The importance of wearing safety equipment

[sabrewolfe]

Eyes are starting to become my pet hate when it comes to re-enactment injuries, shame there is not a decent type of safety goggle that you could wear without it being noticable until someone was right on top of you. Authenticity versus possibly not having a eye.

Glad to hear you escaped serious injury Suzy, your group is one of the few that I know has current first aid certified people.

[Ethereal Dreamer]

If they had them back then, they'd have worn them!
*nods*

I keep meaning to do a course myself..... as it was all I could do was sit and wait for someone who knew what to do could help me.

[sabrewolfe]

Ah classic re-enactor logic,suppose it would work better under closed face helms than open face helms. Anyway if there were enough people interested in doing a first aid course I could organise one specifically tailored to re-enactment injuries people would be certified to a decent standard, it would be run by Irish Red Cross and held in dublin.

As another aside if any group wants a decent first aid kit sorted, I buy my personal stock stuff in bulk from suppliers so I can get one together at cost price again tailored to re-enactment injuries. Totally non profit.

[knightofredemption]

A note on jousting...there is one outfit that puts on the occasional joust. Their jousters use fiberglass helmets and armour.

[barry]

Hi all
@ Paul we have organised 5 jousts here in Ireland over the last 2 years and i know of at least ten or more that have happened.
@ Paul i would put down two names for that first aid course if it goes ahead.
@ Paul how much is a first aid kit form you and could you have one for cork.

[knightofredemption]

I hasten to point out it was not Barry's crew using Fiberglass armour.....Didn't know you did that Baz, you live and learn

[Dave Mooney]

I think Barry books a crew for given events rather than it being from with-in his group. He can enlighten.

However, would fibre glass be more flexible? Also, I've seen footage of a stunt/display team doing it and their lances are not stiff all the way along. A segment in the middle is replaced with what looks like a bunch (traditional measurement) of pasta (straight) that is bound in. The lance then explodes at that point and it looks like splinters. Fibre glass is all you need for that level of fakery.

[knightofredemption]

Yes Dave, that is the deal. Not sure I would rely on it myself as has been shown, freak accidents can happen....mind you I guess that is the nature of freak accidents....they are freakish, and they're accidents. Impossible to be completely safe in our game.

[sabrewolfe]

Wow I stand corrected on the Jousting, would love to see that at some stage.

@ Paul - Yup agree nothing is ever totally safe, half the accidents I see are flukes where safety kit prevented it being worse, the other half has boiled down to silly things that safety kit would have prevented. Its all about doing things as safely as possible which helps mittigate the number of accidents and injurys

@ Barry - I will let you know if we get enough people to run one, only three or four people were interested last time,which is not enough to run a course
If there is not enough to run an official course I may just try and get people together for an informal day where you get some of the basic stuff shown to you like slings, bandages and the likes.

Re: First aid kit, how big a sized kit do you want and how much do you want to spend? I can organise you a decent sized one for about fifty quid with a fair whack of kit in it. Just emailed one of my suppliers to confirm the price of kit bag as thats usually the most expensive bit. Will get back to you later this morning and post kit bag details in reply for anyone thats interested in first aid kits. I can sort them out in time for Cork no problem

Here is the type of bag I usually get for people, they are hard wearing and fairly discrete but they do have reflective strips which makes them easier to find at night.

[brendan]

AFAIK the jousting guys usually use Balsa. The splinter involved was balsa - cant see how Fiber glass would be safer