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Florida Suspension Tragedy
 Aug 2008
First, a little background information:

This accident is truly a tragedy, no doubt. One that all of us in the suspension community have felt coming for quite some time. None of us wanted any accidents like this to happen, but it became an inevitability. Despite not knowing the crew or Jimmy personally, my heart and sympathy goes out to all of them and the family and friends involved in this horrific situation.

There's been a lot of speculation, blame, and aggression surrounding this incident, and I feel that they are all perfectly valid emotions. We've not heard precise details on what happened, and as is the nature of the internet everyone has their own opinion about it. I was happy to see Joe's post on MySpace about the actual piece of rigging that failed, however I feel that the post is far too brief for any of us to come to any conclusions. Emrys ran down the technical reasons for why it failed but that still leaves many questions left to be answered. How did one quick link failing cause him to fall? Where was the safety harness since he was rather high up? What type of hooks was he on? And so on.

I've watched the press video with Joe in it and I feel that he handled the press rather professionally, which was great to see. However, since this instance effects all of us involved in the suspension community, nationwide, potentially worldwide, I feel that more disclosure and less speculation is needed in order for all of us to benefit from this and in hopes that this history is not repeated.

In Ohio, we had an incident several years ago surrounding a suspension performance that nearly got suspensions completely banned in Ohio. Thanks to David Vidra and his wonderful organization, Health Educators, we managed to avoid that fate. That doesn't mean that we are in the clear at all, it just means that we work more directly with our Health Department to make certain that there is transparency in what we do. The difference here is that what happened in Ohio didn't result in anyone being harmed, let alone hospitalized.

Blame is not to be placed entirely on the crew that this happened to. It rests on all of our shoulders. We've all seen or heard of other suspension groups out there doing things in substandard ways. Many of us snub our noses at them or are unwilling to work with them to make them better. For the most part, the suspension world, much like the piercing world, has become full of hacks. I'm in no way insinuating that the crew involved in Florida are hacks or anything of that nature, I'm thinking in much more broad terms. In order for us to legitimize our ritual/art/performance community, we, all of us, must be proactive, and this is the perfect opportunity to step up and show the rest of the world that we all take this seriously. Call your health department, talk with them, make sure that you know them and that they know you. Hell, invite them to a bbq or a show that you are hosting so that they can see what it is that we do. It's all too easy to stare at a monitor and watch a video and point fingers, and for the people not involved, it's easy for them to "not get it" but at least if your local health department is aware of you, and you came to them, then it shows some initiative.

We need to take this opportunity to better ourselves and our community instead of letting it tear us apart.
Site changes
 soon!


First off, as of June 14th, our favorite piercing shop in Columbus, Modified Soul closed it's doors.  Many great suspension experiences, as well as just plain old good times, happened in that shop and it is sorely missed.  In 2007, ihung and Modified Soul unified our suspension teams under the name ihung, so Modified Soul is a part of us, and always will be.
In more uplifting news, ihung.org is looking to change webhosting companies in the very near future.  Since it's inception, this site has been graciously hosted by HCST.net which I'm extremly grateful for, as they were my employer for several years and are a wonderful company all around, but it is time for the site to move on.  I'm hoping to have the site running with an rss feed so that it will be easier for everyone to know about upcoming events and whatnot, and I should have the site moved in the next month or two, but might not have a new site in that time. I'm not web designer!  

As for suspension related news, despite not having our tried and true location any longer, we are still offering private suspensions to interested parties, it just might take a tad bit longer to find reliable spaces for indoor stuff. So, if you are interested in suspending/pulling/etc use the contact link on the left to get in touch with us.

ihung.org