanyard "knot" never come in touch with each other.

I also put a lot of tape in after the knot to make it totally rigid for the first 5-10 cm from the carabiner, because I used to get a lot of problems with ropes bending in that part and locking the carabiner around the descent line (hard to explain).

Anyway, that's just one design, and it's not the cheapest option. I think 2mm steel wire is a bit over doing it. Also some people would find the wrist part too bulky. For me it works fine and gives a sense of security. The whole thing is strong enough to pull a car or something

It is also very secure and doesn't come off by accident (my old one based on a snap shackle would open all the time - and as Bill Strömberg kindly demonstarted, every time if enough force was applied) but it has 3 points of "quick release" to choose from if I should get stuck...

The yellow nylon "flag" in the wrist is simply to imply "if in panic - pull here to release", and that's what I consider the primary quick release

Damn, that only came to 463 words, not even close to half thousand! I need to plan my posts more carefully

 

[jome]

Oh, and for recreational diving at moderate depths, I think a far more effective (cost and building time) is simply a good carabiner, some sturdy wire (I used a 3mm nylon string), run it through a plastic tube or shrinking tube (this is the important bit) and finally, put a "hanging knot" in the wrist part.

I know it doesn't satisfy competition rules, but it's simple, cheap, effective and most of all: works.

The biggest part you can mess up is not making the rope rigid. You will find your self entangled in a matter of few dives...