Rigging | Cirque de Vol

Aerial Rigging

New to aerial arts? Love it? Great! Thinking of rigging your own space?…

10 Good Reasons Why New Aerialists Should Think Carefully Before Rigging:

1. Safety. While the aerial community works hard to keep aerial arts safe, the reality is that people can be seriously and even fatally injured by practicing aerial.

2. Liability Risk. Rigging your own space means you are personally taking on substantial liability risk. If anyone is injured in your space, they or their next of kin can sue you.

3. Training in the studio with an instructor and other students means you never have to train alone. Even highly trained aerialists should NEVER PRACTICE ALONE. It’s important that there always be at least one other person present to help if there is an accident and to call 911.

4. Rigging is a skill in itself. Only trained riggers are qualified to assess the load bearing capacity of a roof or potential rigging points. If you want to learn how to rig, study rigging! If not, consult a reputable rigger.

5. Injury prevention. Practicing in safe conditions will help you avoid injuries so that you can practice for many years and ultimately become a stronger aerialist.

6. Practicing in unsafe conditions not only is dangerous for you as an individual, but it actually harms the entire field of aerial arts. More accidents leads to higher liability risk associated with aerial arts and increasingly higher costs for insuring aerial arts. High risk and high cost prevents people from offering classes and performances.

7. Give yourself time to develop. Having your own equipment and rig does not alone make you a stronger aerialist. Training extensively with experienced instructors does make you a stronger aerialist, whether or not you have your own rig.

8. There are excellent ways to cross train for aerial outside the studio from running and swimming to crunches and pull-ups.

9. Protect your good reputation. People in the field of aerial arts will respect you more if you help uphold aerial safety standards.

10. Aerial is about community! As a community, we spot each other, we nudge each other on to do that one extra pull-up, we take care of each other’s rope burns and give hugs and encouragement and suggestions. Help us keep our community safe and supportive for everyone.

Train together. Stay safe together. Have fun together!

Enjoy the New Blog Post: Rigging the Aerial Sling By Kevin Nesnow and Quynbi Ada

Meet Cirque de Vol Aerial Rigger Kevin Nesnow

Kevin has been a professional rigger, work at height safety trainer and evaluator, rope accesstechnician, backcountry access guide, and fall protection safety equipment retailer for over 10 years. His attraction to climbing and heights as a child amplified when his older sister introduced him to sport rock climbing at the age of ten. This passion has persisted ever since.

While receiving his MBA at the University of Hawaii, Kevin partnered with the small climbing outfitter Climb Aloha. The company soon grew from selling rock climbing equipment to providing professional fall protection equipment to all work at height industries. In addition to equipment, the company expanded its recreational rock climbing school into an accreditation academy that serves working professionals.

He has rigged numerous projects professionally, including: Aerial performance, commercial and film production, as well as a reality TV shows. He is SPRAT I certified, and brings to his classes over a decade of personal work at height knowledge and experience from a multitude of work environments. Having introduced over a thousand students to fall protection and safe rigging, he has himself learned immeasurably from those students.

Kevin’s claim to fame is being one of only a few people who have stood atop the highest point on Earths tallest mountain.

New to Cirque de Vol? Enjoy this welcome information on our rigging systems in-house.

About our Pulley SystemSoft Points vs. Hard PointsAt Cirque de Vol, we have two types of anchors in our studio; hard point and soft point.The hard points are rigged with a ladder by our rigger. Conversely, soft point anchors are rigged by a trained instructor at the beginning of each class. The soft point anchors utilize a rope and pulley system to facilitate the convenience of safely raising and lowering apparatuses. However, they are not 'flying' systems. This gives us the ability to swap out apparatuses safely from the ground without the use of ladders. Each instructor is trained on the proper installation and use of apparatuses on soft point anchors. As such, and for liability reasons, only instructors or trained staff are allowed to connect apparatuses to soft points. However, students are able to bring and use their own apparatuses (ie Silks, Lyra, etc), and have the option of taking them home after each class. If a student is bringing in their own equipment to class, we will do a brief safety inspection (by Kevin or the instructor), in order to approve it for use at the studio. Otherwise, students are welcome to purchase directly from us. Currently, equipment rentals are includes in all of our aerial class pricing. HERE